To Whom it May Concern
–by Steve Wiest: Chicago, Illinois, Old America
November 10, 2024
(A Final Post at FaceBook)
Well, how is THAT for a loaded title? I know right? Pretty deep. But on the eve of my leaving social media for what I feel is a much better life, I felt that it would be nice for me to explain myself as fully and honestly as I can. Partially because I have an EPIC ego and think that many people care, and partially because I am blessed to be loved by so many and KNOW that many people care. Most importantly however, it’s because I care about YOU.
Yep, I love me some Stevie Wiest for sure…you really have to when you’re an artist and traffic in 90% rejection with 10% acceptance as a way of life. But that being said, I love the rest of you MADLY and am truly enjoying our journey together on this mortal coil. By the way, thank you to Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington for that lovely phrase “I Love You Madly.” I have used it for years and in truth love IT madly! Here is the great man himself demonstrating it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iURExD2Fpps
To my family, and my many, many friends, associates, colleagues, pals, enemies, debate partners, brothers and sisters, I now offer up my official statement of intent:
The EPIC events that took place over a 24-hour period this past Tuesday (November 5, 2024) shook me to the very depths of my soul as I’m sure it did for everyone else. As a result, I hung out with two very helpful fellows to commiserate and ponder for a few days. Their names are Guinness and Bourbon and–as an aside, they go together quite nicely. Who knew?
We all deal with these historical moments in our own ways of course. Everything from overreacting dramatically to ignoring it all blissfully and focusing on the “now”…and all points in-between (an expression that I just can’t hear without also hearing ZZ Top’s “Jesus Just Left Chicago” …just sayin.)
My way to deal with what I believe happened on Tuesday has to do with the fact that I am DRIVEN beyond all norms of what it is to live a responsible life. I can analyze this condition psychologically and coldly and blame it on the great traumas of my youth and the considerable challenges, mistakes, and loving triumphs of my own parents and their spouses, or blame it simply on myself and my “ID.” But suffice to say that ever since the 10th grade or so in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, I have been DRIVEN with a wild desire to pursue creativity and to prove myself worthy of my extensive polymath-level gifts (no brag, just fact 😎 ). In so doing I not only wanted to make a name for myself, but to CORRECT the awful connotations that my surname carried with it…according to my heroic but emotionally distressed dear Mother. This is a gear that will NEVER turn off, and I am strangely grateful for that. However, it is also a double-edged sword that brings with it an amazing roller coaster of highs and lows.
And so it goes…
I mention all of that as a prelude that might hopefully get to the root of “Why does that guy do what he does?”
One of the greatest conceits of life I believe comes under the heading of “What will people think of me?” Of course the answer is: “Nobody is thinking about YOU man.”
OUCH.
But if you are reading this and have gotten this far, then I suppose you do think about me, and you are continuing to do so… so as they say in my beloved southland…
”Bless your heart.”❤
And here is what I’m thinking: The United States of America as a nation, in the most time-honored and fair democratic methods historically possible, voted in good faith to end the great American Experiment of 1776. FACT. THAT is what the people want. FACT. I also think that the majority who very fairly made this honest choice made it for a plethora of reasons that weren’t very well thought out at best and horribly and intentionally propaganda-fueled at worst. In Old America, we used to call that phenomenon “lying.” But it worked.
“Brilliant!” said Bond to the Bond Villain.
After all... once one no longer believes in science writ large, one can’t really be blamed for not following the scientific method. And I do believe that is what happened. Truly, even though it sounds facetious, America voted for “the price of eggs” rather than the continuation of what Ronald Reagan (or his speech writers more likely, who themselves likely grabbed it from a 1630 sermon by John Winthrop) called “That shining city on a hill.”
