Bookcases and Music

So I'm building this bookcase. I started last week and I've been a little obsessive. Actually, I started the bookcase a few months ago when I picked up an old, tall window off of Jacob Champlin's aunt's front lawn. I added a couple of windows from my parents' house when they installed egress windows in the basement. Now I have it all framed out; it's got one tall window on the left side, a window above that that opens in an upward angle, and two other windows on the right that open opposite of the tall window. I'll post a picture of it pretty soon, in case that explanation didn't make any sense. Anyway, it's being primed right now and then I'll pick out some colors so that it will fit in our living room. (Sarah is good to me, to let me build big bookcases and move things around in order to fit them into our living room.)

I was just now standing out in the driveway looking at this monstrous primed-white bookcase. I realized that one of the screws in one of the shelves was peaking through and breaking up the wood a bit. I grabbed a 90 degree screwdriver and took the screw out and then sunk another at an angle into the shelf. It took me a couple of tries and I tore up the wood a bit. I was mildly frustrated with the whole process and stepped back to take in the entire thing. It's pretty good, but it's definitely not the work of a finish carpenter. It's the work of someone who knows their way around tools and lumber and has never built a bookcase. But I'm pretty proud of it.

Anyway, I was thinking that the bookcase is a big, wooden metaphor for my music. None of it is perfect; I refuse to do a million takes in an attempt at perfection; that kind of perfection can drive a person crazy. It's a little rough around the edges, some of the angles are sharp and crisp, the lines aren't all completely level, some of it is torn up from too many attempts at sinking screws. But the most important thing about it is that it holds the things I love, the things I think are important, the things I want to fill my life with, the things I want to share with other people. The bookcase is the same.

That's all.