Small Rooms

Great things happen in small rooms.- André 3000

What a quote. What a concept. What a truth. When I was listening to Andre 3000 speak, it reminded me of When I was young and in college, I worked at an antique store on Bleecker and lived at the oldest artistic community in New York called Westbeth.

And the artists who lived there were incredibly old, and one of my side jobs was... I would take them for walks. We would walk down to the water, and it was so sweet. They would always try to pay me little, little bits and bobs...And I would work for meals because I enjoyed the company so much. Their stories were in, and I was enthralled. So much wisdom, so much. They would tell me stories of the rooftop at Westbath and Warhol. One of the seniors that I would walk with had a Warhol in the bathroom.

I say this because one of the stories I was given was that I was walking with a little man who used to party with Tennessee Williams.

And he told the story about how Tennessee, after Cat came out, his only feeling, he said the feeling Tennessee had wasn't of joy; he wasn't excited; he was afraid. He was terrified. He kept worrying, what if I can't do it again? What if I can't do it again?

And this makes me think of Trent Reznor. He is one of the persons an artist can look to when they think of what it is to dedicate yourself to your craft. David Bowie is another. They are, to me, simpatico in the concept of what it is to be fully yourself as an artist. And in saying that, there's an interview from the '90s and Trent Reznor saying my “fans are looking for another head in the hole, and they're looking for this...”, but I am going to have to write from my place of truth.
In another interview, he talks about how taking things from journal entries, and though they be embarrassing, they came from a place of truth, and he was writing from this place of truth.

I say that because, unlike the story of Tennessee, one finds themselves with a character, a person, a human, like Trent, saying he doesn't care what the fans are asking for, he's writing from a place of truth. So then I muse on the meditation of “great things happen in small rooms.”

The end of that Tennessee Williams story is that the little old man said, “Don't worry, they're not doing it, you are.”

And you can take it as two ways, they're not doing it. No one else is doing it because you are. And Trent Reznor, no one else is doing it...he is. So we sometimes take for granted that, quote, “Be yourself. Everyone else is taken.” That concept of be yourself has become a trope or something that we toss behind us.

But it's true, because in small rooms, you are fully yourself. No one's there.
So no one's doing it.

I find that meditation on great things, small rooms, and no one is doing it, a revelation, because no one can do it but you.

And that's what I've been meditating on this morning.