I lent my friend Jo my copy of Invisible Cities LAST MAY and finally got it back a week ago. After a productive morning, I sat down for a couple hours to read it again. After all, it’s a different book every time you read it. This time around, this particular quote stuck out to me, “Futures not achieved are only branches of the past: dead branches.”
What stands out to you in Invisible Cities is a reflection of your self, so I got thinking about why the term dead branches stuck out to me. Dead branches are a symbol of failure, regret, guilt, and a lack of follow through. When you encounter dead branches in your own life, you immediately relive your past by remembering how your failures could have been prevented. So now the REAL question is, am I approaching a dead branch in my career?
A career in the music industry can’t just be planted and expected to grow without supervision nor can it be drowned in water and expected to grow fast. Part of me thinks I deserve more than I have whereas the other part calls to question everything I had referred to as a benchmark in my career up until now.
However, the most irrational thought you can have is to see a dead branch strike someone around you and assume that that would never happen to you. Therefore, I have to keep reminding myself that the hustle is not over, that my ideas have not been manifested, and that I have more to learn before I become an expert.
“A Ghost is Born”? I swear I will get you your CD back. Great posts, I loved the “New Rockstar” segments. Keep it up.
I may need to check out Invisible Cities, sounds interesting.
This comment comes from an older person’s viewpoint. A “dead branch” is also a piece of life that had grown, flourished, and moved on. All dead branches need not be categorized as negative symbols.
i most certainly subscribe to the philosophy that death leads to rebirth in some way or form, so i definitely agree with you in that regard. however, the purpose of the post was to spark inspiration and make people realize that have to create their day instead of waiting in order to make serious moves in their industry…mine being music.
May I state for the record and in my defense, that Invisible Cities was a mass inspiration and begged me to dig deep into my personal philosophies. Therefore, I felt as though I needed part ownership for while to regain some personal balance.
Thank you for lending it to me for SO LONG.