The Tao of Willie: A Guide to the Happiness in Your Heart (Unabridged)
by Willie Nelson, with Turk Pipkin
“As I say to the band, indecision may or may not be our problem.Â
I’m sure your life is also plenty complicated, but since I don’t know about yours, pretend for a moment that you’re me. This year, like just about every year, you’ll travel tens of thousands of miles in the company of four or five buses, several semi-trailers of equipment, a large band, and even larger assortment of friends, family members, roadies, technicians, and various assorted hangers-on. All of this will be scheduled around a couple hundred audiences, each of which numbers in the thousands, and it all has to happen on time or everything will fall apart.
Each night, I have to decide which songs to sing and in what order, and the only thing that’s certain is that we’ll run out of time or the venue will run out of beer before I run out of songs.
So things tend to get a little complicated — as things tend to do — and the most single important thing for you to remember is not to panic.
When the panic – among other things — hits the fan, there’s one key phrase to remember:
Fortunately, we are not in control.
Sounds so good, I think I’ll try it again.
Fortunately, we are not in control.
There, I feel better already.
“Fortunately we are not in control” is my way of saying it ain’t my fault, and probably isn’t anyone else’s fault either.
So if we’re not in control, you’re probably wondering who is in control. And the answer is: I dont know. But it ain’t me, and it ain’t you, because…
Fortunately, we are not in control.”