Where do we find the balance between over analyzing to the point of immobility, and running to so fast our feet catch fire? Where do we find the balance between freedom and carelessness? The answer is in the music. All true Rock and Roll-ers have a purpose. I think that this gets confused within the youth of this generation. I see so many kids running around, drunk off whiskey, painted in leather and black, beating things up, fucking over their friends and girlfriends, letting drugs rape them instead of raping the drug, stealing and ruining their lives claiming "Oh, it's just Rock and Roll". No, that's fear, selfishness, stagnant carelessness. There is no purpose in the endless nights of nothingness. People with the true spirit of Rock and Roll are MOVEing forward. Whether it be to free the listeners (people), educate them on world affairs, or just truly to express themselves, they have something to say, and they'll light every flag on fire until they're heard. Creating art, but more importantly creating a voice that will have substance for decades to come.

David N. Townsend summarized the purpose, and biggest challenge in adopting this life style best in his book Changing the World: Rock 'n' Roll Culture and Ideology. "The 1950s were comparatively safe and innocent, and rock 'n' roll established a foundation for the ideals that youth could pursue in such an environment. When issues of race relations, war, sexuality, drugs, ecology, and world hunger arose in later years, rock 'n' roll was forced, like every other ideology, to respond to them. That many of these concerns were of central importance to the kids reared on and reveling in rock 'n' roll as a lifestyle only heightens the significance of their common response, as expressed in and through the music. 

What we of the rock generations lack, then, is not a belief system, or a serious foundation for political, social, and creative expression, but simply a willingness to accept that what we have is good enough. Believers in Socialism or Conservatism or Buddhism have no more coherent, sophisticated, or relevant conceptual system of how humans should interact, should respond to common problems and needs, and should understand their place in the universe. It's just that there are a lot more solemn, tedious books written about those ideologies, and their promoters don't typically gross $15-million on a world tour."

It wasn't until I woke up one morning, sleepy eyed and fearful that everyday from then on out was going to look exactly the same that I realized, and embraced the life style that I had been dabbling in for many years. I didn't fully understand what burned inside of me, or why I felt "apart" from everyone else. I booked a plane ticket to Los Angeles two hours later. 

To be continued.