Today, we released the 100th episode of A Podcast for Creatives and also shared the news that after six years, we are ending the show.
It’s not a complete goodbye, as we are making space for a new collaborative project, but it’s still an ending and endings are hard.
I’m a lot more emotional about the whole thing than I was expecting, and hence, this unscheduled post. Writing and art can be wonderfully comforting in that way.
Goodbyes carry the weight of loss, the feeling of absence, the fear that it’s forever. Yet, they also prompt reflection.
Over thirty years ago Billy Joel wrote a song and released it on the River of Dreams album. He sang it as kind of his sign-off. He decided that after decades of releasing new songs and albums that he really didn’t have anything left to say, and it seemed like the right time to call it quits on songwriting.
Until today.
When Billy released a new single, a ballad, called Turn the Lights Back On.
Billy Joel has been important to Steve and me, long before our podcast or any podcast existed and I consider it one of the hallmarks of our friendship.
I can’t help but to feel the serendipity of saying goodbye to our show on the same day Billy decided to say hello again.
I’ve been listening to his new song on repeat all day. Maybe it’s part of what is making me so emotional. But I’m also finding comfort in his return, whether it’s just this one song or if there are more albums to come.
As I was putting the finishing touches on our final episode I reached out to Steve, as I often do because I hate naming things, “Any ideas on what to call this thing?”
I shouldn’t have been so surprised to see his response:
As in the title of Billy’s final song from 1993.
Today also reminded of the permanence of the things we create and share. As Billy so beautifully says (also on the River of Dreams album), “some day we’ll all be gone but lullabies go on and on.”
With art, there truly is no such thing as an ending.