October, 2006

Dear Drummers,

Something I find interesting is how often people tell me at the drum that they almost didn’t come tonight because they were so tired. In fact every single drum, someone says this: I struggled against this tiredness to get here tonight. Then they decided to come and found that by ten minutes into the drum they were completely free of that tired weight.

The drum summons energy—a healing energy—and applies it our soul. I don’t think it is a superficial energy like what I get from martinis or shopping or caffeine, or sitcoms. Have you noticed how many “energy” products there are on the market nowadays—super charged caffeine things with powerful names like Red Bull? I offer this to you: we are in a culture plagued by energy problems. Martinis, Red Bull and sitcoms are some ways we are encouraged to treat them. The drum is a different way.

Well, that word—healing—and that word—energy—sound like I’m trying to pitch a miracle cure for modern woes, doesn’t it? But here is the secret that makes this product un-marketable: the energy the drum delivers is a cleansing energy, a centering energy, an energy that I see in autumn when the sharp winds come to take away the leaves on the trees. Red Bull and shopping and martinis are part of the frantic dance to keep up with the pace our culture has set for itself.  The drum comes to dispel those frantic energies—to take off the mascara and sequins and pretense and machismo and envy and greed and pride and those heavy energies that encourage us to dress ourselves up into beings that we somehow sense we don’t want to be, but cannot stop trying. This is the gift of the drum and its healing energy: to calmly peel away the frenetic costuming that that we are urged to don. Autumn is a good time for us to remember this about the drum, and this idea will form the core of our drum this week.

As always, I intend that our drums give you plenty of opportunity to laugh, relax, and commune with your fellow humans and unseen powers that wish you well. I hope you’ll push back the tiredness and come ready to enter into the unexplainable beauty of the unseen layers of reality.

--Jaime