I Accept

A little over five years ago, I started writing this online journal as a way of getting my thoughts "out there." I was performing again, after about a five-year hiatus, and I figured a chronicle would offer some insight into my work. That would be useful for me, and potentially interesting for others, if anyone should happen to notice.

And this diary (now known as a blog) has indeed proven useful, mainly in unexpected ways.

After all, I mostly expected that writing for this site might lend some depth to what I brought to the stage. If I was marketing myself as a musician via my website (I thought I was) then all this wondering and blundering could be thought of as a brand-builder, a way of lending authenticity to the songs and the stories I was dragging all over the countryside as a performer.

All that time, however, I was blithely honing my chops as a web cowboy. I thought my independent creative work was building momentum that would ultimately pull me away from the corporate online world. In fact, what I was actually doing was building more and more momentum within that world. That was unexpected.

Another thing I didn't expect was that these worlds would merge. Do hippie and geek mix? I would have guessed not, but I should have known better; they're two sides of the same coin. And I think I said somewhere that I wanted to bridge the digital and the organic.

All the same, I couldn't quite imagine "corporate" and "community" coming together. But that's another unexpected outcome of all this effort. My gig calendar hasn't had many solo shows on it the last couple of years, compared to the previous couple. On the other hand, I'm in a beloved band with a grassroots following, I'm helping to run a folk festival, and -unexpectedly- the lessons I'm learning in those efforts are helping inform major decisions about how Canadians will communicate their passions online.

Alex Sinclair has a wonderful quote: "Real folk singers have day jobs." I get that now. I never wanted to be a full-time folk singer anyway; I just wanted my songs to be sung. I still want that. But music is not the only endeavour that wants me, and it's not up to me to figure out how that works. My job is to find ways to put my gifts to good use. That means trusting what is asked of me more than what I want for myself. Holmes Hooke has another wonderful quote: "Sometimes we are called upon to serve."

A few days ago I was called upon to serve in a role I would never have expected: Editor-in-Chief at Canoe.ca, one of Canada's most popular web portals. I've been there just over a year now, working on a few things, including the corporate blog strategy and the Canoe Dossier blog. It's not where I thought I was going, but it's where I was headed all along.

Apparently they don't mind me playing ukulele; The McFlies played our corporate Christmas party last year. Turns out the way folk festivals organize themselves may be useful in facilitating online communities. Trust networks are an important growth area for web portals. Narrative voice is a carefully tended, highly valued aspect of news dissemination. Character prevails, even in bits and bites. I suppose that's what I've been building along the way. Even canoes have a place in the digital domain. You could say the path of my paddle has led me to Canoe.

Acceptance makes alignment. I accept.