Just Kids

A book review in The Atlantic about Patti Smith's new book Bread of Angels prompted me to borrow Patti Smith's first book, Just Kids from the library, as I thought I would read that novel first before her newest effort. I was extremely happy I did.

For those of you who are not familiar with Patti Smith, and I include myself in that category, she is an incredibly versatile, talented woman who has mostly flew under the radar during her prolific career. Yes, her debut album Horses was met with wide acclaim for its originality and depth, but she is so much more than a rock star, punk rock star at that.

Born in 1946, Smith was one of the many millions of babies born after the atrocities of WW2. I believe it is a given that the horrible acts committed during that world wide conflict, led to millions of people to seek joy and a new perspective after such a horrific conflict, creating what we now call the baby boomer generation. To put numbers to it, in the eighteen years generally considered the baby boomer generation, 1946 to 1964, about 76 million babies were born to an American  population that was about 140 million in 1945. Talk about replacement theory! 

Just Kids recounts Smith's childhood days, her struggles in school, and her early search for her identity, a search which eventually takes her to New York City. It is there that she meets Robert Mapplethorpe, the yin to her yang.

As someone who often thought he was born a bit too late, having just missed the 60's and the social upheavals that fashioned the lives of those who entered that decade as teenagers rather than infants, I devoured this book imagining myself traversing the challenges of developing an artistic identity while working in menial jobs to pay the bills. 

This is not to say that Smith glorified those early days. To the contrary, bouts with lice and hunger, uncertainty about shelter, while seemingly the stereotypical experience of the struggling artist, were presented as the daily difficulties that she faced, often with tears and depression.

It is an honest depiction which does not ask for pity for the bad times or express a "I-knew-it-would-all-work-out" false bravado when she does start to achieve some success. 

Sadly, the book, although written in 2010, ends with the death of Mapplethorpe in 1989. In fact, Smith recounts the deaths of many of her acquaintances during that time, not to mention her reactions at the deaths of more famous people like Jim Morrison and Janis Joplin, among others. Although Smith is married to the late Fred Sonic Smith by then, and has two children, the loss of Mapplethorpe is palpable. She often states in the book that Mapplethorpe considered her his muse, but it is obvious that without his influence she would have never succeeded. Losing someone like that is true loss.

In my musings about being born in Smith's time, I wonder if I would have gravitated to New York's artistic scene, or perhaps California's campus protests. Smith only passingly touches on the Vietnam War, and as far as I can remember does not mention losing any friends to that overseas conflict although peak loss of American soldiers lives was from 1966 to 1970, which means that in took the lives of her contemporaries, people born between 1946 and 1950.

Of course, it is just as possible that I would not have survived those years. That like many of her friends I would have succumbed to a drug overdose or disease through an experimental homosexual encounter. Or perhaps I would have fled to Canada rather than serve in an immoral war, or fled merely because I was afraid to die. 

Another reason, a harsh truth if you will, to pretend that I would have pursued a writer's life had I been born eight or ten years earlier is to provide an excuse for not doing it regardless of my birth year. I certainly had the opportunity to follow a path of creativity in the years after I dropped out of college to "find my myself". Perhaps it was just a lack of discipline and persistence and focus. 

The good news is that I wouldn't trade my current life for these what-ifs. My life with my dear wife Nora, and the two children we raised, would never have occurred were it not for my path which resulted from the hand I was dealt by the birth lottery, and the decisions I made as I navigated my "life".

All of which increases my admiration for Patti Smith as she saw it through, stayed true to her belief that she had something to say, that all those early experiences added together enhanced her ability to create, to entertain, and to inspire others through her music and poetry. 

And, if I may be so bold to say, helps fuel my continued maintenance of this blog which is now approaching sixteen years of existence.   

It seems to be a very fine line which separates those who become famous in the worlds of music, art, writing, etc, and those who toil all their lives just below the point of "making it", who continue to write, perform, create, just for the love of it, and just to share it, and perhaps, at the odd moment, inspire someone as well. 

We are all the luckier for both those whose names are well known and those who create without achieving fame or fortune, especially when so many of the latter become teachers and mentors for those who are just beginning their own life paths. 

And, without appearing too metaphysical, I wonder if it the latter group will experience the more complete reward in the next life, the former having attained their reward in this one. 

Finally, two quotes from the book.

"In the war of magic and religion, is magic the ultimate victor? Perhaps priest and magician were once one, but the priest, learning humility in the face of God, discarded the spell for prayer." page 61.

Smith often touches on religion and spirituality, a result of her Catholic upbringing and her insatiable quest for truth.

"I learned from him that often contradiction is the clearest way to truth." page 200.

This quote appears towards the end of the book, as Mapplethorpe comes to grips with his homosexuality and his fear that by accepting that trait, it would deligitimize their relationship. That being categorized as a gay man would mean that his deep connection with Patti Smith, physically, emotionally, spiritually, would be deemed some type of false experience.