I ran across an interview with Nature Conservancy scientist Joe Kiesecker where he talked a bit about keeping in touch with his childhood friends from Brooklyn, some of which “are in prison, and a few are no longer with us.” When asked why they’ve stayed friends even in those cases where their lives went in such different directions, he said:
“They’re real people. I spent most of my career in academia. Those people think what they’re doing is the most important thing in the world; they think that because they’re only talking to other academics. My childhood friends were my connection back to that real world.”
This answer made me stop because I think about my life in a similar way fairly frequently. I think it’s important to value the opinions of my friends that aren’t musicians as much as those that are musicians for reasons similar to Kiesecker’s; they keep me aware of how my musical life appears and sounds to people.
I also love that they share music and bands with me that I never would have listened to, and (hopefully) when I share my music with them it’s something they wouldn’t have heard otherwise.
Bottom line, the more varied experiences my friends have around me, the better off I will be, and I’m thankful to have so many different personalities in my life.
– Art
I grew up in same neighborhood as Joe, he did not grow up any where near Brooklyn. He grew up in typical LI suburbia, farthest thing from the streets of Brooklyn.