Rick Seaholm

The first episode to consider a pair of complementary models of change opens with the Epiphany model, which for many people is the first thing they think of when asked to focus on “new beginnings”. This is a model about realizing that in the present you are unfulfilled. It may have been exactly as you planned, you might be good at it, you might even be praised for it, but for some reason you simply are unfulfilled, it’s just not doing it for you.

If you were truly alone in the world (impossible), you could just shift your focus immediately, and move on with life. But, given that we have those whom we hold dear, this is a very complicated situation. Those people will find themselves in a challenge of Unity, because your life is about to change and they reciprocally hold you dear.

What happens next is unique to each relationship, to be sure. The person on the receiving end of this news must decide if they are “for”, “against”, or if there is a delicate combination of the two.

I’ve always been taken by the concept of focusing on a single theme of discovery for a certain period of time. Of course that’s what school is all about, whether it be an elementary school class doing a “unit on” whatever or a tightly focused college course where you are meant to learn everything about one niche subject in 25 session hours or so (plus independent study and preparation). Once we’re out of our formal education though, we lose the “session hours” and are left with scattered hours of the independent study (for many, keeping up with the news or taking on a new hobby), often with no consideration that it is preparation for anything in particular. Some seek out book groups or film clubs while others just react to what is sent their way.

So, in 2023 I began thinking more formally about how the spirit of the academic life could help me to look at my life more clearly. I came upon a quote by Thoreau and it grabbed me.

You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this.

I felt as though Thoreau was speaking directly to me, living with Parkinson’s Disease where eternity is continually questioned and that island of opportunity feels like it passed us all by. It becomes too easy to say things like “I was going to make a difference” or “If only that hadn’t happened.”

That pattern of habitual inner speak can leave people feeling frozen. What we hoped for is clearly not here and may never come, we say to ourselves, so was it in vain? Is it a life never lived at all?

I said “No!” We’ve got our problems to deal with, you and me. There is much that can rightfully take over the personal news cycle. We may call today’s happenings good or bad but that can too often raise or lower our spirits too far off center when in effect, it’s really just that a bunch of stuff happened, we reacted to it somehow and now there’s other stuff.

By recognizing that we have “no other life”, we force ourselves to look at that life differently. Were you going to make a difference and did something unexpected happen? Could be, but you can still drive change, it just may be to a different audience or with different abilities. There’s no dress rehearsal. This is your life, what can you make of it?

Secondly, we can think about the phrase “no other life” as meaning that we are each completely unique in the world. You only need to think of a few defining characteristics of ourselves to realize that the life you lead is unique. All that you are, the things you feel good or bad about, are necessary to tell the story of you today. Learn more about yourself and own it all so that you can make that difference in the world that you originally dreamed of, before life got too real along the way.

So I decided to focus my thoughts on one topic and it began to feel like something I could truly figure out. I always say that there’s nothing you can’t figure out by thinking deeply. Season 1 was born. “New Beginnings” was what I hoped to understand more fully.

Through a focused spotlight introduction and a 12-episode podcast run, mixed with a variety of social posts I think I got myself there and hope it helped those following it all.

For the second outing, it’s all about discovering not only who we are but more importantly how we got there.

To the mix, I added a new podcast series which follows my own advice, taking a few things that make me unique and investing heavily in myself with reflections on music making as a method of dealing with Parkinson’s Disease. It’s easier to feel that “Pedey” is my overlord and I’m helpless in his clutches, but I find better things happen for me when I recognize “his” power and influence but then treat him only as a collaborator in this grand improvisation we call life.

In this inaugural episode of the podcast that accompanies the larger project called “No Other Life”, I offer an overview of the philosophy, and my goals for the podcast series in general.

We then begin to think about the theme of the first season, “New Beginnings”. Because of a lot of very difficult, hard to believe, even, occurrences this year, I’ve had occasion to sit down with the concept of change and “discovered” the obvious truisms that there are many types of change and that at any given time, we are responding to change in others even more than we are experiencing our own change.

There seem to be great overlap in the rudiments of individual change. I have come up with a group of eight which seem to encompass the majority of changes I have seen recently.

The basic definition of a “new beginning” is that an antecedent “project” that is already in production gives way to a project which causes a shift in our focus. It’s about to get real, see you in episode 2.

Over the course of the upcoming episodes, we will dig into the eight models, each paired with its complementary model.

