All human life is entrenched in mind. It is our mind, our outlook and responses that make our life ugly or beautiful. We must, therefore, learn to take care of our mind. Taking care of the mind means preparing the mind to live the ideal.
- K. R Paramahamsa from “Living In Spirit”
December 10, 2010
I was so close that I could almost feel the warm breeze on my face. After 10 years of dreaming, plotting, and (somewhat) planning I was finally at the point where I was actually on my way to Brasil. I should have been so excited, but instead I was uber numb. After being in New York City for 6 years, I couldn’t say that I was definitively closer to my dreams of being a performer. If anything, I felt so very far away. Even though I’ve been in school working towards my degree, having to work in restaurants for 10 years had drained me of my life’s energy. Even after taking a year off from waiting tables, I still felt energetically depleted from the artistic ‘scene’ in New York City. Honestly, I didn’t feel like there was much sincerity in any of the work that I was seeing and all of the cynicism and irony that permeated the arts scene in the city is why I hadn’t been feeling too passionate about much of anything. Also, there was a deep part of me that was trying to stay in tune with my spiritual needs whilst being in the 'grind'. It was time for something new…an entirely different vibe. One where there was spiritual connection to performance and the community, at large, identified with this energy.
That’s one of the reasons I chose to study abroad in Brasil.
Another huge reason was the music. Specifically, the Tropicalia movement and its concepts about cultural cannibalism lured me into the folkloric aspects of the music as well as its philosophical message. It wasn’t just psychedelic rock with Tropical influences. There was a whole movement behind the discontent that spawned this short-lived artistic movement. The many influences that I recognized included African rhythms, Middle Eastern instrumentation, British Rock, and Bossa Nova. The indiscriminate usage and blending of genres, the conceptual foundation of cultural cannibalism, was extremely exciting to me as it showed me the different ways in which the melting of multiple cultural influences was possible. Lastly, the weather was another major influence as well. After living up North, first Chicago then New York, I decided not to be here for winter. As my plans became more finalized, I realized that when I came back I wouldn’t be the same person that I was when I left. I hoped that it would be a positive change and that I would have time to focus on my work while I was abroad. Admittedly, I was naïve to the living conditions in Brazil and while I recognized it as a developing country I still thought that I would have regular Internet access while I was there. Unfortunately, that was not so and a lot of the actual studying that I had to do never came to pass as internet access became more challenging to find the longer I was there. Another concern I had was safety as I had heard many stories about the level of violence in Brazil, and specifically, Salvador. Above all else, though, I was excited to experience the rich musical culture and dive into my studies as much as I could. Little did I know, that this journey would encompass spiritual study and growth that was necessary in order for me to move forward creatively...
Stay Tuned for more ruminations on my travels in Brazil....
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