Happy Saturday. On Cynicism: a little PastBlast of Horror & Hope & Nick Cave for you today.
She made it.
This photo goes well with the Nick quote I stumbled upon, and the words match her face, and it gives me a map to the next few weeks as I take this sinking boat and point it home – we’ve still got time.
Nick:
“You are right to be worried about your growing feelings of cynicism and you need to take action to protect yourself and those around you. … Cynicism is not a neutral position—and although it asks almost nothing of us, it is highly infectious and unbelievably destructive. In my view, it is the most common and easy of evils.
I know this because much of my early life was spent holding the world and the people in it in contempt. It was a position both seductive and indulgent. The truth is, I was young and had no idea what was coming down the line. I lacked the knowledge, the foresight, the self-awareness. I just didn’t know. It took a devastation to teach me the preciousness of life and the essential goodness of people. It took a devastation to reveal the precariousness of the world, of its very soul, to understand that it was crying out for help. It took a devastation to understand the idea of mortal value, and it took a devastation to find hope.
Unlike cynicism, hopefulness is hard-earned, makes demands upon us, and can often feel like the most indefensible and lonely place on Earth. Hopefulness is not a neutral position either. It is adversarial. It is the warrior emotion that can lay waste to cynicism. Each redemptive or loving act, as small as you like … keeps the devil down in the hole. It says the world and its inhabitants have value and are worth defending. It says the world is worth believing in. In time, we come to find that it is so.”
— Nick Cave
If you saw my tour in 2019, you may remember the monologue about seeing Nick live right after his teenage son died and how profoundly the experience affected me. Here’s a moment beautifully captured.
You can also read this piece I wrote around that time in The Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/sep/10/nick-cave-skeleton-tree?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
To round it out, here’s the picture Brendon took of me and Nick a few months ago (I posted it back then) when we saw him at the Beacon in NY.
Horror weaves its way through all of his work. And hope.
This is why he’s one of my favorite songwriters. I feel the merger of necessary light and dark in so many of his songs.
I see that same intensity of horror and hope in his eyes.
I needed that hug. I felt seen.
I love him, and I love art. It mends.
Don’t give into cynicism.
Keep your hope alive in your heart.
It’s there, but it takes work. Do the work. Keep changing.
I am here for you, as much as I can be given how collapsed my own schedule feels at the moment, and I love you so much.
X
A
PS Stream info for the show this Tuesday Aug 27th at 7-9pm EST…open to all patrons including the free tier:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/110594767?utm_campaign=postshare_creator
