Heart History: Acupuncture, Blues

I love this song:

Divin' Duck Blues

If the river was whiskey
And I was a divin' duck
Baby if the river was whiskey
And I was a divin' duck
I would dive to the bottom,
Lord knows, and I would never come up

You know the sun gonna shine
In my back yard someday
I say that old sun gonna shine
In my back yard someday
And the wind gonna rise up
And blow my blues away

Well now the little girl I been lovin'
She got hair that shine like Klondike gold
Well the little girl I been lovin'
Sweet mama got hair shine like Klondike gold
She got a lien on my body
Got a mortgage on my soul

Well you know I'm gwine to Memphis
Just to see my pony run
Well I'm gwine to Memphis baby
Just to see my pony run
If I win some money little girl
Sho nuff I'll bring you some

My favorite recording of it is by Rising Sons, the Taj Mahal & Ry Cooder what if? LA band from the mid-60's. Here is the link on Rhapsody if you want to listen (and it really is painless to download the software needed):

http://www.rhapsody.com/risingsons/risingsonsfeaturingtajmahalrycooder/i...

So why is this song one of my all-time favorites? Because to me there is a remarkable range of emotion hiding behind its drinking-my-sorrows-away lyrics. To me the writer (and the band in this case too) is totally heartfelt, meaning he is living life to its fullest. I just love the commitment. Its something that I strive for in what I do too. That includes Acupuncture. When I treat someone I try to be totally there with them. To be as intimate as possible. Sometimes that can be um scary? uncomfortable? There's that edge in life that I see this song points to that is present in our lives all the times if we choose to find it.

There's another, lesser reason I love Divin' Duck Blues. Who wrote it is unknown. Credit is normally given to Sleepy John Estes, one of those old Blues musicians from the South in the 1920's, but the website the Temple of Blues says,

[i]"I have always associated "Diving Duck Blues" with Sleepy John Estes, who recorded it in 1929 Yank Rachell. But I just looked in the liner notes of a Estes compilation that I have on the French label "Femeaux records." The notes claim that "Diving Duck Blues" is derived from an old Irish song, including the famous line "If the river was whiskey and I was a diving duck, I would dive to the bottom and never come up." [/I]

(Link will be given below.)

So possibly the origin of the song is lost in the mists of time. Or to put it another way, the same person I linked to just above also wrote another sentence:

[i]"Tracing the origins of blues classics often takes one into a seemingly endless and complicated maze. The absence of recordings before the 1920s, together with the fact that the majority of early blues musicians did not record at all, makes the documentation of blues history quite difficult. "[/i]

Actually this whole page is instructive here. But before I give you the link, try this game: Substitute the word "acupuncture" for "blues". The ensuing sentence to me rings true.

Do the same type of substitution with the next sentence:

[i]"Trying to understand the origins of classic blues compositions can often be frustrating, particularly because there has never been a shortage of musicians ready to claim any blues classic as their own."[/i]

THAT sure is true in the acupuncture field IMHO. Okay here's the whole page:

http://www.templeofblues.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=76

So to me there's a law of diminishing returns at work for scholars. If you spend too much time in intellectual pursuit of some things, like in this case history of either Acupuncture or the Blues, you lose its essence and you wind up bickering. That's because the pursuit becomes too head-oriented; the scholar's heart is lost. Thats not to say all science is off the mark. For instance in Physics a theory must have Elegance in some way. That Elegance is Beauty, a heart quality.

But historians can sometimes run afoul of not having heart in what they are pursuing. Did a guy named Lao Tzu ever exist? Does it make a difference? Of course not. The purpose of reading Lao Tzu is not to discern if he did live but to put your whole being into what is written. Same with the Yellow Emperor as Crack Acupunk Mats Sexton basically says here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seypgXhdEr8

To me there's this whole huge variety in the medicine that we practice. Most of it we Americans have no clue of. We don't even have a full understanding of what's written in China. Then you get to all the stuff that's never been written down, some of which is practiced today... there's so much to study... so much to research...

Then I remember that Acupuncture only works for me when its alive in my heart and I'm Present with my patient.

If the river was whiskey
And I was a divin' duck
Baby if the river was whiskey
And I was a divin' duck
I would dive to the bottom,
Lord knows, and I would never come up