i haven’t had a full-on writing session yet this year. i started one the other night, born of emotional circumstance and the need to organize and crystallize the murky thoughts swirling around my head. but i’m out of practice, and i couldn’t really concentrate or settle into a rhythm. so this is take two.

i sometimes think in terms of dj’ing, when analyzing what’s happening in my world. partially because it’s instinctive, or rather because it’s a big part of my life at the moment. and often when something is a substantive part of your daily existence, you see all the other details and events of your life through that filter. if you’re a dancer, then you see life as a dancefloor. if you’re a boxer, then you see life as a boxing match. if you’re a painter, then you see life as a canvas.

in all honestly, i don’t think of myself as a particularly great dj. i know so many people who are so much more talented than i am, that it keeps me humble. i have friends whose technical skill, song selection, or musical resume are so much more impressive than my own that i’m consciously aware and constantly reminded of how much more i still have to learn. which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. what’s that M quote? “Arrogance and self-awareness seldom go hand in hand.”

but i don’t continue dj’ing because i think i’m great at it. i do it because i need to. dj’ing found me. or as i like to put it sometimes: i started collecting vinyl, and the records just found a way of getting played out in public. i hear a song somewhere that catches my attention, and i need to find out who sings it. and then i need to find it on vinyl. and then i need to play it for other people. this process has just become part of my routine.

there is no simpler joy than introducing someone to a new favorite song they never would have known even existed. because you take something seemingly random and make it a part of someone else’s life, in however small a part that might be. you take something beautiful, a musical singularity that nobody would think to seek out, and add it to the context of their own personal experience.

one of the keys to dj’ing is transitions. it’s what separates dj’s from jukeboxes and iPods. through a combination of math and artistry (and sometimes blind luck), you can move from one song to another in a way that unfolds naturally. you can take two different strands of art, and weave them into something new, and sometimes stronger than the sum of its parts, but in a way that somehow makes you appreciate the different pieces even more.

with that concept in mind, if we see life as dj set, then the songs that help build it are the amazing people we encounter, the faces we choose to make a part of our days and nights, and all the glorious and tragic events we celebrate and experience. and transitions are the decisions we make, the pivotal moments that unfold, and all the accidental magic we find in the places we never would have thought to look.