“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
- Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
On this day when we commemorate the ultimate sacrifice of Reverend King, and as I contemplate the recent passing of my teacher, mentor and first management client, Sam Rivers, the subject matter of my first blog post is most appropriate.
What does Commitment really mean anymore? Way more than half of all marriages end in divorce, and way less than half of all supposedly committed relationships end up in marriage (official or otherwise). Fathers leave children behind in order to pursue fun, freedom and that most delusional of self-serving excuses for irresponsible behavior – spiritual discovery and realization.
Now, I’m not talking about committing to a weekly dance class or dabbling in a half-hour of practice every day. I’m talking about capital-C Commitment – the life and death reality of needing to stay on the Path with the same urgency and essential need as exhaling after inhaling.
For someone who came of age – as I did – during the years in which the magnificent John Coltrane was bestowing upon us his most sacred substance of true sacrifice and absolute Love, this sense of Commitment is so utterly obvious that to think of living without it would be completely absurd. So maybe I have no right to expect it from a society that holds its torchbearers (no names, please) to such lightweight substance. Continue reading
