The seasons are powerful, unspoken rituals in modern society. The unbridled celebration of summer, when days seem small change, tossed carelessly into a fountain, bubblegum machine, or homeless man’s cup…the inward turning of autumn, when introspect takes hold – even the Sun, like a painter, steps away for a broader perspective… We are humans and in spite of our growing urban infrastructures and forced central heating, we are not separate from the seasons as our opposable thumb vanities might have us believe. Instead, we are humans: of nature and integrally a part of nature. There is no need to align to, praise or worship these cycles – we are the cycles. Through this shared common experience, community is born, whether we choose to acknowledge it or not.

On tour in late January in upstate New York I am doing quite a bit of community birthing as of recent. Staring at midnite snowfall through frost bitten windows, I cover skin with layers of oil and fabrics just to step from parking lot to stage door. Attempting with tea and exercise to “warm up” backstage, I find muscles in protest, joints on strike, and a deep seated shiver preventing me from performing like I know I am capable. There is no more isolating experience than living full-time on the road – I will call it solitary confinement, a spiritual Vow of Shadows. Your friends are long distance, your love life a joke, your family always a thousand miles away. Coupled with the seclusion of winter, loneliness can quite easily push one into the corners of an unfamiliar hotel room, emerging neither for fun nor food, forgetting to change dirty clothes and wondering how your back yard looks in Michigan now, where the photographer you met in New York might be tonite, or if the boy you fell in love with in Chicago remembers you at all.

If the first lesson in power is that we are all alone, these are strong days indeed. I know self-reliance. I am a master of independence. I will persevere and will succeed. Winter has a way of breeding heartiness through hardship. Inescapable and ironic, the exact event that drives an entire population into isolation is the shared ritual that unites that community.

The first lesson in power is that we are all alone.
The last lesson of power is that we are all one.

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