thoughts on progress: where did you come from? where did you go?

thoughts on progress.

lets jump in, shall we?

the beatles equal progress. take from their first albums songs like "love me do", "a hard day's night", "help!'. all possessing qualities of upbeatedness and pop. then we have what i like to think of as their middle albums, where we have songs like "norwegian wood", "blackbird", "lucy in the sky with diamonds", "in my life" where, to me, their sound is less pop-y and more folk rock inspired. then in their late albums we have songs like "back in the ussr", "happiness is a warm gun"  "come together", "you never give me your money" (and proceeding medley), "i want you (shes so heavy)" where the band had been inspired by transcendental spirituality and the lyrics took on a more hard-edge form. progress.

same thing with radiohead. we have pablo honey with its garageband feel. we can skip to ok computer. what can i even say. other than choose a ladder to climb up.... because i ascend... karma police - when he says "phew.... for a minute there i lost myself..." its just perfect. then we have kid a tiny electronic symphonies. it sounds like soaring. and hail to the thief where i just want to rock.out. and then there's my favorite: in rainbows. the title kind of sets you up. because the album is nothing short of magical. and i actually feel my heart enlarging.

the point is, the beatles and radiohead and many others - writers, musicians, artists (kandinsky and picasso?!), filmmakers, they progress but the good ones, the ones who blow you away, they remain themselves. the beatles were always the beatles despite their forward moving transformation. and kandinsky was always kandinsky - from fauvism to lines and points and planes and the circle. to progress but to improve but to remain, as in to carry on; to continue to exist, to live on, to prevail, to survive but always, always forward.

and suddenly progress becomes synonymous with improvement.

each tomorrow has the potential to be better than it's yesterday.

and if tomorrow holds potential for greatness in its hands, then it shall be released for flight. and greatness shall soar.

  in my hands

i hold

  tomorrow

  holds greatness.

it comes to me in sounds. planes propelling through 

the atmosphere and their fading vapor trails.

footsteps on crushed bricks makes sounds like 

crashing waves against prison gates.

silent tears and caged wails. don't let them out

- otherwise they're real.

and the sound of redwood Trees 

passing down means of life and growth

from the leaflets floating in the sky 

down to the roots hurrying towards the Centre.

the tuning of a guitar - a lullaby kept secret.

its the sound of consciousness and 

thoughtfulness. attentiveness to others.

properly rearranging puzzle pieces.

its finding C-F-E-A after a protracted period of C-B-D and 

not being able to get that "song" out of my "head".

that soul out of my heart.

i don't know,

it doesn't even make sense in here.

and yet it does