Where Are We Right Now? Are we, as a species, doing okay? Are we, as a planet, surviving or dying? Are we, as spiritual beings who are having a human experience, living up to our broader intent? our true best interests? our soul-level sense of duty? I think we ultimately have no choice but to answer: Yes.

I understand that to spend a moment pondering the idea that we are actually doing well and that we should be congratulated for our progress is a stretch for nearly everyone. Nearly everyone can see the devastation and disease and depression that exists in the world today. And that is mostly my point. For the first time in human history we can ACTUALLY SEE the devastation and disease and depression that exists in the world today. Since the dawn of recorded human history, over 9,000 years ago, we have, in an extremely short period of time, shifted our way of thinking. We have begun to know each other.

If all 9,000 years of recorded human history - which is to say when man began to write and, therefore, record and report on his environment and his culture - were condensed into a single 24 hour day:

9,000 years would equal 1,440 minutes (24 hours)
every minute would equal 6.25 years
every second, 4.7 days
and one year would equal 9.6 seconds

Christ was born about five and a half hours ago.

But it was only an hour ago, when Benjamin Franklin returned to Philadelphia from London and less than a minute later he founded the first library in America. The Panama Canal opened a half hour ago. Only sixteen minutes ago man first took flight. World War II ended about 10 minutes and 30 seconds ago. And about 6 minutes and 30 seconds ago the Internet was first being developed.

It could be argued that we have seen a dramatic decrease in human death from war in the last 10 minutes. It could be argued also that in only the last 3 minutes - a mere 180 seconds - the Internet began to connect the world together in a way that this planet has never enjoyed. Truly it has only in the last fraction of a second begun to understand exactly how powerful the Internet can be. Last June's violent unrest in Iran, televised almost entirely by Twitter and YouTube, can attest to the world's surprise at being able to truly circumvent governmental censorship.

We have been creating problems all day long, and have, in the recent moments and seconds, finally begun to solve them; begun to know each other; begun to empathize with one another in a way that cannot help but to have exponentially positive ramifications.

An enormous, and heretofore unimaginable, shift has occurred in Humanity in such a relatively minuscule amount of time. And since we are the ones experiencing it currently, we have little or no time to think in hindsight exactly how miraculous it has been; how miraculous it will have been.

It is difficult to see the forest through the trees, of course. We are so close to this knowledge that we are personally affected by almost all of it and therefore have a very poor objectivity when processing it emotionally. It hurts us to see what we have done to ourselves. And we are desperate to place blame.

It terrifies us to examine what we have made of our world and the disrespect we have shown our fellow man and the fragile sphere on which he lives; and of which we are all made.

But the Internet and the other forms of global media are in the process of enlightening us to ourselves. It is a mirror that we have crafted and continue to polish for the purpose. This era is literally Judgment Day, only it is we who are the Judges of our own history. And it shall be We who find no alternative but to follow what is natural to us. It shall be We who continue on the path upon which we have always steadily tread; the Direction we have always followed: Unity.

Unity is natural to us. Unity is natural to the universe. It is the unknown mechanism that creates even the gravity under our feet. Gravity is defined as the mass-proportionate force of attraction among all matter. All matter. Ironically, we find, the closer we come to each other, that All matter.

You matter to me. And I hope you have a great day.

This video speaks for itself. No need to extemporize.

Keeping your resolutions? I'm keeping mine so far.

I resolve to be better to myself. Go to the dentist. Work out more. Stop eating fast food. I will try to remember that I am the center of my own Universe and all good deeds I do for myself ripple outward and make me of better service to others.

After careful reflection about the past year, I noticed that I became increasingly more hostile to myself. I judged myself more harshly and belittled myself and my ideas. Not a very productive way of thinking. I sabotaged my own success and therefore sabotaged the successes I hope to share with others.

We so often forget ourselves in the equation. We forget that to Do Unto Others As We Would Have Them Do Unto Us requires knowing HOW we would have them do unto us. We forget to imagine HOW we would like to feel; HOW we would like to be; HOW we would like to live. If you can seek that, if you can actively search for Yourself in each choice you make, you cannot avoid doing not only what's best for you, but what's best for others as well.

