On general spiritual principle, I promised myself I wouldn’t work on Sundays.  If I succeed in resisting the almost irresistible temptation once more, this Sunday will be the third day in a row when I haven’t worked on my music.

The previous week had been terrible.  I worked on the project all day that Sunday, thinking I was “behind” — as if, at this point, I had any deadline to meet other than death itself.  Then I easily lost two full days during the week over a personal situation that had me too distracted to focus on my work.  I connected the two: my working on the day when I wasn’t supposed to work; and my not being able to work on the days when I was supposed to work.

But that’s silly, really.  It’s superstitious.    When a person decides to take a full day off each week, isn’t it supposed to give him an opportunity to conserve his energy, so as to start out afresh each week, and possibly even get more accomplished in the long run?  I need to remember that spirituality is not about superstition. It’s not even about “religion,” for that matter. It’s about each person cultivating healthy and beneficial, purposeful patterns of life practice. Each one developing what works best for the particular individual — but bearing some general guidelines in common — such as not working seven days a week, 24/7/365 like a workaholic.

Frank Zappa was a workaholic.  They say he never took a break.  Whether one likes his music or not (I personally do not), it has to be admitted that he was extremely prolific.  But where did it get him?   To an early grave is where.  The prolific Frank Zappa died an untimely death of prostate cancer at the age of only 52.

Zappa

Still, I was just paranoid enough that if I didn’t meet my project goal that week by finishing the Urban Pathos sequence, the temptation to work on Sunday would be irresistible. It would keep nagging at me until I wrapped it up. So, as a result, I stayed up till 2:45 in the morning cranking it out like a madman, never taking breaks. By the time I finally turned in, I figured it for done, but everything sounded like crap. Then of course I woke up in a total fog before church. Didn’t get a chance to listen to it till after church, but when I did, it sounded surprisingly all right to me. Not as strong as my Royal Rhapsody, but strong enough to move on.

 Urban Pathos

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