Tricky Sol

Every time someone strums a banjo in Nashville or a rock guitar screams through stadium speakers, you're hearing the echo of the greatest heist in cultural history. From the banjo's African origins to rock and roll's Black pioneers, American music was built by Black hands—but the wealth it generated was systematically diverted elsewhere. Recognition without reparation is just another form of exploitation.

Before there were words, there was rhythm. Before cave paintings, there were bone flutes. Music didn't happen to us—music made us. That unconscious head nod when the bass drops isn't a casual response; it's evidence of the invisible river flowing through you, connecting you to humanity's oldest technology for creating meaning, building community, and conjuring the spirit that makes us most fully human.

We're taught to think in straight lines—progress, growth, liberation—as if you level up and never look back. But that's not how anything actually works. Everything that matters oscillates: sacred and profane, creation and destruction, the versions of yourself you're becoming and leaving behind.

A chance encounter with Billy Joel's "Movin' Out" in a store led to an unsettling realization: his 1977 critique of the American Dream wasn't just commentary—it was prophecy. In 2025, as people flee hostile states, question complicity in global crises, and reject systems designed to extract everything while giving nothing back, Joel's message about refusing to grind yourself to death for things that don't serve you has evolved from personal liberation to collective resistance

Seven blogs. Seven invitations to remember what we've been taught to forget: that our bodies hold wisdom, that sovereignty means conscious connection not isolation, and that the sacred lives in every corner of our lives—from the dance floor to the dinner table. This isn't philosophy to study; it's a framework to embody, weaving together the fragments of ourselves that the world demands we keep separate.

It's interesting how the most passionate attraction can exist alongside complete emotional disconnection—how someone can set your body on fire yet leave your soul feeling cold. This complicated reality is where most of us live: somewhere between easy desire and the difficult work of devotion.