Joel P West and the journey we’re on
It is almost time to live on the road. To sleep at unknown homes and shoulder the story of another world, war, and a chance to rebuild.
The roadies, Ugandan advocates, mentors, interns, and staff have prepared for months. Many hours of healthy sleep have been lost, exchanged for exhaustive education, packing, training, calling, booking, night ocean swimming, and back-porch personal-history deep-talk excavation. The Face-to-Face tour launches in 42 hours.
Last night, Joel P West and the Tree Ring, alongside Red Hunter and Rob Crow, performed for us at a send-off concert. They blessed us with their art, and commissioned us with ’safe travels’ and sincere encouragement. Kenny Laubbacher set up the night as the gift it was, and Jedidiah clothing (no relation, other than divine providence and my super-fan affection for them) hosted the whole thing at their warehouse. It was just what was needed. A formalized moment of reflection.
Joel said a few things that linger with me today. He is about to head up with his band to record their new album in the mountains. The album focuses on Joel’s internal evolution, the personal journey of self discovery and the wash of experience that rattles a young mind. He said it is about the questions that take time to simmer in solitude. Then he addressed the roadies, saying that while some of us get caught in that cloudy journey of self-and-cosmic understanding, there are questions that need to be answered today. Questions like, ‘why should a child in Congo or Uganda live in fear of being abducted?’ ‘Why should villages be massacred and no one know about it.’ And the fact that these roadies and interns have put their personal/spiritual stupor on the shelf while they answer the distant call of Justice, it is cause to celebrate and honor them as rare expressions of brave novelty. And what’s more, when looking away from the mirror for a season, halting the self mining and looking out to the groaning world, you may very well see yourself for the first time. Forgetting yourself to find yourself.
Considering all this, Thoreau came to mind. Whether you’re headed to the mountains to embark on a season of reflection and examination (which I believe to be hugely important), or shedding yourself to live in the service of others, to delight in the organism of purposed community and the purity of single-minded pursuit, you are making choices based on who you want to become. Thoreau said: “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”
If you ask me, it is the commitment to living deliberately that marks a worthy life. The mistakes made on that road seem to lead to humble, wiser, and stronger people. I see those people all around me. Not waiting to wake up as old men riddled with mistakes and half-breathed breaths… but awake now. Living truly and truly living.
It was a powerful night, and Joel and The Tree Ring’s music was maybe the best I’ve ever heard it. A huge thanks to them, and Red Hunter, Rob Crow, the people at Jedidiah, and the ever-incredible Kenny Laubbacher. – Jedidiah
Here is some more Joel P West and the Tree Ring to revel in:
