Thursday, June 27, 2013
Getting High On Life
Getting High On Life
While
some people turn to drugs and alcohol to escape the realities of their lives,
Charles Segal only needs his music and people to make him “high” . Rather than
escape actuality, Charles embraces it. He chooses the chills he gets from music
over the numbness caused by substances.
Though
Charles was always too consumed with his art to ever allow drugs to overtake
him, he recounts a time in his life when he was exposed to the temptation when
he was prescribed a potent sleep aid to help him get through a messy divorce
and custody battle. As an answer to his despair, his doctor gave him two Mandrax
tablets, but, after experiencing the effects of the first one, he vowed to
never take drugs again.
Upon
taking the tablet, Charles says he felt invincible. “I felt like Superman… like
I could have flown off the balcony if I had wanted to.” However uninhibited the
drug made him feel, Charles was acutely aware of a sense of darkness within himself.
“I knew this wasn’t right,” says Segal. He put the second pill in his wallet,
where it stayed for an entire year, only coming out after a musician friend offered
to pay Charles $1,000 for it. Charles was amazed at the value someone would put
on the chance to get chemically high! Of
course, he flushed the tablet and returned to his black and white keys for
solace.
Charles
has relied on the black and white of his piano as therapy in troubled times in the same way he fought the
dark in his life through producing light in his music. He wrote, “My Children,
My Wife,” in wake of his devastating divorce and custody loss, and won a
coveted SARI Award (South African equivalent to a Grammy) for Song of the Year
in 1973. (This song is attached to this
blog.) It is the burden of an artist to
allow their pain to be translucent to the world, but one cannot feel utter
happiness without also feeling true sadness. Charles acknowledges his pain was
a gift in that it allowed him to produce music that touched the lives of those
who heard it.
Charles’s
advice for those struggling with boredom, loneliness or other sadness, is to take
responsibility for finding the light in their lives. He
feels one should seek something they can be passionate about, to be with them
through both hardships and good experiences. Passion may present itself in many
forms, but as Charles says, “Find something you like to do, and try to be the
best at it. If you want to be Tarzan… go and be Tarzan. Swing from the vines
and talk to the monkeys. But try to be the best.”
Though
love and passion came to Charles at a young age in the form of music, anyone
can look to him as a testament to how age does not affect the philosophy by
which one lives; and a fulfilled life is not dependent on external things. Charles
began playing music as a child when he was inspired by his mother’s mandolin
playing. As a teenager, he decided to become a pianist when he saw girls
surrounding his piano-playing cousin.
Now
an octogenarian, Charles continues to live his life through his fervor for
music and love for people. He continues to have fun. Whether one is striving to
find happiness, or attempting to overcome addiction, passion can allow people
to feel stronger and motivated in every aspect of their lives, and to stay away
from unhealthy and dangerous alternatives.
Charles
recently sat down at his piano and began to improvise, allowing his emotions to
shoot out of his fingers and onto the keys. His eyes were closed, his hands
moved swiftly and delicately, and his left foot was dancing to the beat. He
played a variety of songs, scales, and genres on a whim. Whatever was in his
heart at the time is what revealed itself as melodies in the air. He moved from
high notes to low notes; and from adagio to allegro. When he had finished
playing, he took a deep breath, smiled, and exclaimed, “I feel so high!”
By: Tori Youngblood
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