Community over Competition
It’s your old pal Ben from Holy Fool! I greet you with a full heart and a deep abiding well-wish for your happiness, and I send you love and care.
There are many trials and troubles in this world and I pray that you are found in a community of friends who will help you carry those trials and troubles. If you are lonelier and feeling darker than you’d like to be, I pray you find real friends and found-family who will help you and encourage you. I also pray that you will continue to become the sort of person who will notice and befriend those around you that are lonely and discouraged!
I have found that by becoming a good and steadfast friend to others, I find myself surrounded by good and steadfast friends. By taking care of others, I am actually helping build the sort of community that will take care of me when I need it. This is a great paradox and mystery, but I think it’s true!
American culture teaches us to take care of ourselves first. But if everybody is waiting for someone else to help them, no one helps anybody. By going first, by becoming the sort of person who cares for others even when you don’t feel quite ready or totally healed yet, you are actually breaking the cycle of selfishness and self-absorption. In my experience, true healing and growth is only found in relational community. We only get anywhere together. Individualism will not save you.
This is true in life and it’s true in the music industry. You can always tell when a “DIY band” is actually only out for themselves, and not there to support and build a scene. Those guys suck! Don’t be those guys! Be the sort of people who build and cultivate a community that will outlast you.
This is essentially why we have started a nonprofit to help working musicians called Holy Fool.
Holy Fool is a community of musicians and patrons committed to holding all things in common. We are building an alternative economy of generosity where we help working musicians carve out a financially sustainable lifestyle of creation.
We support working musicians with coaching, professional development, and an open, non-competitive network of mutual aid.
The norm in the music industry is a culture of competition, where there are winners and losers. You’re taught to hoard your resources and relationships and build your own brand. But we are learning to share all things, from borrowed amps to best practices. We are creating a more beautiful way of life together, where we give freely to each other, trusting that there will be enough for all.
If you’re driving distance from Denver and you’re free on the afternoon of Sunday June 8, I would invite you to come to our Denver Launch Party! Our friends at A Small Print Shop are hosting us! We’ll have some beverages, you’ll get to meet and hang out with some really kind and compassionate people, and we’ll talk a little bit about ways we can care for and support the working musicians among us. This event is open to anybody, even if you’re not a musician, or even if you’re not in the place financially to give a gift yet! If you’re invested in helping us build a beautiful scene together, we want you there!
If you can’t make the Denver Launch Party, I’d encourage you to make a donation to Holy Fool, if you can! We’re building a fund that we can give out as micro-grants to working musicians who need new gear, or need some cash to fix a broken down tour van, or to help with the cost of recording, etc.
Anyways, I love you. I hope you’re week is filled with meaningful work and the joy of belonging.
-Ben from Holy Fool
