Just to Do It

A friend of mine is in a band, and I had the pleasure to attend a house concert that he and his bandmates put on for their friends. They don’t play gigs or concerts so often, but they’ve been playing together once a week for many years. Basically, they do it just for their own enjoyment.

But they could probably perform for gigs and concerts if they wanted to do that. They were great.

They are largely a cover band, and they play many styles of music from a variety of decades. But they did perform an original song, too, written by my friend. This song seemed to sum up what they were doing, in fact. It was about creating just to create, just for the pure enjoyment of it.

“I did it just to do it, and now it’s done,” the lyrics said.

And it made me think about the power of doing things just to take pleasure in them, rather than having a particular result in mind.

You know what I’m going to start doing in earnest today?

Writing a book.

— Renee Roederer