Guitarmistice

I guess I knew this would happen.

I knew that as I adjusted my priorities and de-emphasized those things that used to be the foci of my obsessive tendencies I would struggle with finding a livable balance point.

I still do love guitars and the music people make with them, and I do still find myself gravitating toward websites with pictures and specs, but I've begun feeling a sense of guilt as I do. It's as if I'm breaking and unspoken promise.

I've played guitar for almost 25 years now, and yes, it has been somewhat of an obsession from day one, but the old me still thinks that the only way to put it in its place is to forget about it altogether.

I've gone from believing that I was some kind of Bill and Ted clone, with a mission from God to save the world through music, to a general sense of malaise if I so much as look at a picture of one on the internet. Somewhere in between those extremes there has to be a place for music in my life.

I don't have to have some grand purpose or design to enjoy playing guitar on occasion. I can actually do it for ... fun. Conversely I can, if I really apply myself, enjoy it without it becoming my religion.

I need to find balance. I need to forge a peace treaty between the warring factions in my mind.