Mingus Syndrome
You say you haven't been productive?
I recently blogged about what I’d been up to in 2022. A few folks have since asked “how do you manage to do so much?”
Well, firstly, I’m unemployed. I have a lot of free time.
Secondly, did I really do a lot? Feels like I ought to have done more.
Thirdly, and here’s the thing: did y’all really do so little?
We tend to underestimate how much we get done, especially when compared to others. Time passes differently when you’re living in it. A kid who forever hears “how you’ve grown!” rarely notices themself growing.
I call this tendency “Mingus Syndrome”, after an anecdote in Charles Mingus’s autobiography Beneath the Underdog1.
Charles was locked in Bellevue mental hospital, playing chess with a young Bobby Fischer (who later became world chess champion), when the following took place:
I showed him what I had just wrote. He looked very thoughtful, and said, "I don't have time to hear everything, but I'm interested in music and keep abreast of what's happening. It's odd you say you haven't been productive. It seems to me you have several, let's see", and he counted in his head, "I'd say six or seven albums that came out last year. That isn't bad."
I was amazed, but he was right, and I realised last year seemed like ten years ago to me.2
Time is subjective. Work to your own schedule. Good things will come.
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Dan 🗿 Peakrill Press 🍄 Mycoleum
Beneath the Underdog is one of the best books I’ve ever read. I recommend it to everyone, whether or not you’re interested in Mingus, or Jazz, or music. You can buy it here (if you’re in the UK) which supports independent bookshops (and pays me a few pennies). Or you can buy it at the evil place named after a South American river here.
You can hear Robbie Robertson tell an extended version of this anecdote on Canon Part 2 from Hal Willner’s excellent all-star Mingus tribute album Weird Nightmare: Meditations on Mingus (which features everyone from Keith Richards to Diamanda Galas, from Chuck D to Henry Rollins, from Vernon Reid to Mark Ribot).