For the past 10 months, in my capacity as a writer, I’ve been working with a group of local artists to promote their activities and annual fall tour, coming up this weekend, the Off The Beaten Path Studio Tour.
Aptly named, by inference it also describes the lifestyles they and we have chosen by living here in rural Tennessee. I guess to some our landscape of deep woods, hills and hollows, creeks and dirt roads might sound idyllic. It’s a way of life, like any other with its own challenge and rewards.
I think, though, there’s something we all draw from our surroundings, an abiding peace against the chaos that so often seems to define modern life. Sure it intrudes this far, but then there’s the landscape, and buckets of stars at night to re-orient our personal compass.
We chose to be here, accepted the good and bad of rural life. And though we all aspire to the financial rewards success in our respective arts may bring, there’s a success we already enjoy in choosing our way and making a life on our terms. I guess that’s the most important thing to be found by those who wander “off the beaten path.”
I’m getting older now, and over the past summer I’ve done a lot of reflecting on the life we’ve made for ourselves here. It’s not been easy, and economic hardship is one of the realties of trying to make your way in a creative endeavor so far removed from the maddened crowd.
But there’s a personal Utopia that can be realized in places like this, as well. As long as you don’t infringe on your neighbors, you’re free make life on your terms, whatever they be, wherever you see North.
For those who follow their hearts, a fulfilling proposition
