A Love Supreme - John Coltrane (1965)
It’s hard to turn off the analytical side of my brain. My neurodivergence is the kind where the logical, rational, measuring, and quantifying side is constantly crowding out the sense of wonder I should be feeling for being alive in a world that is constantly emerging into something new. It’s occasionally handy (and an okay way to make a living) but is largely a nuisance.
One of the ways I’ve found to tamp down this left-brainedness (a myth, I know; but a useful metaphor aaaaaand there I go again) is music. It can keep me in the moment in a way that other experiences can’t, especially when there’s more to concentrate on than counting the beat.
Maybe Coltrane had similar problems. He was certainly a cerebral man who put an amazing amount of knowledge and method and planning into his music. But he also used that gift to make things that couldn’t be easily analyzed or broken down; There was always a spirituality along with the technicality, blending the two in sublime ways that speak to me across the decades.
Coltrane’s vision of God’s love is one I’m on board with.
