Once upon a time in 2007, I got the hare-brained idea to write a short piece of music every day for a month and post it online. Now it’s the 10th anniversary of the project, and I’ve decided to take a trip down memory lane, one day at a time!

Day 2: A Study in Contrasts – piano

This piece alternates between placid and frenetic, and listening back to it now, I’m reminded of the metaphor of a duck gliding over the water seemingly effortlessly, but with feet paddling furiously beneath the surface. Sounds like every day life for many of us, right?

On the topic of contrasts, over the past ten years, McDoc and I have had good times and difficult times, like everyone. What’s interesting is, the good and bad don’t happening in sequential alternating blocks. It’s more like multiple strands of both are constantly simultaneously unwinding.

I’ve arrived at a Theory of Everything that I think is rather elegant, even in its profanity:

Life is a steak and shit sandwich, and everyone has to eat the whole thing.

McDoc objects to my formulation. He thinks it should be a steak and shit buffet. But a buffet implies that you can pick and choose what you get and how much, and life doesn’t always work that way, does it?