Gnothi Seauton. Know Thyself.

This is my favorite time of year. Not really because of Christmas, specifically. Christmas is but one of the human expressions of this part of the yearly human cycle. This time of year throughout the length of humanity, in myriad traditions and countless cultures has been about rebirth. The return of the light. Christmas is celebrated on Dec 25 (for we do not know the actual birthdate of Christ) because of the Nativity story's relevance to renewal and rebirth; the coming of the light. Yule is celebrated on Dec 21 (it marks the shift from the days getting shorter to the days getting longer) as the day light begins to increase each day. The harvest has been brought to store, the fields do not require our attention for the moment. Reflection and sharing time with family belongs to these fleeting days in our calendar.

In the Southern Hemisphere they are currently celebrating their Summer Solstice time where they are at the peak of their light as we arrive at our longest night. They will celebrate their Winter Solstice as we celebrate our Summer. They revere their shortest night on June 21 as a time of reflection, renewal, and rebirth as well.

In both hemispheres, be it December in the North or June in the the South, the Winter Solstice is a time of introspection and planning for the future.

All of these world cultures have renewal traditions at the Winter Solsticetime:

• Ancient Brazil
• Ancient Egypt
• Ancient Greece
• Ancient Rome
• Atheists
• Buddhists
• Christians
• Druids
• Incas
• Iranians
• Jews
• Native Americans
• Neopagans
• Neolithic Europeans
• and even Vampires.

[For more specific information about each of these traditions visit: http://www.religioustolerance.org/winter_solstice.htm]

I celebrate both Christmas as well as the Solstice. I take every opportunity I can to derive strength from the concept of Renewal and Rebirth. I take this time to forgive myself for my perceived "failings" and look toward who I am today, knowing that tomorrow will be better than yesterday.

The religion into which one is born is merely a first language. Christianity is my first spiritual language, but I have learned and studied others. My openness to understand the parallels of other faiths with Christianity has brought me to understand that we none of us are all that different from one another. The parallels are so many that it takes a concentrated campaign of fear to distract followers from the fact that our neighbor is just like us - even when they seem to think so differently. We spend so much time seeking our differences that we blind ourselves to our similarities. Our differences seem to grow before us. But it is all an illusion. And like all illusions, they, in time, are revealed always. I have faith that we cannot help but increasingly operate toward better understanding among men. But I don't need faith to show me that. The long timeline of humanity shows us that each generation becomes less warring and more interested in knowing one another. The Internet has been our best tool to date. Many would disagree, of course, and do, but there are many facts to support this. Including this video:

I speak Christianity more fluently than other faiths, but my curiosity about them has not diminished the value I continue to find in the faith of my forefathers. And so at this time of year I celebrate Christmas. I also light the Menorah for Hanukkah in celebration of achieving near-impossible goals. I sing the pagan songs and say prayers for the coming of the light at Yule to help me get through the long winter and encourage myself that the light and warmth is returning. And after yesterday's snowstorm, it's a welcome thought indeed. I also include New Year's Day as a part of that renewal. I allow this entire season of celebration to be a tilling of the old fields and of planting the seeds of the new year.

My Christianity teaches me to forgive myself. It is the hardest part; reliving the mistakes of the previous year and trying to make new choices for myself moving forward. Making new choices is admitting delusions about the old ones. Such a hard thing to do. Making change is giving in. Renewal is like running a system defrag your computer when it's all clogged with applications and deleted projects.

This time of year is a good time for a factory reinstall.

I can't tell you how inspired I feel about the Good-Wil Initiative lately! So many wonderful people have asked to participate. My greatest challenge is now to come up with an effective way to utilize this fantastic army of individuals. I am not very good at administrative things; I make lists and then lose them, for example. I guess I'm a true artist in that sense. Not that being a "true artist" makes me a GOOD artist, but a definitely a stereotypical one. Depressing thought being a stereotype.

