We live in such an Orwellian time when one form of "willing suspension of disbelief" leads to another. What are we to do? How do we keep our individual and collective sanity? Music, especially making music, is one way to remain whole. I've long believed in the healing power of folk music & the blues & jazz. Guess I need to add drumming to my list.

Please read on.

Oh people, look around you
The signs are everywhere
You've left it for somebody other than you
To be the one to care
You're lost inside your houses
There's no time to find you now
Your walls are burning and your towers are turning
I'm going to leave you here and try to get down to the sea somehow

The road is filled with homeless souls
Every woman, child and man
Who have no idea where they will go
But they'll help you if they can
Now everyone must have some thought
That's going to pull them through somehow
Well the fires are raging hotter and hotter
But the sisters of the sun are going to rock me on the water now

Rock me on the water
Sister will you soothe my fevered brow
Rock me on the water
I'll get down to the sea somehow

Oh people, look among you
It's there your hope must lie
There's a sea bird above you
Gliding in one place like Jesus in the sky
We all must do the best we can
And then hang on to that Gospel plow
When my life is over, I'm going to stand before the Father
But the sisters of the sun are going to rock me on the water now

Rock me on the water
Sister will you soothe my fevered brow
Rock me on the water, maybe I'll remember
Maybe I'll remember how
Rock me on the water
The wind is with me now
So rock me on the water
I'll get down to the sea somehow

We live in such an Orwellian time:

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war is peace; a Department of Defense keeps us perpetually at war; truth is fake; fake is truth; trickle down is raise all boats; inequality is economic freedom; discrimination is religious liberty; deregulation is innovation; mass incarceration is security; constant fear is safety; infotainment is journalism; neoliberalism is progressive; legalized bribery is free speech; being kept out of sight and out of mind is demonstrating in a free speech zone; capital punishment is prolife; corporate Democrats are democrats; the gig economy is full employment

One form of "willing suspension of disbelief" leads to another.

What are we to do? How do we keep our individual and collective sanity?

Music, especially making music, is one way to remain whole.

I've long believed in the healing power of folk music & the blues & jazz. Guess I need to add drumming to my list.

"Seemed to me that drumming was the best way to get close to God." —Lionel Hampton

There are many forms of body prayer—for example, chant, walking meditation, dance, yoga, tai chi, pilgrimages, prayer beads, gestures, and breathing exercises.

The mental and physical focus required to drum stills the mind and shifts the drummer’s state of consciousness. Writing in Joy Unspeakable: Contemplative Practices of the Black Church, Barbara Holmes, tells us:

There have been studies that link alpha brainwave states to drumming. The alpha state refers to a dreamlike detachment and physical relaxation. The pattern of drumbeats seems to calm and focus the mind. “When the mind fixates . . . a profound state of Silence ensues.”

Silence is an odd word to use in the midst of the cacophony of many drums. Yet the stillness referenced is akin to the intense spiritual engagement that marks the contemplative experience.

Native American pow-wow and shamanic traditions use relatively simple rhythms to evoke a unified state in players and listeners. For indigenous people, the drum represents the universal heartbeat of Mother Earth that inspires the community to dance, sing, socialize, heal, and honor their culture.

Throughout the continent of Africa, drumming uses complex rhythmic patterns for communication, healing, entertainment, and prayer. As ethicist Peter Paris reminds us in Virtues and Values-The African and African American Experience :

African arts are to enhance the everyday life of the people, not primarily to change their conditions but to enable the people to see and hear and feel beauty. As long as the people enjoy beauty, they do not succumb to the tragic elements in their midst. Their spirits are uplifted, and in that way the arts preserve and promote the wellbeing of the community.

Drumming helps us return to the wisdom of our natural rhythms, spontaneity, and joy. Even if you don’t think you “have rhythm,” let go of your inhibitions, pick up an “instrument” (a pot, bucket, sticks, or a beautifully toned drum). Start with a simple rhythm and just continue the beat. Trust your body to move intuitively and playfully. Another wonderful way to drum is to join a drumming circle.

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I'm grateful to the Center for Contemplation and Action. Richard Rohr's daily meditation for Saturday, April 7th inspired this essay.

It is a dance we do in silence
Far below this morning sun
You in your life, me in mine
We have begun
Here we stand and without speaking
Draw the water from the well
And stare beyond the plains
To where the mountains lie so still

But it's a long way that I have come
Across the sand to find this peace among your people in the sun
Where the families work the land as they have always done
Oh it's so far the other way my country's gone

Across my home has grown the shadow
Of a cruel and senseless hand
Though in some strong hearts
The love and truth remain
And it has taken me this distance
And a woman's smile to learn
That my heart remains among them
And to them I must return

But it's a long way that I have come
Across the sand to find you here among these people in the sun
Where your children will be born
You'll watch them as they run
Oh it's so far the other way my life has gone

If you look for me, Maria
You will find me in the shade
Wide awake or in a dream
It's hard to tell-
If you come to me, Maria
I will show you what I've made
It's a picture for our lady of the well

What practices help you keep your head and heart above water?