Tapestry

During my travels across the United States, Canada, and Japan in 2024, I was inspired by something I perceived in nearly every city I visited. I observed that people in these places were so very similar to each other. That is to say, I experienced what can only be described as the fundamental kinship which we all share. I truly witnessed every end of the spectrum in terms of wealth disparities, access to clean water and nutritious food, housing availability, and so on. In every city, though, one could feel that will to live, that most instinctual of impulses inherent in all living beings. We are all humans, sharing this planet with each other and with the many other species which call it home. The title Tapestry pays homage to this web of life, of which we are a strand. The music weaves in and out of different emotional states. At times anxious, others fierce and triumphant, we humans find ourselves surfing these emotional waves every day. The actions those emotions motivate us to take influence the tapestry of life all around us. Think of the butterfly effect: a butterfly flapping its wings one day changes the initial weather conditions just enough to generate a tornado some weeks later (the scholar Edward Norton Lorenz is credited with this). A bit of dialogue from a favorite video game character of mine gets at a similar idea poignantly, too: "Be careful of charity and kindness, lest you do more harm with open hands than a clenched fist…from such small things, from such critical points, the universe and its masses may be moved...that is why you must be careful in all that you do, and in every choice you make.” - Kreia, from Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords It is a startling possibility to consider, that a person’s intent to help might ultimately weaken the recipient. Of course, the opposite is true, and is likely more common. The same could be said of a “clenched fist” approach: one can find examples of this pressure actually helping people. For an example, the overreach of an oppressive regime can lead to a political revolution, which ultimately benefits a greater number of people. On the flip side, such a revolution can result in even worse conditions. Examples of both can be found throughout recorded history. The point is that every action has a consequence and not every outcome can be predicted. One must consider every significant action, and as many insignificant ones as possible, as potentially impactful on the world at large. Without venturing too far into the metaphysical, I believe that every single element of the universe is connected in some way or another beyond the crude matter we see in front of us. After all, if the Big Bang Theory is ultimately proven correct beyond all reasonable doubt, then everything we are made of came from the same single point of spacetime as everything else. Tapestry is my attempt to capture this complicated, yet paradoxically and beautifully simple, reality of life. - Evan Zegiel, 2024