In Search of a CD Collection and Discovering My Focus

When I started this writing course, I was a basket case solving the mystery of my blog's focus.  While I was stressing over my decidedly indecisiveness, I was getting the hang of Spotify - the online music service.  What a sublime product this is.  Each song, whether old or new, sparked the desire to hear the next.  While reminiscing it occurred to me that I should continue uploading my CD collection to my computer; or do some writing on my as yet defined topic.  Finally - an effortless decision to make.

This meant, of course, having to open the closet door in my study.  It's not quite as bad as opening the door and being bowled over by an assortment of random sporting goods, electronic components, missing socks and various disco era jump suits.  But close.  I delicately opened the door and was encouraged by the darkness.  "This isn't going to be too bad," I naively thought to myself.  As my eyes adjusted to the lack of light, I realized that closets are fibbers.

Stacked floor to ceiling were umpteen plastic crates smothered in wires, cables, and long unused chargers.  An acoustic guitar and a partly deflated exercise ball were stuffed carelessly into the last of the jagged air pockets.  Two elderly computer towers sat on what I expected was muddied carpet.  They were acting as a structural foundation for the boxes, crates, bags, and cases stacked and stammering as if waiting for the key stone to be removed to unleash shock and awe.  Folders of odd bills, contracts and ugly personnel letters served as mortar for my version of Jericho's wall.  I didn't expect a job this size, but it was either come up with a focus for my blog or find my CD collection.

Methodically, I dislodged the boxes, the crates, the poster tubes, the cameras, the monitors and the other undefinable doodads.  Less than carefully, I dispersed the contents to the not so distant corners of my study.  My wife stopped at the doorway, curious about the noise, cocked an eyebrow and headed for saner pastures.  Unhurriedly my CD collection came into view.  First, the top of the quad-level CD bookcase, then the second.  Unmistakably Wal-mart value section.  I knew this wasn't going to do any good.  These CD's were already in my computer.  I needed to dig deeper.

Heaving the last obstruction, a computer bag that had not one but two ancient laptops tucked inside, I could see the prize.  The lower two shelves of my CD collection.  I half expected a rush of air as my closet made contact with the atmosphere for the first time in years.  Still bathed in black - I removed the phone from my pocket and turned on the flashlight app.  There they were.  I felt like Howard Carter discovering King Tut's CD collection for the first time.  Depeche Mode, Madness, Duran Duran, The Sex Pistols, David Bowie, Youth of Today, Greenday and many more.  "I see wonderful things," I joked to myself.  Then it hit me.

It was at that moment I channeled the clarity I so desperately craved hours earlier.  I decided I wanted to blog about music.  Like my desire to see my CD collection again, I wanted to write about my discovery of new bands and rediscovery of bands I dismissed as an afterthought.  I suppose digging around in a closet, breaking a sweat and making an entirely new mess to clean up can have strangely positive effects on one's train of thought.  I focused my stress on a physical task and a solution presented itself.  The focus was always there - it was just behind a wall old junk that needed moving.  Sounds ridiculous and new age to me.  Crystal chanting, burning man, hippie nonsense.  I'm a convert though.