For those of you who don't know about the Fitchburg-based Good-Wil Initiative, allow me to explain. It is a organization of a type called a Social Enterprise. A social enterprise is structured like a regular commercial business, but there is no shareholder. No owner gets a percentage. All proceeds of a social enterprise are donated to a cause or mission. In the case of The Good-Wil initiative, we produce cultural events and donate the ticket proceeds to an annual selection of local nonprofit organizations. It's a lot like Newman's Own Food Company. Paul Newman and his business partner founded a company over 25 years ago that produces a selection of food products, creates jobs, raises millions of dollars for their foundation and charities across the country, and sets a good example of alternative ways of doing business in the world.

I decided to partner with Good-Wil co-founders Corinne Farinelli and David Roth to create the Good-Wil Initiative in early 2008 and it's been an amazing ride ever since.

SO now we have a small army and a big mission: Save the world one hometown at a time. Starting with our own.

Exactly HOW do we do this? Well, I only have my own model to go by and that's the one we're working with to start. That model is based on seeking out, in our own communities, our most valuable human resources and then intentionally developing them for export. Sounds fancy, huh? Well it is a bit fancy, I am happy to report.

I'll just go ahead and say it. Yes, it's possible to have something wonderful that actually comes from your own backyard. Are you shocked? We so often discount things that come from our own neck of the woods as being something that's only good enough for the locals; not worthy of national attention. We think that if they're still here and haven't gone off to some big city, then they must not be worth very much.

Well, the world is getting much smaller thanx to the Internet. We're able to connect with each other in ways that even 20 years ago no one could have imagined. No one could have even imagined imagining it! But here we are with a global platform and only the merest hint at how we can save ourselves through the careful and strategic use of it. We can actually BE in our hometowns AND be national products who are known for just that. Of course I'm eluding to myself, but the frame is universal. And I want to apply it.

All the mentorship and guidance that I needed in order to pursue my passions and be productive with them I received right here in my community. Any talent, whether artistic, technical, medical, or entrepreneurial that comes from our community should be noticed, fostered and deliberately developed by the community. I want to recreate, for the youth of our community coming up behind me, the exceptional professional education & development that I received. I want to develop them so that they will one day represent us well in the world. And perhaps they might return the favor by remaining a part of our community or by creating new examples for other communities of what we teach them. Good-Wil ambassadors, if you will.

Human export is like any other export. It needs to successfully represent the manufacturer at the same time as turning a profit. Fitchburg and North Central Massachusetts are my manufacturer and I wish to represent that in the world. I also wish to turn a profit for my manufacturer and for myself. I want to be happy pursuing my dreams knowing that I have included my community in my business plan.

Perhaps it's a bit startling to hear me refer to myself in such objective and "meat-like" terms. Well I am a piece of meat, after all. I may be a fabulous piece of meat (lol), but meat nonetheless. It's important to me to use this objective language to help keep things in perspective. Especially being in the type of occupation where one could get a large head. And ultimately, if I wish to place myself within the context of a business model - as is the case with the Good-Wil Initiative - then a product I most certainly am. And it is as such that I can only hope to find the coolest opportunities to do my favorite thing: stand on a stage and sing.

What product is the Good-Wil Initiative is trying export? Passion. Talent. And not just performing arts talent either, though that's where we're starting. But all kinds of talent and passion. What do you like to do? What do you really, really like to do? How can you leverage that personal interest into not only making a living for yourself, but into making a difference in our community, our region, our state, our country, our world? How can your own little personal interest change the world?

Simple. We do it together.

See, if you know that the 12-year-old kid next door is a whiz at fixing things, why not find him an opportunity to develop that talent? Why not make a call about a scholarship to a summer technical program or perhaps use the Internet to create a little local campaign to raise the money for a new scholarship? What if you helped him develop a small business? It isn't that hard to do.

Everyone has interests and dreams - many shuttle them off to the side as being too fanciful or too "unrealistic." And I have to say, at the expense of being publicly offensive, that's total bullshit.

