Here is my submission for the 5th Guest Directed Self Portrait:
This one was more difficult to me than the other submissions for a variety of reasons. First, my sinuses are killing me, one minute I am fine, the next minute I can’t see straight. Secondly, music has played a big role in my life, but not how you might think. My Dad didn’t come home after work and play albums on the stereo, nor did we sit around and listen to the radio as a family. No, music was and is my escape.
“Whoa,” you say, “lots of people escape through music.”
I had nothing to escape from, my parents were married (still are), no one was abusing or hurting me, we were not hit by hard times, and I had a good childhood. I still wanted to escape from this world, to go somewhere where no one else could go. So I would listen to music, first it was classical, then it was old country (think Hank Williams not Hank Williams Jr.), then it was rock, then it was everything, music of any form.
Amazingly, when I would get grounded, my parents instead of having me stay home, they would take my stereo away so I couldn’t listen to music.
Through all of the different music I have listened to, from FrédéricChopin to Junior Kimbrough to the Drive-by Truckers. There is one song that I come back to in order to escape. That’s the song I am listening to in the photo, that’s the song that lets me get deeper into my mind away from this world. It is the song that sets me free. So while I may not actually be moving, or dancing, or even showing signs of life, I am on amazing journey to a place that no one else can see.
The song is Dreams by The Allman Brothers Band.
