Friday, July 18, 2025
Sometimes we are part of groups, relationships, or organizations that seem to drain us. Our role in these groups or relationships is merely supportive. Eventually you have enough and will search for higher levels of giveback.
Put a group of people together who feel incapable, who fear the future, and who feel worm-like, and you’ve got collective lack, mass fear, and guilt multiplied. Unfortunately, I have just described the church. No-one seems to graduate. Commonality and commiseration bind.
When you’re part of groups, you may not feel the “giveback,” as I call it. You’ll feel your part is making up for deficiency, and that’s OK too. I’ve played organs that don’t giveback. They are built hastily, and they suck the energy out. I’ve played organs in dead acoustics too. Organs depend upon the giveback of reverberation, the spaciousness of the right room, like a large cathedral. The holy grail is a finely crafted organ in a resplendent acoustic. Everything lifts in this combination, like walking on air.
You will gravitate towards situations and people that accentuate transcendence or that raise the collective with little effort. It’s the same with a finely-built organ in a resplendent room – those goodies raise your level of organ playing, and you don’t need to wear yourself out. It all feels self-sustaining. It feeds, not depletes.
Your role as a deficiency supporter may be over. It’s time to look for giveback, transcendence. It’s time to sense the resplendent nature of those who feel whole, energized, and eager for synergy and possibility greater than the individual “need.” Maybe you’ve graduated and are looking for groups and creative projects that uplift with ease rather than accentuate deficit and “neediness.”
With the right combination, you can soar. You’ll stop playing poorly built organs in dead acoustics. You’ll start gravitating towards the uplifted effortlessness. It may be time to graduate from your supporting roles.