If you have a passion and a natural talent for something - anything - then it's my belief that those talents can be parlayed into something that actually DOES save the world. AND YOU in the process.

So, as I said before I only have my own model to go by and here it is:

I have always been interested in singing. It goes back to my earliest memories. Even in the memories within memories I can recall collecting songs in some mental list; evaluating songs for their potential to be performed in concert. Imagining myself standing on a stage and delivering their message. It has always been there even though it took many years to identify the constant througline of thought. The thought was so constant I couldn't see the forest through the trees. It wasn't until I was in my mid-30s before I could really identify it. I'd spent many years believing that acting was the path I was seeking - that would be what could satisfy my underlying passions. I was close, but no cigar. The desire to stand on a stage and communicate with many was there and understood, but I never really pursued acting. I never pounded the pavement and did what was really required to make it as an actor. I worked because I auditioned well - once I actually got around to auditioning for something, that is.

Once the Thayer Symphony Orchestra - my local professional orchestra - offered me my first headline appearance, I began to understand the difference between pretending to be someone else on stage and learning how to be myself. My mom always said that if I was just myself, people would like me. I don't know if she knew how right she was.

So here I am with this passion to sing in concert. What do I do with it? My first thought was to produce benefit concerts so that I could sing what I wanted and actually have people come. If they didn't know who I was, perhaps they would be drawn to the cause I was benefiting and then maybe they'd get to know me in the process? But the bottom line for me was: I could sing on stage and people would be there to hear it.

Since this was now my best option for being the type of performer I really wanted to be it seems so obvious to me now that my local community would naturally become my mentors and teachers. Those are the people to whom I would need to turn in order to make these types of events possible. If you're holding a benefit, you need sponsors and you need volunteers who believe in the same causes to help produce the events. You need to reach out to the community to get the support you need. And if they like your idea they'll not only help you, but they'll teach you how to do it better. They'll guide you and mold your philanthropic language. They'll eventually begin to ask you for your help as well. Before you know it you're in constant collaboration with your community and that's a network that can't be undone easily.

Choosing to make my way as a concert vocalist placed me squarely on a course that would involve the best elements of my very own backyard as my teachers, friends, and helpers. It would develop me as an individual, as an artist, as a philanthropist, and, in turn, into a teacher of those who would embark on this same course I came to understand as Social Enterprise.

So here I am an individual with a passion and an opportunity to express that passion. That's it. There it is. The rest is, and will continue to be, the natural result of the WAY I have chosen to express and live my passion. Any success that may come to me will have been because of the way I approached it. That's not to say that social enterprise is the only way anyone ever makes it in the world or finds as a method to express their passion successfully; in fact, we know many who have become successful in other ways. But this is the only one I, personally, could live with. And it is the one I am now choosing to teach to others as a way of, yes, furthering the opportunities to express my own passion: to sing.

So excited about the start of our new season next Friday. Everything is really coming together nicely now. I am both terrified and exhilarated about the idea of singing a solo a capella concert. But in seven days, that's exactly what I'm going to attempt. For a vocalist, that's like walking a highwire over the Grand Canyon with no net, no balance beam, and no little blue umbrella. My Naked Voice concert is going to be twice the highwire act as well since I'm going to be presenting all of the music for my Wild Archangel album, much of it for the first time.

Rosalind Russell once said that acting is like standing naked on a stage and turning around slowly. This is a bit like that.

And I'm sure everyone's curious about whether or not that will even be entertaining. I am a bit concerned about that myself. But that's mostly my own insecurities talking and I have to remember the fact that I have good pipes and I know how to use them pretty well. I have good pitch and my choir director from Rollstone Church Katherine Dodd is impressed, so that's good enough for me. So I'm going to take the leap.

