Here is a subject about which people do not write frequently enough: Time.

All things take time. Each thing has its own schedule, it will occur, be learned, understood, conquered, refuted, validated, begin, end, blossom, wither, die, be reborn, created, torn down, built up, whatever, when it is time... or when we decide, if it is within us to have that authority or ability. Nothing will change this basic order, this principle in life.

In the book of Ecclesiates, in the Bible, we read the famous line: To everything there is a time...

You may recall the Bob Dylan song made famous by the Byrds. That whole song is lifted almost verbatim from that book. But the point is, this is old wisdom and much of the old wisdom, some of it going back a few thousand years, is so totally irrefutable that it is foolish to try to deny it, change it or argue with it. Acceptance is the path to walk in most cases such as this.

However, Time can be your ally. Time can be your best tool. Time can be your salvation, if you will, because without it, there would be chaos. Because Time rules our lives in a way we cannot change, it is better to learn to work with Time rather than try to fight against it.

There are people fighting Time every day. They fight the aging process by having operations, injecting poison into their bodies - botox, which is a form of botulism toxin - to remove wrinkles, and all expression since it paralyzes all the muscles it is injected into. People cut themselves up, remove things, all to hold onto some misguided idea that they can stay young if they also look young.

But here is a secret: youth is not a physical thing, not in the grander sense. Because our physical youth is fleeting, and all that energy is often unfocused and scattered, being "young" in the physical sense cannot last. Doctors have yet to create a drug or treatment that can restore aging muscles and organs. And forget about the brain; you can't replace that, and it is the one thing that will refuse to stop aging, even if we don't "grow up" emotionally or mentally or spiritually.

For some artists, refusal to "grow up", believing that staying juvenile... young... will help them retain their creative edge, that indefinable spark of genius. What in fact happens to such individuals is that they get stuck. They are "out of time", meaning, operating outside Time, fighting Time, and so refusing to grow at all or in every way growth occurs, spiritually, mentally, emotionally, developmentally - all because Time affects every aspect of our lives whether we wish it or not.

You can see it in their work, at first inspiring, genuine, thought provoking, products of their youth. Now it is just derivative, forced, repetative. And that makes them pathetic. Oh, there may be the occasional brilliant moment, but really, even that will echo a hollow victory.

You see, a true artist embraces the changes Time bring into their lives. And here is why...

Without experience, the well of creativity soon runs dry. This is why artists who refuse to grow up eventually run out of new ideas and begin to retread what they've already done, falling into an endless cycle of rehashing old ideas, perhaps with a little bit of spin to make them "look" fresh. But people soon see the pattern, if only on an unconscious level, and then move on to something more appealing, something fresh.

If you are familiar with Rembrandt at all, he painted self portraits at three times in his life, once as a young man, once in middle age,and once a few years before his death. Each portrait was a chronicle of a man's journey through life. Rembrandt demonstrated a fascination with his own aging process.

Another example, albeit a bit of a stretch, is Da Vinci. He needed a model to pose as Jesus at the Last Supper. He found a very handsome young man and employed him to pose for the painting. Many years later Da Vinci was looking for a model to pose as Satan. He wanted a man with all manner and form of aging, to denote the effects that sin have on the body, wearing it out to an untimely decrepit condition.

When he found the man and had him posing for the painting, the man commented to the painter, "Master Da Vinci, do you not remember me?"

Da Vinci replied, "Do I know you?"

The man answered, "I once posed for you when I was a young man. You had me pose as Jesus."

While the exact dialogue is not rendered here, it is the essence of the conversation they had. Da Vinci had unknowingly chosen the same man to play the Saviour of the world and later the Devil who opposed Him. Yes, there is a certain irony to it, as well as a wonderfully serendipitous circularity as well.

The point here is to demonstrate that without Time, without aging and experience, there is no progress creatively.

The art we create as children differs substantially from the work we create as young adults. While the art of our childhood may be creative, it lacks defined and refined qualities that can only come about after the passage of Time and the accumulation of knowledge, experience and wisdom. And so it is as well that the art we create as young adults differs from the art we create as mature adults - precisely because our experiences alter our perception, our gained knowledge changes our understanding and our wisdom gained influences our expression.

It is an irrefutable truth that Time and experience affect every aspect of our lives. To deny the effects, to fight them, in an effort to somehow retain our youth, refute the aging process, and so the accompanying affects and benefits, is foolishness. It flies in the face of the very thing we strive to accomplish, to create something meaningful, something lasting and which speaks to the heart of all who experience our creation, whether a static form or musical expression.