Big Sky, Long Road

they don't make skies like this one (Wyoming) back in North Carolina


Little Rock, AR, Nov. 23, 2002, 3:22 PM


Dear friends,

Greetings from the last few days of a long and wonderful tour. It's now day twenty-two of a twenty-four day run, and I'm starting to 'smell the barn' as the equestrians say. It's been a trip full of good conversations, some lovely shows and lots of open highway. In the West the phrase 'open highway' takes on new depth (breadth? length?), and it's been a good reminder to drive across these long stretches.

Along with clothes and books on tape and road food and CDs and gear and guitars, Dan the Tan Van is carrying a tumbleweed home to North Carolina. I'm not sure if my nephew and niece have had the chance to see one up close, so I thought I'd bring one home. Long hours on the road by oneself do lead to some strange ideas, for sure. It's also a freeing time, though, time to let one's mind wander, and that's time well-spent. I think reverie is grossly undervalued by most of us, including me most of the time.

And reverie, of course, can lead to songs. I'm getting perilously close to having enough songs to start thinking about a new CD. I'm very excited about that, and feel like this is the best batch of songs I've come up with yet. It's funny, if a little sick, that after almost twelve years of doing this as my only work, I still feel like I'm goofing off when I go pick up my guitar just to noodle around a bit. It still feels like there's 'work I should be doing' instead. I do realize that's unhealthy, though, so I've lately been designating one night a week as "Art Night" and going somewhere to cloister myself where I can't be distracted by laundry or phones. The stated purpose of this time is just to work on songwriting and music. Any form of creative writing is allowed, any guitar playing (including working on the instructional videos I bought over a year ago and have yet to watch all the way through), but that's all. Nothing else counts. I'm really enjoying that process and I'm gratified that I've finally figured out a way to validate and pay attention to that hugely important part of who I am and what I do. And new songs are falling out, too. Great fun.


self-portrait in Cheyenne, Wyoming


As good as this tour has been, though, I must say that I'm looking forward to being home for December. Except for one quick flight to Houston for a private show and a couple of days in Virginia working with an illustrator on the children's book version of my song S.S. Bathtub, I'm going to be home hanging out with my girlfriend and family. Deanna's birthday was yesterday, and it was hard to miss celebrating that in person.

Thanks so much for your part in making this year such a good one for me. In some ways I feel like I finally heard some of my own songs this year and slowed down a bit. I haven't been pushing quite as hard as I tend to historically, and still this year built on last year and was an improvement in every way I can think of. That's much to be thankful for as this Thanksgiving season arrives.

In fact, it's sometimes hard for me to reconcile the beauty of my microcosmic life with the macrocosmic world situation. There is so much darkness in the newspapers and I am deeply disheartened by the choices my government is making in my name, and sometimes in the borrowed name of a Nazarene who completely and consistently opposed violence and spoke out against it. I guess the best I know to do is to try to gather strength from that beauty in order to try to reflect a little light in some of the dark places, including the dark places in myself.

The phone number for the White House is 202-456-1111. Give a ring, eh? They don't answer on the weekends, but they should hear from you on other days. Whether or not you agree with me that killing more people will only breed more terrorism, like cutting up starfish and throwing them back in the ocean, call and express your opinion. Though it doesn't always feel like it, we still hold the power in the end.

Just before I left on this tour I got to spend a Wednesday night volunteering to play music for some moms who were out of prison for one day and evening to be with their children. The gathering was held at a local retreat center, and there were arts and crafts activities and food and lots of toys lying around. Those connections felt good to me, and it was liberating to me to know these women and children a little. It's funny how when I occasionally gather the strength to reach across the lines, it always seems that I am the one who is nourished most, and yet the fear of doing so never quite leaves. I have to learn the same lessons so many times.


apparently teaching Mr. Bear about guitars...

Happy Thanksgiving, friends. I hope your lives are overflowing with blessings in the form of powerful moments, real friends (including some you're related to if you're really lucky), and hopes for the future.

May peace be within, among and through us.

Peace,

David