Courtney Pauls- Flow

In class one day, we talked about Flow. Victor Tuner talked a little bit about flow in Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture. Flow occurs when action and awareness merge. He say that flow can occur with communitas because people lets their egos go. One can experience flow in sports or performing arts, just to name a few. I have experienced flow during a performance a few times, but one events stands out. I was playing at the CNU Jazz Combo concert last fall and it was me, a drummer, a bass player, a guitarist, and a piano player. We were playing a song called “Red Clay” and it was one of my favorites. I had been working on my improvisational skill all semester and “Red Clay” was a song where I had a huge solo. In jazz music, most of the time a person takes a solo for as long as they wish and then just nod the group on after they finish. When it was my time to solo, I just took off. Everything seemed to be falling into place and it was so much fun. I remember as I was soloing, I was thinking, “What am I doing? There is no way I am playing like this.” It was an out-of-body experience. Flow is a powerful thing and everyone should experience it at least once in their lives.