Do you remember the first concert you ever attended? Of course you do. I remember mine like it was yesterday. It was a band called Krackerjack at the Corpus Christi Exhibition Center. They had a bass player named Tommy Shannon (currently touring with Joe Satriani, Eric Johnson, Jonny Lang, and Kenny Wayne Shepherd on the Experience Hendrix Tour) and a young guy on the guitar they called "Skeeter." Later on they stopped calling him Skeeter and started calling him Stevie Ray Vaughn.
Ask anyone if they remember the first concert they attended and watch their eyes light up. It evokes a response that digs deep into the psyche and triggers a rich bouquet of emotions.
What is that experience worth?
It's hard to assign it a value, isn't it? Yet we know it has tremendous inherent value. Some guy named Einstein once said, "Not everything that counts can be measured, and not everything that can be measured counts."
Several months ago Willie Williams told me that he has spent a lot of time thinking about the justification for taking a huge spectacle on the road like U2's 360° tour. "With a tour of this magnitude it might appear abundantly clear that the greenest thing would be to just not do it at all," he said.
That's an undeniable fact if you discount the quality of life issues. But who wants to live in a world where meaning is tabulated on a calculator? As Willie goes on to say, there's more to life than that.
"On another level," he said, "a tour like this has value in another way. Even though eco-issues are becoming more crucial by the day, it would be cultural and spiritual suicide to declare that humankind should cease any and every activity which is not utterly necessary or practical."
Would you trade your first concert experience for a smaller carbon footprint? I wouldn't.
Don't get me wrong. I'm a rabid proponent of the greening of the production industry. I'm a student of efficient lighting, a follower of alternative light sources, and a believer in greener technologies. But we have to be careful not to go so far as to cannibalize our own souls.
"I've been designing shows for a long time," Williams goes on to say, "and quite regularly I will be approached by a total stranger who is burning to tell me that some show that I vaguely remember doing was ‘the high point of my life.' I'm not exaggerating; these shows affect people's lives in a deeply significant way and somehow provide meaning. That being the case, I really believe that at least some of what we do as an industry has value that is worth a short-term carbon spend."
Lest we think that this is some touchy-feely ultra-liberal idea, consider what Dan Pink has to say about the importance of art in business. Pink is a best-selling author and a graduate of Yale Law School. His books include "A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future" and his latest, "Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us."
"It used to be that the abilities that mattered most in work were characteristic of the left hemisphere," he said. "They were the logical, linear, sequential, analytical…kinds of abilities. And today – and I really want to underscore this – those kinds of abilities…are absolutely 100 percent necessary, but they're no longer sufficient. It's now these right-brain abilities…having to do with artistry, empathy, inventiveness, big-picture thinking – these are now the abilities that matter most in nearly every profession in a whole range of industries. These metaphorically right-brain abilities…are becoming the engines of the economy."
Why?
Linear tasks with a narrow focus and a single solution are best handled by computer or by outsourcing to low wage economies. The new economy demands more imagination, creativity, free-thinking, and right-brained activity.
How do you exercise your right brain and help it to thrive? By inspiring it, feeding and watering it, and encouraging it to grow and strengthen. That's where art comes in. Art is food for the right brain.
There's a fine line between being good stewards of the planet and depriving the world of color and flavor. The challenge is to recognize that line and stop short of crossing it. And that requires us to be well educated, well informed, and completely tuned in to technological solutions. With that in mind, this issue is dedicated to the redding, blueing, and greening of the planet.
