Thanks But No Thanks, Jack

November 8, 2023

Some people make it and become internationally famous. Some people make it and remain practically anonymous. Either way, there is an expensive personal price to pay. In either case, similar gifts and talents are in operation to achieve the desired end result.

Today is a “Listen to Clapton” day while I continue cleaning and decluttering the shack. Now there’s one that made it and became internationally famous. The great ones? They paid their personal dues to make it. A lot of folks “out of the know” think all they did was party and have a good time. Oh, but there was plenty of that. Partying and having a good time are just one part of that scene. There’s a lot more to it than that.

I remember something that Dr. Jack E. said to me one day. I really liked and respected Jack. I even played golf with him a few times. Yeah. I took up the game in Houston where I was so far removed from the kinds of outdoor environments and activities I prefer. I no longer play the game. Jack was one of the professors when I was going to college in Houston. He had a couple of pretty daughters too. Attractive. 5’4” or 5’5”. Light dishwater blond hair, as I recall.

At that time, I was playing and singing with a bluegrass trio. We were getting gigs and having a great time getting known around Houston. Gosh. This also coincides with our children’s mom and I getting sweet on each other. Ah. The memories evoked when I travel back to Houston in my mind.

Jack told me one day, “David, you need to forget about this music stuff. It’s just a dead end.”

Well, I’ve never forgotten about this music stuff, Jack. Sure. There have been times when it has not taken a high priority in my life. But I’ve never forgotten about it. And what was my mainstay that I turned to attempting to salvage my sanity when I went down into that deep dark hole after Shirli died? It was my writing. It was my music.

Here is a stand-alone statement.

I truly believe, had I not had these to delve into as my therapy, the place where I was able to allow my emotions to run freely and express them cathartically in lyrics and other written words, I very likely would have become just another statistic on the books.

Those two? These two very compatible bedfellows that seem to flow so freely from me? These traits that I consider more implanted gift than developed talent?  It’s what I’m still doing now, Jack. I didn’t take your advice when you gave it … your unwise counsel to me, a young man starting a new life and trying to figure it out. I did not ask for your advice, sir, on this matter.

Thanks. But no thanks, Jack. 

I may not be internationally famous and stinking rich [yet] but I've made it and I am, in my own right, one of the most successful men walking this planet. Life is grand.