What if you were given a choice between two things you love? I often contemplate this idea. If someone pointed a gun to my head and said, “Choose: writing or music?” I’d have to be quick and deliberate in my choice.
Photo by Deccio Creative
Fortunately, nobody is forcing me to choose between writing and music. But the idea of having to make a choice is a good exercise in understanding ourselves better.
If You Had To Choose Between Two Sides Of You
What would you do if you had to choose between two sides of yourself? It’s not an easy task. But it’s something we should mull over from time to time. And I’ve mulled this possible choice over for the past few years.
Music has always been in my blood. It runs deep. I started writing song lyrics when I was 8 years old. Drums became my first love when I was a teenager. Then I picked up the guitar and I’ve written over 800 songs in the past 30 years. That’s a long relationship.
What About Writing?
I love writing. Poetry is something I’ve written since I was a teenager. In 2012, I published my first book, A Train Called Forgiveness, a fictionalized story about my own experience as child in cult. The process was so challenging that I repeated it. I’ve written a complete trilogy: The Cult Trilogy. I’ve published books of poems, ebooks about simple living, blogs, and much more.
Writing has gained my respect. It forces one to go deep within themselves and pour out their darkest secrets. Writing helps you to practice a disciplined approach that can apply to almost every other area of life. That’s good stuff.
What Would I Choose? Writing Or Music?
The clear answer for me is music. However, for me, music is a form of writing: songwriting. If I were not able to write words for my music, I’m not sure the choice would be so clear. But we’ll assume that I would still be able to write music, including lyrics.
Why music? Because music speaks louder volumes to me, personally. I think I would give up my MacBook Air before I’d give up my last guitar. Music is universal and can be used to communicate to people from every country and culture. Music has healing properties. There’s power in music.
An Exercise In Choosing
So if one day you find that Hip Diggs is no longer posting, you’ll know why. That won’t be happening in the near future. In fact, as I get closer to an age where I can semi-retire, I’ll have even more time to do both writing and music.
The point of this post is simply an exercise in knowing what choice I would make. I encourage you to create a similar scenario and choose.
If you’d like to learn more about my books and music, just click the link below:
