{"id":7235,"date":"2018-01-04T18:57:24","date_gmt":"2018-01-04T23:57:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thefest.com\/kdstaging2\/?p=7235"},"modified":"2018-01-07T15:31:23","modified_gmt":"2018-01-07T20:31:23","slug":"its-not-always-going-to-be-this-grey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.thefest.com\/its-not-always-going-to-be-this-grey\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s Not Always Going to Be This Grey"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paul Simon depicted this season best: \u201c\u2026and the sky is a hazy shade of winter\u2026\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Yes, even in generally sunny and mild Louisiana, this afternoon, it was a crushing 22 degrees. Almost as soon as the sky brightened, it fell back into darkness. These are short and bitter days: full-on winter.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Yet, in the midst of this unbearable cold, I read in my gardener\u2019s journal that I should be out planting. I\u2019m late putting in kale. My pansies are long overdue. And, if I want daffodils, jonquils, or tulips for spring, they must go into the frozen ground this week. I need to dig out my gloves and spade, bundle up, and get to work. But in the freezing darkness, I must admit, I have little motivation. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Then, I think of George Harrison. I think of George in those dim and sunless days after <\/span>The White Album<\/span><\/i>, when (for the most part) his genius was ignored and his contributions to The Beatles, largely overlooked. It was \u201cthe winter of [his] discontent,\u201d<\/span> but in those seemingly barren days, instead of despairing, George began planting.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When John and Paul shrugged him off and pushed their own projects forward, it would have been easy for George to doubt himself. It would have been reasonable for George to buy into the attitude that he was \u201csecond best.\u201d (Or third best, as it were.) Instead, continuing to believe in himself and in his ability to be fruitful, George used that fallow time to begin writing \u201cMy Sweet Lord,\u201d \u201cIsn\u2019t It a Pity?\u201d and \u201cWhat is Life.\u201d Fully confident that \u201cit\u2019s not always going to be this grey,\u201d<\/span> George began quietly preparing for a bright harvest that would shock those who had swept him aside. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He began penning, editing, and improving the songs that would \u2013 almost two years later \u2013 grace his double GRAMMY-nominated (for \u201cBest Album of the Year\u201d and \u201cBest Single of the Year\u201d) album. He began creating <\/span>All Things Must Pass<\/span><\/i>. In a very dark time, George quietly tilled the fertile soil of his imagination, carefully planting seeds that would flourish into that triple-album bearing the greatest creative work of his career. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In a wry twist of fate, had The Beatles embraced George\u2019s plethora of compositions during 1968 and 1969, the accomplished Harrison would not have compiled the elegant and varied catalog that fills <\/span>All Things Must Pass<\/span><\/i>. As music critic Ritchie Unterberger adeptly observed, the album was filled with \u201c<\/span>[George Harrison\u2019s] backlog of unused compositions from the late Beatles era.\u201d<\/span> Indeed, the \u201cshadowy winter\u201d that engulfed George\u2019s last two years as a Beatle was <\/span>necessary<\/span><\/i>; it furnished a quiet time for him to create a genius solo album.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And so, like George, I resolve to plant. I resolve to make the most of an uncomfortable, bleak, and lonely season. Instead of letting darkness defeat me, I resolve to use it as an instrument to come back stronger, more vibrant \u2013 full of fragrant blooms. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I wish you a time for planting, too. I wish you a New Year full of quiet moments in which to plan and grow. May every season of 2018 be used to good purpose\u2026even the most frozen moments that seem to have no potential. George found them a blessing. May we as well. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Listen to George\u2019s title track, \u201cAll Things Must Pass\u201d here…<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

\n

1. Shakespeare, William, from Richard III<\/i><\/p>\n

2.\u00a0From \u201cAll Things Must Pass\u201d by George Harrison on the <\/span>All Things Must Pass<\/span><\/i> LP, 1970. <\/span><\/p>\n

3.\u00a0Richie Unterberger, Review: <\/span>All Things Must Pass<\/span><\/i> LP, AllMusic.com,\u00a0https:\/\/www.allmusic.com\/album\/all-things-must-pass-mw0000194979<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Jude Southerland Kessler is the author of the John Lennon Series:\u00a0www.johnlennonseries.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Jude is represented by 910 Public Relations —\u00a0@910PubRel<\/a>\u00a0on Twitter and\u00a0910 Public Relations<\/a>\u00a0on Facebook.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Paul Simon depicted this season best: \u201c\u2026and the sky is a hazy shade of winter\u2026\u201d   Yes, even in generally sunny and mild Louisiana, this afternoon, it was a crushing 22 degrees. Almost as soon as the sky brightened, it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":7239,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[51,98,117],"class_list":["post-7235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-baby-boomer-beatles-blog","tag-george-harrison","tag-jude-southerland-kessler","tag-the-beatles"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.thefest.com\/?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7235"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/staging.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7242,"href":"https:\/\/staging.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7235\/revisions\/7242"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.thefest.com\/?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.thefest.com\/?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.thefest.com\/?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}