A simple life means a life in which there are firm bounderies and a solid foundation, even if there is not much material abundance. It all becomes exceedingly complex, once those references dissolve.

Having preoccupied myself over many years with the art of music and some of the sciences that rule it, I have – like so many others – learnt that what I know about the subject remains limited in an exponential way – the more you learn, the further the horizons recede. However, that bit that I have managed to absorb from books and tutors, has always reposed in the shadows of my personal opinion and interpretations. Factual knowledge, if I’m allowed this nebulous concept, is like the sequence of notes that constitute a sonata by a reasonably competent composer: they are masterfully strewn together in a tasteful and artistic manner. One has learnt the notes by heart with the aim of rendering the work with precision and as true to its creator’s intentions as possible. Yet, each performer, at each different performance, does so from his or her own perspective and artistic sensibilities. Even with reasonable variations of interpretations imposed on its structure, the sonata will always be recognized and identified by its inherent technical constituents, structural components, and melodic and harmonic elements.

Because , of its inherent informative orderliness, the ever growing body of musical information was readily assimilated during the years of my studies. Its sources have usually been easily identifiable – books, articles, lectures, etc., and I have always been able to share music’s magic with others in a relatively easy manner. Of course, like in any subject or field of investigation, there are contradictions and differences of opinion, and facts may change with the passing of time. There have always been loose ends, some controversial but these never invalidated the basic premise of music as an art and science. By accounting for such disparities in one’s own dissertations and reports they contributed colourfully to the orderliness of an essentially unified field of research and preoccupation.

In its own way, Musicology, is a closed system – purposefully contained by the folks who populate the musical arena. Thus, when retirement reached my shores, I merely closed my books, my mouth, and walked out of the arena. It all became too unimportant, superficial and laborious to maintain my focus upon. Music, I realized, is something one does, but not what one is.

Thus, a new phase began: investigating that what I am all about – my reality. Obviously this is more complex than I make it out to be, as my reality includes about 6.5 billion other people - some more intimate to my consciousness than others. The problem is, of course, that life is not an “-ology” (and there therefore does not exist a subject called lifeology.) Whereas music(ology) is essentially self-contained within loose boundaries, life – reality – cares not for limitations, not even very vague ones. As soon as one thinks that you have found a boundary, then, poof! – the hat blows another couple of meters downwind.

One of the first things I discovered is that my reason for doing music in the first place, was just because life is so slippery to hold on to and study: music was structured, populated with “specialists” who will readily share all with you (mostly for money of course), but always within the arena of time-tested principles adhered to by the musical collective. Books have been written, research correlated and compositions carefully notated. Theoretical knowledge is tested by means of exams the answers of which are written up in memoranda and ones musical performance is either good or bad, depending on how many wrong  notes there are, or if one’s performance resonates with the critics or not. One travels with the relative security of a railway track.

Having been somewhat aware of extra-musical life through the past years, I did manage to maintain a tenuous insight into the wide world of reality but it appears that during all the years that I spent learning music, the world has progressed to a point where it now appears decidedly unworldly. I suppose that the internet has something to do with it. More importantly, I suspect that science has worked itself out of its secure scientific paradigm. As a result, these ‘nerdy’ usually hyper-egocentric types have steadily carved away at their own foundations since the birth of Einstein. Now, it seems they are all crowded in the space occupied by a single god-particle and in the process they have left us all suspended by spooky action at a distance.

As far as knowledge is concerned there exists very little certainty and if this is a true reflection of reality then it is perhaps a just thing – a good condition, but one that we need to get used to. Except for certain localized groups and societies (mainly churches and other religious or spiritual groups), it appears that organisationally dictated certainties are in the process of disappearing. Many of the billions of people of our planet are no longer buttressed by the absolutisms of scientific patter and the fatherly-convictions of church fathers. To add to the universal fear and distress, we were given the internet, where you can Google at your heart’s content and call up millions of conflicting statements of reality and and contradicting truths with one key-press. Devoid of any real truths or reality, one cannot blame nations, groups and societies to lose their minds with anxiety in an effort to grab on to something they can hold on to – even if it is only their most basic instincts that are immediately in reach.

One of the last vestiges of spiritual/intellectual stability seems now also to have been destroyed – the financial system. Hey, science doesn’t know anymore, the church seems to have lost the plot – ‘Christ never existed or perhaps was married with children’ – one of the calamities of only one group of believers; you have to pay dearly for spiritual guidance (visa and mastercards accepted), but that is okay, since we still have our investments. Not so brother, the zeros are rapidly decreasing from your investment balances as we speak. Our civilization is suffering from a serious bout of loose bowl syndrome.

So what now?

Well, having collected many books on exopolitics, UFOI, spiritual growth, ghosts, strange animals, fringe science, and many other inconceivable but perhaps related topics, it seems that nobody seems to have a clue. Yes, of course, there is a lot of talk about double helixes, the importance of the pineal gland, pyramid power, chakras and auras of all colours, but seriously now, how does one double helix or reactivate the apparently inactive pineal gland?

Having thought about it some, I have come to the realization that even if I could move things with the power of my mind, read my wife’s intentions with our shared credit card, or see ghosts at night - what then? I must think a bit more, I suppose…