A Meditation on Midlife

The following is an excerpt of an exchange between Will and Art on 12 August 2014.

Art:

How is this project a meditation on midlife, like Dante:

Midway upon the journey of our life
I found myself within a forest dark,
For the straightforward path had been lost.

The fact that it was conceived in my 20s but really assayed at 40, but is facing all sorts of difficulties. And bumping up against the idea that I'm not special, that I'm normal, and that's okay...but I'm not okay with that idea. And the project itself is an attempt to free myself from this fate, from being dragged back into the chorus. 

But the ascent is guarded by a panther, lion, and wolf. I cannot ascend in the way that I wish: I must descend in order to ascend.

Will:

In many ways, I see myself as a cartoonish version of a great rockstar nobody has ever heard of. 

There's something about Michigan that gives people lots of freedom and inspiration to make whatever art they want, but no support. It boggles my mind to think what Michigan would be like if it paid and respected artists as it does doctors and engineers. But yeah, from my middle-aged standpoint, I think of all the great rock and roll nobody ever heard. Few of us even talk to each other now. Nobody sustains the legend. 

And obviously, there's a lot of spiritual inventory being taken both on a personal and cultural level. I had my head up my butt through most of my 20s, experienced immense spiritual growth in my 30s, and came to a comfortable-but-chaotic existence at 40.

Meanwhile, culturally, I feel like the opposite had happened. The better my faith life gets, the more it feels like the world is falling apart. And maybe that's where our story can offer a postmodern Virgil, examining the landscape of the past six decades.