'Til We Follow that North Star

Greetings from Berkeley. I’m here this week speaking with students and at an event with assembly member David Chiu, toward reducing medicine prices. I’m appreciating visiting friends.

Here is a new recording, “’Til We Follow that North Star.” It is a brief acoustic song I wrote years ago when I was a law student here. My days were quiet; I studied at the International House and ran in the redwooded hills, which look out to San Francisco and the Pacific beyond.

“North Star” called to mind the Appalachian region I’d left behind, and someone for whom I cared there. I think it is about the challenge of finding our place; a community and purpose. We may keep a constant in our lives, maybe a person, family or a town, to support us as we search. And we may use a constant outside us; a philosophy or fixed point as a guide.

When I wrote the song, I probably only partly understood that the goal is not really to find our place. That kind of certainty can be an illusion. The goal is merely to search. To undertake our journey, despite hardship and indignities, as completely as we can.
Maybe I knew this then. It is part of what culture teaches us. Yet I’ve found actually living with that sort of ambiguity to be a challenge of a different order. Still, it is deeply exciting now and then to renew the search.

For those of you in Washington, I’ll perform at Studio Gallery in Dupont on December 1^st, a Friday, and then with Notaries Public at the Velvet Lounge on U Street Thursday December 14^th. I have recording dates coming up and will be back with you shortly with a next song.

Thank you and stay in touch,
-Peter
maybarduk.com

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