19 Comments
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Amy Paturel's avatar

Beautiful! Love all of it. And this: "There is a natural and unavoidable cruelty in it, like watching a baby antelope being torn apart by a predator." Brilliant!

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Jimmy Gardner's avatar

I somehow liked this comment without seeing it. Haha. Thank you, Amy!

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Micah's avatar

Dude,

Thank you for writing this. I’ve been wanting to put myself back out there after experiencing a death on stage and I think I’ll reread it the day of to remind myself of the lessons you’ve learned.

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Jimmy Gardner's avatar

Thank you for reading man! I've got nothing but love for people brave enough to get up there and go after it. Especially those who keep doing it. It's hard to remember why you love it sometimes when shit gets hard. Best of luck! Let me know how it goes. Rooting for you!

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Will Boucher's avatar

this speaks to me on so many levels. learning how to write for me has been like learning a new instrument as well--an instrument I want to protect from the toxicity I let sully music for me

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Jimmy Gardner's avatar

I feel the same way. Being able to approach writing with perspective on what my relationship to music became has been incredibly liberating.

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Will Boucher's avatar

100%

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Obsidian Blackbird.'s avatar

Nice bro - Do you like John Craigie?

I was a comedian and actor in my Early 20s...

Comedy is hard - Dying is easy...

I swapped it out to be a grief / trauma counsellor and detox specialist... a middle ground maybe :)

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Jimmy Gardner's avatar

I haven't listened to him. I'll check him out! And yeah, man. Comedy is a whole other beast. I've been having fun exploring it with writing but I can't imagine doing it on stage. That's awesome about you doing counseling. I'm actually in school right now getting a degree in it and am planning on working in the recovery field

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Lowen Behold's avatar

Beautiful article, Jimmy! I’m still a kitchen-singer and a budding songwriter. Love hearing about your experiences.

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Jimmy Gardner's avatar

Thank you, Lowen! Songs still fall out of me from time to time. The experience is so different from writing essays and fiction.

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sonja ringo's avatar

What a fantastic read this was - thank you for sharing your story, beautifully woven 🥰

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Jimmy Gardner's avatar

Thank you for reading!

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C.S. Mee's avatar

wonderful, again.

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Dev's avatar

Still love this. Your VOICE. 🖤

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Jimmy Gardner's avatar

You're the best 🥰

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Amy Paturel's avatar

yes she is!

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Jimmy Gardner's avatar

Let's start a fanclub and get tshirts made

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Amy Paturel's avatar

I'm in!

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