To me there is a HUGE difference between Benjamin Franklin and Ayn Rand. There is a CHASM of difference between Elon Musk and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. , there are light years between Stephen Miller and Fredrick Douglas, and there is an embarrassing and infinite ABYSS between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris/Joe Biden, but to those who cherry picked “the price of eggs” or “machismo” or “the economy” “the sins of THE OTHER,” or real and perceived “kitchen table issues,” or any other number of specific and out of context concepts, passions, or tall tales, the difference was superfluous. The only thing that mattered was THEIR condition, and their LOCAL lives, and THEIR issues. To hell with the lofty pronouncements of philosophers, founding fathers, historians, scientists, and the like. “HELL SON! What matters to ME,” they said collectively, “Is what Ol’ Bubba said at dinner last night when we watched that TikTok thang!” And can these good honest folk be blamed for this or chastised? Not by me they can’t. But they make me profoundly sad.
Anyone seen my pals Guinness of Bourbon anywhere?
To these stalwart champions of The New America, I say please be fully aware of your power to do GOOD. Please invest in your LOCAL newspapers (PRINT…NOT ONLINE) and LOCAL governments and politicians, because soon…LOCAL is what will matter most.
Also… you might want to consider girding your loins 😛
I will not, however, frame all of this as a thing that “they” did, or the chastising of the “other.” We are all in this TOGETHER my friends! As explained earlier in this wee missive, I have always been DRIVEN to be creative, and I just don’t think it is very creative at all to blame ANYONE or to espouse a “good vs evil” scenario of any type. That is just too easy and smacks of lizard brain to me. Once again, I say that we are all in a metaphorical boat as a self-contained community having a serious argument and perhaps temporary parting of ways, but that doesn’t change the fact that we are all in that same precious vessel adrift out in the middle of an impossibly huge ocean of stars…TOGETHER. (Yep…I love hyperbole that is tinged with sci-fi…Gottaluvit!)
So, what IS next? As mentioned, my personal take on that will be heavily spiced with science fiction and romance because…STEVIE! But here’s what I think might be in store for the short run: The USA is over. Now comes… what? Maybe the states in what was once our united and very prosperous country called The United States of America turn into little empires of their own? It has often been said that California and Texas have a GDP that is beyond most other major countries in the world. As a longtime resident of that area, I can tell you that Texas has always thought longingly and with great nostalgia about its past as a republic. HEY! Now’s the time my friends! Remember the FREAKING Alamo!! California is (e’en as we speak) trying to “Trump Proof” itself before hurricane DonnyVanceMillerWiles turns into a Cat 10 storm. Hollywood! ‘Tis time for the country of California…better yet, how about California, Oregon and Washington band together and form a commonwealth called “Pacifica!” Woo Hoo! For real folks– I think like this. It results in some REALLY cool novels that nobody wants to promote, publish, or buy. HEY! Waidaminnit… but I digress…
What happens next could also be a heroic stand where truth, justice, and the American Way hold firm by a thread and we return to the pendulum-swings of right and left that have made us so strong for so long and the very necessary leader of the free world.
What happens next could also be an apocalyptic drama that brings forth the original animal that lurks in all of our souls. Lots of guns and nukes out there y’all.😳
The frightening thing is that currently…ALL of these scenarios are actually possible.
OY.
But what will REALLY happen next? Dunno. I just hope it happens without bloodshed and with at least a modicum of forethought and consideration by those who do it.
Personally, I have a different covenant…
I began my life in the northern part of the Old USA, then moved to Mississippi in 1969 at the beginning of government enforced desegregation. So as Farmers Insurance says:
“I know a thing or two because I’ve seen a thing or two.”
I have the happy circumstance of having DEAR family, friends, brothers and sisters in both parts of what I am rapidly thinking of as the Old USA. Lifelong brothers, sisters, others, loves both romantic and platonic on BOTH the north and south Red and Blue sides of the track. For this I thank God. I am naturally empathetic and see things organically through other people’s eyes. Also, I am learning more every day. The most important thing I know at this point is exactly what I do NOT know, and for THAT I thank God most of all. To me, it means that if I listen and put aside my own ego, I will always grow.
Such a deal!