I always have laid it all out there. That's always been my way, I think. I'll tell you everything about me, even the "bad" parts, and THEN we'll see if you still like me. Generally people do still like me. My "bad" parts are mostly in my head anyway. But I think I second guess people's sincerity in liking me if they don't know everything about me. As if I worry that since they only see the good parts, of course, they like me. But in order to trust it, I feel compelled to make sure that they know the parts that make me feel insecure, vulnerable. I procrastinate. I am lazy. I need a babysitter 40 hours a week to ensure production (boy there's an uncomfortable confession!), if I lived alone my house would probably descend into nothing but a storage facility with trails through the debris. I really am bad at things like filling out forms and mailing them in. I am constantly 5 minutes late and constantly saying to myself that this is the last time I'm ever going to be late for anything. I am forgetful. I forget so many names, but I always remember when I liked someone. I can look at them and know that I know them from somewhere and that I really like them, but no other details come to mind! I usually have to be honest about it.

So those are some of my bad things. Do you still like me? lol...

My concert next Friday night Naked Voice* *Clothing not optional is an exercise in acceptance. I want people to see me and hear me and understand exactly what message I hope to communicate in the world. And without fans to cover the dancer, what then? With no band, no special lights, nothing but the reaching beauty of the Christ Church cathedral and the acoustics it provides, will you still like me? I must know before I can go any farther.

So with all this exposure I have an opportunity to include my community in the development process of my Wild Archangel album. I am going to issue lyric booklets and a score sheet. Literally. I want them all to adjudicate their experience. The can score the lyrics, the melody, the vocal presentation, and make suggestions, comments, or let me know how it made them feel. I really want to know these things.

For the past five years I have been writing music. My first song was presented at my very first symphony appearance. On February 14, 2004 I headlined with the Thayer Symphony Orchestra. It was the first time I had the opportunity of singing my own song choices and singing them my own way. A concert vocalist can sing anything he wants! I'd been in musical theatre for years just so I could get paid to sing. That was true and it worked, but it took that appearance with the Thayer (right in my very own hometown) to realize how much I wanted to be a different kind of artist.

Please Don't Forget Me When I'm Gone was a song that I had heard snippets of in my head for several years. The title phrase and its melody were present since at least 1996. But it was not part of a full song until I was offered my first headline. The awareness of that upcoming appearance, along with added inspiration from theatre director & choreographer Russell Garrett who assisted with my preparations for the appearance, I finished writing the song.

It was to have been presented with the full orchestra. But the orchestrations I commissioned didn't come in on time. So I cut that song from the list. I was crushed, but it also gave me an easy out. I didn't know if I had any business writing songs and I was worried if it would be a big disappointment.

I had brought out every bell and whistle for this 60-minute appearance with a professional symphony orchestra. I rehearsed a 40-member choir who wore borrowed robes from Burlington High School, Russell Garrett choreographed 6 nine year old girls and me a touching softshoe for the song "Glory of Love," Cherie Ronayne and Tim Smith performed a beautiful pas de deux while I sang the heartbreaking "Where Have You Been?" A song I have never performed since. I brought several support vocalists with me as well bringing the total count of humans added to this one-man headline to somewhere around 50. And did I neglect to mention that I also flew in a 9-piece, several hundred square foot overlapping rendition of George Seurat's pointlist painting "Sunday on the Isle of La Grande Jatte"? And that was for my encore. I apparently assumed I'd get an encore. There's a confession! I get the shivers now thinking of the utter nerveless presumption one would require to design and build a set for an encore. It did come out beautifully, though, Mary Beth Makara and Ira W. Leighton III did the majority of the painting and I did the shadowing. It was very dramatic to have the large paintings descend one by one over the orchestra and chorus as we sang the moving finale to Steven Sondheim's Act I of Sunday in the Park with George. I'll post some pictures of it on my facebook page. Look for the album named "Thayer Symphony Valentines Day 2004."

So all of this leads me to the song. I had cut the song from the list and we did not rehearse it with the orchestra, of course. But on the day of the concert, I decided I just had to sing it. Even though the song was listed in the penultimate position of the song list - a crucial point in maintaining the audiences' attention during an evening - and I had no orchestrations, and the preceding song was some enormous number involving the choir and all, I knew I just had to sing that song.

