Rambi....
>>You must be forgetting that in my wild youth, I was an itinerant regional actor and back up singer for a rock band. I settled down at 32 to have babies. I know that whatever personal dreams I still have are pursued secondary to my children's lives- that's a commitment I made when I became a parent- and that's ALL I meant by referring to the impact of parenthood. It makes a large change in the equation of decision making, but not the driving forces behind the decisions- as joan pointed out.>>
You can still sing and rock while you roll with your kids.
I do this everyday.
In fact I'm in the process of organizing a completely ad hoc group of parents and individuals in my town here in Evanston, IL who have an interest in singing/playing/acting/harmonizing from front lawns and portches in scattered places.
And I've never pushed or rocked and rolled professionally before. I just think that when it comes to the arts, our society has created this "by appointment" expectation that things have to be organized, staged, etc.
So we sit, stand and "observe" music and art rather than participate.
Which, to me, is like sitting, standing and observing LIFE. For music and art are the highest forms of expression in life.
I act as a simple catalyst/facillitator. I don't need to be on stage, although I love to sing and harmonize. And when it's on our front lawn with passersby on the sidewalk I will be there....participating.
Our 6 1/2 year old son, Frederick (yes you can say a prayer for the poor lad for having a crazy father like me), is just finishing up a summer Arts Camp program and in an hour I'm meeting with the head of their music program, a guy with a great name, Danny Faith. Danny's an incredible percussionist and my son loves to play the drums, is taking piano lessons, sings with me and plays a mean game of baseball everyday beginning at 8am on our front lawn with the kids on our block and our 3 year old other son, Thomas.
So there you have it. A dream which weaves a web, bringing people together. And I believe this can be done without having to feel cut off from music while raising kids.
Peace.
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