102. The Great Divide

Recently I feel, as Dante wrote at the beginning of The Divine Comedy,

"In the midway of this our mortal life,

I found me in a gloomy wood, astray..."

The reason for this being my inability to find the Spirit of America which unified us as a people and guided and strengthened me through so much of my life previously. I don't wish to go into the negatives responsible for this situation. But in short, I've been feeling lost and blindsided by all the divisiveness and feel the need to try and find my way home.

My solution was to start composing a new piece of music called "The Great Divide" which attempts to capture, embody and convey the American Spirit as a North Star to guide me home again.

It is being written for piano. The first draft is done and it has been great fun to write. It is a collage of nine American styled themes which are currently called:

1. The Great Spirit

2. Yearning to Breathe Free

3. Mississippi Riverboat Ramble

4. The First Americans

5. Living the Blues

6. Gold Fever

7. Transcontinental

8. We're Not in Kansas Anymore

9. The Ruby Slippers

I hope one day we will feel the return of a unified American Spirit as expressed in the last line of America the Beautiful, "And crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea." When our own house is in order, we will be in a better position to engage again as a partner and leading force for good in the world community.