I went to the Maestro's dressing room and spoke with both he and his companion Donna. I told them the story about the song and the real reason why I had to do it. A story I am not rendering here. They agreed that it must be performed and that their concert pianist Mr. Allen Mueller could sight read it. However, I cautioned them that I had written this piano part myself, with no experience in writing a piano part - I can barely play the thing - and I had written it in a free computer program I had downloaded off the internet that didn't allow you to compose key changes unless you bought the full program. So, for those of you who know something about music, Mr. Mueller played the whole thing transcribed in the key of C with accidentals written in to denote the FOUR modulations that occur in the piece. But they said that it was okay he usually arrives early and he can look it over and make notes. It would be alright and it was worth it.

However Mr. Mueller chose this night to arrive exactly 5 minutes before the downstroke. I ran along side of him as he came down the corridor from the parking lot explaining everything as we went backstage and right onto the stage with him as he put his music on the concert grand with the audience watching everything. He said he would do his best. I thanked him for his graciousness. And I think he was exceedingly gracious considering the circumstances. He still is exceedingly gracious each time I see him. I'd pinch me hard in the arm if I were him.

So the concert proceeded and it was finally time for my half of the concert to begin. We had a lot of technical problems with the sound. There was horrible feedback that startled the audience on a regular basis. It startled the performer too. But in spite of that it went very well and the girls did a beautiful job on "Glory of Love" and Cherie and Tim were breathtaking. The chorus seemed so happy to be involved. I had to musically direct them myself and so I fear I did them a disservice, but they were troopers. But now it was time to sing Please Don't Forget Me When I'm Gone for the first time. My first original song at my first symphony headline and after all the bombast of the previous song, I had to follow it with nothing but my voice and a sightread piano part written by an amateur. God bless Mr. Allen Mueller.

It was terrifying, but I didn't fall off the stage, didn't forget my lyrics, and my fly stayed up that whole time. (All things, by the way, that have occurred to me in my chronicle of stage experiences.)

When the song was over there was a spark of silence and then a rush of applause. It was sustained and carried on to the point where I found myself embarrassed by the praise of it. I suddenly felt embarrassed that we were wasting so much time applauding me when I should be busy getting back to entertaining them. But in a moment I recovered myself and allowed them to applaud. I needed to hear it.

Come see how the next chapter in my artistic exposure come out. And be honest.

I think things are best summarized by a facebook exchange I had with my friend Joe Karaman today.

"Wil,
...Looking forward to the Good-Wil rollout; been doing a lot of thinking about how/where to make my entry into Good-Wil's landscape. Will update as things unfold.

:-)

P.S. the new CD cover is great - honest and sensitive. You're lucky to know a really high quality photographer!"

My reply:

"Hello Joe,

I'm flattered that you're considering an entry into the Good-Wil "landscape," as it were! We'd be lucky to have you. Rollout has officially occurred. It all starts in 10 days. I finally secured the three venues TODAY for the opening weekend. And I had a 30 minute appearance on public access tonight announcing it all and singing two songs to boot. I performed during photography montages of photos from last season that I edited in the studio this afternoon, after finally securing the venue for the first brunch in a meeting with Leominster High School, after substitute teaching at Fitchburg High School, during the first period of which I spur-of-the-moment created the Fitchburg High School Social Enterprise Club in spontaneous focus group with the first period class. Six students from that class signed up to meet and collaborate to create the official agenda and mission of the club, but it has already been decided that they will operate their own storefront with merchandise that they will produce as a social enterprise business, the proceeds of which will be donated to our under-served public library whose hours have been drastically cut and their accreditation lost. Oh, and I also went into the Comcast office to beg them not to shut off my cable for just two more weeks. The personal touch always works like a charm. ;)

Wil

ps glad you like the cd cover! Ironically, I have no idea who took the photo. It was taken at a popular nude spot in Vermont and I handed the camera to the beach at large and told them all to take turns taking photos of me at that rock. There were about 50 shots taken by about 8 or so people. I only knew them in passing. To this day, have no idea who took that particular photo."