Title: A Lamp Unto Oneself

Gender: Male

Age: 40

Sun Sign: Aries

Chinese Sign: Earth Monkey

Location: Atlanta, MI

I've always loved brave and ballsy people. Not just people who talk a good game, but those who walk it. So how could I be anything less? How could I not push myself to be the best I can be, to strive for excellence, to make myself an open vessel through which raw lightning passes?
 
Truth is, I am not interested in pussy-footing around when it comes to human genuis and creativity. I sincerely want to write the best songs the world has ever heard–given the skills I have. I want to touch people in ways that they didn't know they could be touched. I want to both heal those who need healing and upset those who need to be upset.

Above all, I strive to be anything other than mediocre. And this goes for whether I am writing songs to be sung, or I am writing essays, or I am writing an e-book, or a traditional book. Living in such a way that there is an ongoing, open invitation to bring to the table whatever is, at that very moment, and have those simple and clear facts transformed into something beautiful, truthful, revealing, sympathetic, touching, and resonant is what I am all so earnest about. To capture the moment and give it expression in the form of a song. To convey human emotion in the form of words. To be so starkly honest and revealing that the utter Truth shines through whatever I am blessed to give birth to is why I live.

Like yourself, I am not happy and content being anything less than real. If that means shedding tears when I am touched by someone else's personal struggles, then that is what will make me happy and content. Or if it means writing a song that portrays the struggles of a young man too young to die in War (and what young man isn't always too young to die in War) then that is what makes existence meaningful and significant.

The other-side of wanting to be real, honest and authentic relative to What Is is for the purpose of serving as an inspiration to others to ballsy and brave in the face of those powers that would conspire to have us deny who we are, and what we are living with. I want to encourage everyone to be the best they are, by being who they are and not running from the circumstances and conditions of their peculiar and idisyncratic life. 'Embrace it!' I say. Embrace it and out of that embrace is generated a form of love-making that creates and gives birth to Beauty, Truth, and Goodness. Make love to your circumstances. Be penetrated by the Source and Suchness of this…. no matter where you are…. or who you think you are capable of being. Trust me. It is all you need for the next step, for the Magnificence to be revealed to you. Just allow it to f*&k you to the point where there is given that release that opens up everything so that there is only the Sheer Luminousity of the Obvious Glory and Grace of One and All. 

For you are already the best You the world will ever know. There is no comparison. That's why I am able to say that I know I will write and perform the best songs the world will ever hear. Because no one can do what I do. Just as no one else can do what you do. There is no competition. There is only the Glory of no-second place!


That's my motivation. Now, here is the nitty-gritty. The personal info. The details. Where the devil is said to lie.

I have fulfilled a dream of writing a traditional book (two, in fact), as well as an e-book. I also have 4 unpublished manuscripts waiting for the perfect time to hatch into the world. This period of intense writing followed the recording of an instrumental album way back in 1990.

(Here's a quick preview of future songs to be sung.) 

That's part of the career/vocational side of me–along with being a builder/jack-of-all-trades/lumberjack who lives in the woods of Northern Michigan, and does so in a spirit similar to one of my spiritual mentors, Henry David Thoreau. And it is that name that will maybe get us somewhere in this profile. Henry David Thoreau. You see, I was just a guy with a girlfriend back when I was 25. It was 1993 and I was required to read Walden for a college course entitled 'Religion In America.' It was my first semester of school after being in the United States Navy. I read that book and something stirred in me so profoundly I have never recovered!!  ; o ) I am sure you know the feeling… very well, right? It's that moment when life changes forevermore. I couldn't resist the call. So I moved from my home in St. Louis and was fortunate enough to find a very eco-friendly little Hamlet in the North of Michigan (ironically enough, called 'Atlanta') where I have made my home ever since.

Because of my reading of Thoreau–or what was triggered within me through his exeprience shared in literature–I have set out to live a bare-bones, passionate existence that holds nothing back; that revels in Nature; that pursues a Sane Vision; that embodies the basic goodness of what this-world both gives to us as well as takes away–as Death too teaches us an important lesson in surrender and letting go. 

Currently I am also in the midst of adjusting to Fatherhood(pleasantly I might add!), as my first child, Uriah Zen Peckinpaugh was born on January 25th 2006. Now already 6 months old Uriah is already teaching me how to be a better man. I am still working on several writing projects (two new books are in the works), recording new songs all the time, continuing to play guitar and sing in a rock-and-roll cover-band–Black Sheep–that you can find frequenting the clubs and bars here in Northern Michigan, along with (as if I have anymore time to give!) helping to build a house for the local Doctor in town here.

Needless to say, I am ambitious. I am happiest when I am creating or helping others create. Maybe it is the Westerner in me–but just sitting doing nothing is not my style. Yes, I need down-time now and then. But in the final analysis, I would much prefer a life of intensely pursuing a dream to 'seeing through' the illusory nature of dreaming itself. So, I'll take a Western main-course of creativity, with a side of Eastern contemplation.   ; o ) 

Yours in Spirit & Song,
David Jon Peckinpaugh  

Member Since: Monday, February 27 2006

Last Visit: 9 days ago.

Profile Viewed: 8588 times (last viewed less than a minute ago)