The Myth of the Gong Police
I remember when martial artist Bruce Lee died. There were rumors that he was actually killed by some disgruntled monks who were not happy that he was giving away the secrets of kung-fu to the West! Conspiracy Theories aside, there is a similar rift within the Gong community, along the lines of, some people are using the Gongs for the wrongs reasons, or, some people just don’t play the Gongs right. And the self appointed Gong Police have taken it upon themselves to inform those wrong doers of their wrong doing! WTF?
So who appointed the Gong Police to their position and what are they guarding the rest of us from?
It all seems so silly to me because, if anything, the Gong is a unifying instrument. And the last time I checked, there was no Gong School giving out diplomas and licensing people to play the Gong. The beauty of the Gong is anyone can play it, with no special skill required! While I do give Gong workshops and lessons, one of the first things I say is that “this is what I do. You might want to do it differently.” And that’s one of the beautiful things I have discovered when meeting other Gong players: we each have our own thing happening!
So a while back, the Gong Police contacted me saying they weren’t happy with my conduct. And my response was, “Fine, but there’s room for everybody.” So I just keep on doing what I do. And all of you should just keep doing what you do, and following your hearts/spirit/muses, because that’s what it’s all about.
"I never understood what rules I was supposed to learn, and what rules I was supposed to break" ~ Morton Feldman
"I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones. " ~ John Cage
~ MB
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