The Genesee River Journey Project
What is it? How did it start?
As I respond to this present "call", here is what the vision or mission of this project is at this point in time.
1) Over a period of time, whatever that winds up being, I will walk a journey up the Genesee River from Lake Ontario up to the top of Letchworth State Park, and most likely continue to the point where the river starts somewhere in Pennsylvania. (I know there is a beautiful safe trail that will get me to the top of Letchworth.)
2) I will create a blog that incorporates photographic images and videos of what I have seen on my journey, along with any contemplations or soulful musings that occur. Anything goes. No preconceptions. No editing. No judgments. No restrictions. Free flow, just like the river.
3) I will create a series of songs that will come together as an "album" and most likely publish it to You Tube in a video format. We will see. Perhaps I'll organize a concert when I am done?
When I went for a hike on February 2, 2020, I had no intention of the trip being anything more than a good chance to do something healthy to get my body moving. So, I started off my hike along the Genesee River, where it meets Lake Ontario. From this place the moving waters continue on to the St. Lawrence River and finally, to the Atlantic Ocean. The headwaters flow downhill some 157 miles south of Lake Ontario in the hills of Pennsylvania.As I started walking along the wide harbor banks, my thoughts were not in the idle mode. It did not take long for them to shift into "inspired" mode. Sometimes it is described as a "call", as if there is a person or force outside of the self that is communicating directly to the soul. Thus, if you hear it, you are forced to respond to it. You can say "yes" or "no". I responded with an inspired "Hell yes!".
I am an artist, and my mediums are songwriting, journal writing, (since age 13) photography and video production. I play in a local bluegrass band, Kubick's Rubes, and even my work as a social worker at one of our local high schools incorporates input from my "artist self" on a daily basis.
I should mention that over the past few years, I have enjoyed the challenge of writing songs about local historical issues and interesting characters. In the days of old a particularly bad storm or bad person or heroic person inspired the creation of many good songs. Over the past five years, I have been writing songs about Rochester/regional history , but I have lacked a central planet with enough gravity to keep it all in together. Less than 20 minutes into my hike from the harbor front, it came upon me to use the river journey as a central structure for a new art project. One song I have already written was about the Hojack swing bridge that used to rest in the middle of the Genesee River at the Port of Rochester overlooking the infinity of the lake blue horizon line, our own regional version of the ocean.
So, like the dark night that makes you more of who you really are and less of who you thought you were, I embark upon this Genesee River Journey, writing this, my first blog, taking and sharing photographs, and putting together a dozen historical songs. My hope is that the project will evolve on its own and ripple out like a thrown stone into the mysterious waters, and anyone who chooses to go along with me here, will also be moved and altered by the mystery of the river and our Journey along its ancient winding path. If no one sees it, it will be just like the river as it silently flows at this night hour. No one is paying attention to it, but that doesn't stop it from flowing back to the source, from its source.