2023, It’s been a tough one for me and many of those whom I hold dear. Early this year I began to explore composing as a tool for coping. You’ve heard some of that music here. But I found I still had much more to say and am now launching a project called No Other Life, in which I will dig deeply and honestly into some pretty heavy topics over the course of a season. With this autumnal equinox I invite you to share with me as we develop the tools to help others as well all process our own “New Beginnings”.

At the time that I started the project, it was my full intention to let the project breathe a bit, to see how people responded and in what ways and places. I am thrilled at how popular it got and the ways in which it inspired people. Season 2 is slated to begin airing with the vernal equinox, March 2024.

Early this year, when I released “Snowrise”, I was approached by a high school friend I hadn’t spoken to in well over twenty-five years. I had followed his work early in social media days and thus knew him primarily as an excellent visual artist. He told me that he was starting a new podcast series for 2023 and was soliciting guests. He called it a podcast about artists and their inspiration. I was sold but at that point in time I was dealing very heavily with the health scares in my family that would eventually make their way onto my first album release. Fortunately, my buddy allowed me to table the appearance until Bluewing was released and that was a large part of the conversation, but we also went into Parkinson’s, The Simpsons, our shared love of hip-hop, and thus a new exciting partnership would develop between us.

This post is the working copy of a sermon I gave at Edwards Church, UCC in Framingham, MA on August 20, 2017. The live version deviates a bit, in that I was not reading from these notes. (PDF)

“For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function,so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.” (Romans 12:4-5, NRSV)

It’s been well-stated that I can suffer from a distracted mind. I focus on “what’s next” and how quickly I can get through the current activity or task. Sometimes that is to my great advantage. I’ve been heralded by every supervisor I’ve ever had for being the “most efficient” employee each has ever seen. And I don’t doubt that’s true. At work, one of my greatest strengths is being able to live with an existing system for a certain period of time, before I instinctively determine what is essential, and what can be altered. Soon enough I have a new workflow which may reduce production time (and headaches) several-fold. Then, I get to enjoy the task of seeing what else can be crammed into a work day that previously had seemed like it had too few hours.

Facebook post from July 11, 2020

Last year I was diagnosed with Young Onset Parkinson’s Disease. I had been to a variety of specialists, peddling a variety of symptoms, for a few years prior, and not one of them had a clue because no one is looking for PD in a forty year old. But I persisted, certain it was all related. I’m grateful for my neurologists who finally connected the dots and have led my team ever since. I never stop reading and learning about my condition, and, armed with a list of symptoms which will serve as my bingo card as this develops, I realize this has been quietly with me a very long time.

So, this morning as I was inexplicably drawn to Facebook Memories for the first time in ages, I saw that I am at a milestone day here. 10 years since a mysterious nerve discomfort was noticed and aggravated by a weekend of casual video gaming. I am now quite familiar with that arm nerve discomfort. For a while I would announce his arrival to my wife. “Pedey’s about,” I would say. But he’s since moved in permanently with us and she simply knows. I can’t imagine the emotional, helpless toll that must take on her everyday.

I didn’t ever post my diagnosis here until now. It’s never been a secret amongst people I see in real life, and some relationships have grown stronger with those who are willing to talk. I have been fed up with FB for the same reasons as all of you, and typing is a lot harder for me now. But this Memories post inspired me to plug away at this for an hour. I possibly will begin to include my PD reflections with the others I usually think worthy of posting, not for pity (as the original post jokingly requested), but because transparency is my watchword. So far, we’ve done a good job of facing this with humor and gratitude. My wife is my biggest supporter as anyone who knows her would expect. She ribs me just the right amount and I laugh the hardest of all. It’s given me a chance to cherish all the activities that I can still do, and has authorized me to slow down and enjoy those that are legitimate forms of physical and neurological therapy (origami, piano, woodworking, yard work, gardening, among them), all while observing (but not judging, as my yoga instructors say) those activities which are only going to become more challenging. It’s really weird to think that this is as good as it will get for me, by true definition of “degenerative”, but I am doing all I can to slow its progression and foundations are raising money for scientists to perform research.

In all that’s wrong with the world right now, you’ve got to try to stay hopeful or you’ll lose your mind. Right? That’s what we’re supposed to be doing these days? Right?

The sun’s out. The birds are chirping. And I’m loved. That’s where I’ll place focus today.

Rick Seaholm

Epiphany & Unity Models

What’s “No Other Life” All About?

Introduction

Introducing No Other Life’s Podcast

Appearance on Articulate OX Podcast

Another Town

Bluewing.

A Mirror, Dimly

Being There

My New Battle

Facebook post from July 11, 2020

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