And one of the things I DO know is just how TOXIC social media has become. I believe that we are ALL the proverbial “frogs in a pot of water slowly boiling to death and don’t notice our own demise until it is too late.” What is social media after all? It began as a SUPER cool way to communicate in a really fun 21st Century technological manner. I found and reconnected with people that were lost to me, I made new and profoundly wonderful real friends, I was able to promote my art to thousands, we all could stay in touch and touch one another effortlessly from ANYWHERE, anytime we wanted! I LOVED it. Then came the realization by big business that it could all be manipulated like a great sales pitch. And when you add TECHNOLOGY to a magnificent bit of psychological flubdubbery…WOWZA! Very effective. LOTS of folks made LOTS of money…at OUR expense. And it is now all moving EXPONENTIALLY! When you add the machinations of power and politics via virtuoso gaslighting and propaganda to this equation and power it with the rocket fuel of artificial intelligence (AI) well…you get some stuff that even George Orwell didn’t imagine. Social media is VERY bad my friends and it has sadly infected us ALL. People are DYING because of social media. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that we have LOST our country due in large part to social media.
But sometimes, a boiling frog comes to the realization that he has some killer big ass legs that were built for jumping!
“Will I jump from the pot into the fire?”
“Will I leap into the air and right into the net of the beast who is boiling me?”
“Or will I land on the cool linoleum kitchen counter and begin my sloppy hop to a long and arduous return to my true life outside?”
This amphibian is betting on option number three.
As I always have at every point in my life, I’m not doing this alone. I determined during COVID in the beautiful mountains 9000 feet above Taos with a new circle of lifelong friends, in New Mexico (Old USA) that I don’t function well being totally alone. As I say in my Vinyl Hampdin song “Good Gravy:” “I don’t mind bein’ alone, I just hate being so lonely.” So I returned to civilization here in what I now think of as New Chicago to find my heart again.
And TA DA! I have FINALLY found the love of my life with my Deborah, the joy of our golden retriever Phoebe and the forever loving glow of our magnificent blended and grown family.
If you believe, keep the faith, NEVER give up–work REALLY HARD and REALLY HONESTLY every single day…
sometimes life has a penchant for working out REALLY freaking well.
You dig?
And I won’t begin this new sans-social media journey alone.
Every time I’ve had a party in life, I’ve offered it up to everyone else. I learned this first from my mentor, guru, and Yoda Maynard Ferguson. I offered it up to my young charges at UW-Whitewater, The One O’Clock Lab Band of North Texas, and Denver’s Lamont School of Music. I share it with my friends here in New Chicago (Yay sci-fi!) and I also offer it to all of YOU who may be reading this treatise.
This is NOT a sales pitch at the end of a long and beautifully produced video, this is just a fact. I am working daily now on a project where I will move ALL of my creative endeavors into one place and have it all under the umbrella of a Chat-Blog Community on my website steve-wiest.com. It’s a labor of love and will be ongoing. This entity is now, and always will be offered up FREE of charge with ZERO strings attached to EVERYONE, NO algorithms, and NO corporate sponsors. I’m a musician remember? Sometimes it can be an advantage to be an entity that nobody recognizes as financially interesting. Therefore: as long as we have the internet, I will ALWAYS be available to continue the party, the discussion, and the love.
I invite you to my party. Take it or leave it, I love you MADLY either way!
But where does all of this leave us? You all know that I am a very flawed but steadfastly practicing Christian of the United Methodist Church flavor. As such, I am taught by Jesus that love is the most powerful force in the universe. Beyond money, gravity, time, space, general relativity, quantum theory, the laws of physics in this or any other universe, beyond even the theory of EVERYTHING, there is love. Love is the answer.
Love whenever possible.
It is ALWAYS possible.
And so, I leave you dear friends and leap out of my own personal pot of boiling water into the delightfully exciting realm of the unknown… on my own terms and filled with love and hope. I am one damn happy little froggy.
I wish the same for each and every one of you and thank you all for all that you do and all that you are.
Keep-on-keepin-on!
Ever Onwards and Upwards!
GREAT GOOGLY MOOGLY!
Ain’t life grand?!
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