Birds of a feather

A very long time ago, a friend of mine told me: "you just don't choose who you love... it just happens". I didn't quite agree at the time. I thought I knew myself so well and that I was so in control of my emotions and choices, that not being able to choose who to love didn't seem right. Now I realize my (excess of) confidence back then came from the fact that I hadn't really been exposed to any of the challenges that life had in store for me. Now I know better... I don't know shit! This song from Suzanne Vega always reminds me of this friend of mine. We were really close back in our high school days, it felt like he was blood of my own.

Why we like what we like, including people, is still a mystery to me. The only way to analyze it that makes sense to me is to try to look for patterns in there, see what the subjects of my affection have in common, and speaking in terms of friendship, the pattern is very clear: most of them are musicians, and (as my dear Bo tends to point out every now and then, not particularly thrilled about it) they're mostly men. To be perfectly honest I think the latter is purely a consequence of the first, as there seems to be a lot more men involved in music as there are women, hence most of my friends are guys. And I don't have a choice when it comes to liking them and becoming friends, it just happens. My friend was right. Here, a genius song about musicians, "Sultans of Swing", by Dire Straits.

Each and every one of them is crazy in their own way, and I guess that's what brings us together, the joy and the constant struggle (to succeed, to get recognition, to make a living, to improve, to find the time to devote to it, many shades of struggle) that music means to all of us and that drives us crazy... or were we crazy beforehand and music is just an accessory to our condition? It doesn't really matter at this point, haha! I feel this "music condition" that we all suffer from is irreversible. And, stealing Tory Amos's words, as I often do, "I got my own band to play ," so, "I'm not dying today".

When you're surrounded by crazy people, your own insanity doesn't seem so serious. It's a great deal.