January 3, 2025

Community is key(s)

It’s here: 2025, the year we’ve all been waiting for.

search for pithy yet still hopeful comment

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Okay. I’ve got very little to say about the near future that’s helpful or wise.

But here’s what I do know.

As everything digital around me becomes increasingly less functional, as the systems I depend on become increasingly gamified, my sanity’s maintained by what I can keep my hands on: keys. Keyboards, to be precise.

The piano keyboard, always. That thing got me through the first eighteen years of my life. It didn’t keep me from making mistakes, but it kept me from closing down my head. Eventually, it opened up the world for me.

Then there’s the computer keyboard, which I starting using for my own writing about fifteen years ago. Blog led to poetry led to libretti led to essays led to newsletter led to article and book chapter. It wasn’t fast but it happened. Again, the keyboard was a way out of my own head, opening up the world.

At a time when I feel very afraid about the world at large, I’m also massively inspired by the people whose stories I’m helping to write. It doesn’t feel like words can do much against some of the forces moving in our lives, but words can and do have power between individuals.

Who is your community? What words will you speak into your circle to help or to heal? That’s where my head is these days.

This is a short lil missive to say Happy New Year. I’ll post again soon from Georgia, where I’ll be at a conference full of musicians, speaking on a panel about pianists’ issues in the academy.

Every little move we make is progress.

I’m holding on to that.

Thanks to everyone in this picture, and so many other pianists who are working together for better conditions in our workplaces.

Also, just as a reminder, I’m posting here on Buttondown on a pay-what-you-want model. If you were a subscriber over on SubStack, great (and thank you!). You can contribute financially to my writing whenever you like, at whatever level you like, by clicking “upgrade now”. Thanks!

thanks for reading.