Blog# 2 Finding your Howl

In this blog entry I will be referring to Jonathan Flaum's Finding Your Howl (http://changethis.com/.)

 

In Flaum's story he depicts a group of rare red wolves being released back into society.  Although, being held in captivity for so long the rare red wolves lost their ability to howl.   The wolves became frighten of their new habitat and yearned for captivity again; except for one, Mumon.  Mumon did not like the idea of not being able to howl, and so he sets off into the forest to find it.  Flaum’s story suggests that in order to find ourselves, or to find our own calling, we must be willing to leave everything behind.   

 “Bound with all the weight of all the words he tried to say

Chained to all the places that he never wished to say

Bound with all the weight of all the words he tried to say

and as he faced the sun he cast no shadow”

The above excerpt is from an Oasis song off of their 1996 album, “What’s the Story Morning Glory.”  This particular song, “Cast No Shadow,” always brings forth feelings of my personal nature.  When I first heard this song, many thoughts flooded my mind.  It made me think of the direction I was headed in my own life, as well as where I was currently.  To me the lyrics are portraying to someone who is stuck inside a place he does not much care for anymore.  With all the responsibilities constantly controlling him he can never leave, thus never doing what he wants to.  So as he faces the sun his shadow, what I believe to be his true calling, does not show. 

               This may have only been a simple song at the time, but I reflected on it deeply to my own life.  I remember after first hearing this, asking myself “what I wanted out of life?”  Where did I see myself within the next five to ten years?”  At the time I was still in high school and just beginning to learn guitar along with the keyboard.  So from that point on I decided this was it; I wanted to pursue what I enjoy most, music.  It was a passion I had had in the meantime; because my main focus was engineering, a job that would hold somewhat of a steady future.  Which is what I did not want though, i did not want to be chained to a dead beat job and stick to music as a side hobby for the rest of my life.  I decided I needed to change if I was ever going to become this person I had depicted of myself in the future.

                   What caught my ear and changed me so quickly was the line “chained to all the places that I never wished to stay.”  I thought about how growing up affects our aspirations as infants, how most of us throw it away for that office job with that steady pay or because we decide to take the safe path in life.  I did not want to take that path, I wanted to venture out there and take in whatever the world had to offer.  I needed to find myself and if I had to leave my old self behind I was willing to do so. From that day on every time I struck a chord or mixed a beat I always carried the thought of being free to find my own calling and hone in on what I enjoy.

               “Cast No Shadow” is a simple chord progression with lyrics that could have been written stoned.  Somehow I found a meaning far greater than anything before.  It changed me, inspired something inside that gave the motivation and courage to venture into the unknown.  I have taken a leap of faith into this musical business world.  This path I have taken is my way in searching for my own “howl;” or in my case my own “shadow.”