Do you deserve your audience?
Writing this from the future: This post was originally written to my audience of fellow guitarists. I have since deleted my guitar blog and Instagram, and some of the almost 6,000 followers I had there are asking where to find this stuff again, so I've imported some of these "minimalist guitarist" posts over to this blog. If you don't know what any of the guitar gear-talk means, don't worry.
A couple of days ago, I wrote a long blog post about musicianship. I felt like I poured my heart and soul into it—I felt like it was some of my best writing—but as I hit 'Save & Publish' on the post, it totally disappeared. I checked my Drafts folder—nothing. I checked my Recently Deleted folder—nothing. Forever lost. I won't say what words came out when I realized it was gone, but they weren't "God bless America."
I've spent the last few days thinking back, wracking my brain, trying to recreate this lost post. But each time I go to put virtual pen to digital paper, I can't come up with a single thing. Maybe my lost blog post wasn't as great as I thought it was. Maybe it didn't need to be said. Maybe some transcendent power saw it fit to take the words. At any rate, it gets me thinking about my platform and the worth of my words.
What we have—in our social media profiles and among our friends, in our blogs and photographs and recordings, on our channels and feeds—what we have is a platform. We all have a platform. Maybe many of us don't deserve the platform we're given—I know I don't deserve mine. I once tweeted, and it was retweeted by a celebrity, and Twitter analytics told me that it was viewed by over 100,000 people. That's a scary thing, a thing for which I'm undeserving and unequipped. To think that any one of us could say anything to all of us at any time…
As a musician, you've got a platform. It's quite a literal one. Every Friday night, or every Sunday morning, you stand on stage and you lead people. You can use your platform to help people have fun, to direct attention, to inspire thought, to incite action, to encourage focus, to foster unity. The words and actions of a performer can get everyone to their feet, can get people clapping, can get people dancing, can start a riot.
What are you going to say with your platform? Are you going to speak mindlessly, retweeting and reblogging endlessly in a blur of distilled, stream-of-consciousness zeitgeist? Are you going to leverage your platform only for causes we can all agree on? Are you going to censor yourself for fear of losing followers? Are you going to say what you know will garner likes?
Or, could you bring light into a dark world? Could you illuminate truth? Could you use your words and actions to build up? Could you side with the poor, the needy, the orphaned, the anxious, the sick, the widowed, and the oppressed? Could you show mercy? Could you speak intentionally, having a goal for every word?
You might say "I'm just a guitarist." Or, "I'm only a kid." Or, "No one's gonna listen to someone like me." It's 2017 and this is the free world. For the first time ever, our freedom of speech is met with unprecedented access to audience. Turn on Facebook Live and you're speaking with hundreds of your peers. Post to YouTube and you've got access to thousands across the world. Speak and keep speaking, keep pushing, keep reaching. There's no better way to promote the Good, the "usher in the Kingdom" as some might say, to fix our world, than to speak and keep speaking.
Honor the platform you've been given.
In related news, I've been off of social media for two weeks. I logged back in tonight to post a picture of a bag of coffee and promote my blog. This is a really weird time for me. But in two weeks, my job situation is changing a bit and I'll be able to start playing music and writing fulltime. Stick with me. I'm not going to be on Instagram everyday like I used to but I'll be here and I'll be writing.