There Are No Accidents: A Philosophical Look At “It Might Get Loud”

Have you ever watched a movie that made such an impression on you that you couldn’t help but ponder the essential beauty of it for days? It doesn’t happen very often, so when it does you kind of feel your heart racing and your mind churning in a million directions all at once. That’s kind of what happened to me as I was watching this feature film called, “It Might Get Loud” starring The Edge (aka David Evans) from U2, Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin, and Jack White from The White Stripes.  Filming these three guys “talking shop” must have been a fascinating bit of music history. But watching these guys talk was like gaining an education on the history of rock music. No matter what you think about these guys, “It Might Get Loud” resonates.

The story begins with Jack White constructing an instrument out of practically nothing to create a rudimentary electric guitar.  And as the story develops these Rock and Roll icons (for lack of a better term) talk about their history and the stories of how they got to be rock stars. Now it was fascinating to listen to each of them talk about their humble beginnings and then hear about how they eventually rose to the tops of their professions, but it was the story that was told by Jimmy Page that just blew my mind.  In the story Jimmy talked about how he came upon his first guitar.  Apparently, when he was a child, his family moved into a home that also happened to have a guitar that was left behind by the family that lived there before them. Jimmy mentions this almost haphazardly. It was as if maybe even Jimmy Page himself didn’t understand the significance of a guitar being there for him to find. But there it was – almost as if the guitar was waiting for him and the rest, as they say, is history.  For the rest of the movie, I sat there trying to shake the idea of what if his family moved into a home without a guitar?  What would have become of Jimmy Page?  And if you’re paying attention to the evolution of music, if there was no Jimmy Page, what would have become of David Evans and Jack White?  Now a rational person might suggest that it’s not as crazy as all that.  His parents could have bought him a guitar at some point and then nothing would have changed.  But as Jimmy told the story of his other childhood interests, he could have just as easily become a scientist or a different kind of artist all together.  But for me, the idea can be summed up as follows: is there such a thing as destiny?  Because the story of how a boy found a guitar is certainly a compelling one if you ask me.

You see, I’m a “what does it all mean?” kind of guy.  I’m constantly trying to put things into some sort of context that makes sense. I’m the kind of person that will review (in my mind) a breakup that happened fifteen years ago and tell myself that it meant something deep. After all, the hurt was deep and a lot of great art came out of it – probably. Art that I would never show you, mind you. So of course it’s easy to put things that are behind us into a clearer context than the things that are happening to us at this very moment.  Of course it’s easier.  It’s easier because our minds like to put things into categories of importance.  It’s how we’re built. My ex-girlfriend, however, is a great example of a historical shape shifter. Her meaning is often changing as are many of the details that dealt with the context of our time together. But then again, she wasn’t a “guitar.” Other events are much more easily defined. Events such as weddings, funerals, births etc are just a few examples of how easily and clearly some things can be to categorize because they’re clearly “just” events. Significant events, but events none the less. Events are why books are written. But girlfriends are why songs are written.

In any case, while watching “It Might Get Loud,” I couldn’t help but think about the idea of whether or not there was a “guitar” in my past that somehow was driving my future.  You see this is where things start to get interesting for the rest of us regular non rock star folks that wonder about the significance of our own lives and whether or not we’re really living to our potential much less our destiny.  Are we able to put our lives into a grander context or do we common folk need to place things into a whole separate category?  I would wager that those that don’t necessarily believe in one destiny are probably right, generally speaking.  Because if you try to decipher things too early in your life you can fall into the paralysis of analysis and never allow yourself to explore what’s out there.  And of course the other side of the coin is that, people of destiny, don’t just share a magic “guitar” in their past mind you.  People of destiny are also people that are so driven and single minded that they can’t see anything else except that “guitar.”  They literally know nothing else except what they are doing.  So asking what drives us is a scary question because not everyone really knows.  And it takes us on an uncomfortable path of wondering if there are multiple paths or destinies or even a greater plan that might dictate not just who we are, but who we will become.  Talk about a mind job (or replace job with whatever other adjective you want).  But are we living our lives to our potential?  Are we living each moment with purpose?  Meaning, if we were to look back, would we be able to see our “guitar” in a room of a house that you or I moved into during our childhood and realize that the rest of our days were all leading to this very moment in which you’re sharing these thoughts with me.  But also, if you look back, can you see all of the events that were purposeful and filled with a kind of single minded exploration that makes you more of a believer than a skeptic?  If you asked me a year ago, I would have sided with the skeptics.

As I write this, I celebrate the anniversary of leaving my longtime government job and going on my own journey of sorts.  I often tell people that the scariest decision that I’ve ever made was deciding to leave what was comfortable and taking a huge leap by stepping into (what is still) the unknown.  A year later, I still have no idea what that sentence really means because all I can really say is that I’ve lived the entire year in a world of uncertainty.  You see my government job was my source of comfort, but it was also my crutch.  It was the reason I never became the person I wanted to be and it was also the reason I could justify that sometimes a story about a “guitar” is simply a story about a guitar.  But if there is a destiny, I think there are times when looking back that you clearly see that “guitar” that was left just for us.  For me, my “guitar” was a book by Erwin McManus entitled “Soul Cravings.”  I can tell how I got it and what it meant to read it but I assure you it would sound like the ramblings of a crazy person or how one thing led to another that led to another which eventually led to me leaving my “safe” job.  I promise, it would sound insane.  Besides, all of those things I can’t talk about in a context that makes sense yet.  Maybe because time has yet to give me its permission, but I can truly say that that book was my “guitar.”  A year ago I was sitting at a desk getting yelled at by crack heads that were having their benefits discontinued and exactly one year later I can say life is completely different.  A lot can happen in a year.  And all I can do is try to imagine my life without the benefit of Erwin McManus’s words.  Who would I be then?  Would you even be reading this or something like this?  Maybe not from me.  And I don’t know if that matters.  But let’s turn this up to eleven and imagine a world in which Jimmy Page was not playing guitar for Led Zeppelin.  Who would he be?  Who would they be, if anything?  It still blows my mind.

by Paul Stamat