Strumming Away With My Blue Guitar......

The eve of Valentine's saw my beloved Baby Blue purchase me a neat blue guitar, thus eliciting thoughts of the 1937 poem by Wallace Stevens“The Man with the Blue Guitar” (http://wings.buffalo.edu/cas/english/faculty/conte/syllabi/377/Wallace_Stevens.html), which in turn was supposed to have been inspired by the 1903 Picasso painting "The Old Guitarist". In essence, the poem takes off from Picasso's depiction of an an ordinary and common man undertaking the seemingly simple activity of making music with his guitar. In a write-up by James E. Miller, Jr., (ADE Bulletin 043, November 1974; http://www.mla.org/ade/bulletin/n043/043038.htm), the poem (with frequent reference to, and parallelism with the said artwork), is deemed to portray everyman's creative instinct through words, expressions and ideas. Simply put, every person is a a guitarist and his guitar...his or her language. According to Miller the man strumming his guitar is man's (and woman's) expression....more importantly, his creation.

In light of the foregoing premise, the interplay between my wife's purchase of the blue guitar and her success in drawing me to the "blogosphere", cannot easily be ignored. As I one day hope to create and express some thoughts and feelings while strumming the blue guitar, I set forth my ideas from deep within me through the power of language in my blogs, something I know all "bloggers" envisioned with their own writings. Through these blogs, we create and articulate our thoughts and feelings, which according to Miller, shapes both our inner and outer realities. In essence, we all have our respective blue guitars and we all strum away, as we gradually discover, structure, cope with and most of all....create our lives. And thus, we learn to appreciate even more the fledging power of language in each of us.

(*interesting side note/personal trivia: "The Man with the Blue Guitar" was published on October 4, 1937....or exactly 34 years before I was born).

We all have our realities to face and which, at times, prove to be too overwhelming to bare. Disappointments, frustrations, sorrow, anger and fear are commonplace in the "real" world we live in today. Whether it be infertility, illness, disease or other physical handicaps, or whether it be stress at work, unpaid bills, rising costs or living, economic and fininacial woes, or whether it be politicially or socially induced, say maybe war, poverty, corruption, crime.....these realities are present. And according to Miller, our imagination or creative instincts (in language, or otherwise) does not live independently of the real world. But with our constant strumming of our own blue guitars, we contribute in shaping, structuring and creating this "real" world, and which helps us comprehend it's initially intractable and impenetrable essence. By engaging the world with our creative instincts we learn to cope and deal with our respective realities. Further quoting Miller: "This is the imagination in its continuous creative process as it encounters and structures reality". The way I see it, we don't have to stop strumming our blue guitars just because we got our daily dosage of reality.

Hence, I become so eternally greatful to Baby Blue who has, in her own way, helped me tap into my creative instincts. With my new blue guitar, I hope to become Wallace Stevens' man "playing the things they are" and "upon the blue guitar", hoping to create and play beautiful music, helping us face the difficult realities we both encounter, and hopefully one day, as we shape our own inner and outer realties, we discover and create....A NEW LIFE.

I wish you all the best this Valentine's Day and hope to see and hear you continue strumming your creative thoughts.