FIRST LAW OF ALCHEMY

If someone were to ask me to spill the one thing about myself that might be surprising, it's that I'm an anime buff.  It's not a guilty pleasure, as I really don't care if anyone knows that I actually took a picture of Saya from Blood Plus with me to get my hair cut.  It's just one of those things that doesn't really come into conversation at water coolers or bars or other places known for eliciting small talk.

When it comes to anime, my favorite program, the one I still watch every night on Adult Swim even though I have seen every episode no fewer than five times, is Fullmetal Alchemist. I am fairly close to obsessed with the saga of the Elric brothers, who are on a mission to restore their bodies after a botched attempt at raising their mother from the dead. As much as I love the characters and the way the plot unfolds throughout the series, what really hooked me into the show were the first two sentences of the show's introduction:

"Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return.  To obtain, something of equal value must be lost."

The quote summarizes Equivalent Exchange, the "first law of alchemy" and the theme of the series.  I think about this often.

After years of writing and spending time interviewing musicians, I have come to the conclusion that Equivalent Exchange is a fact of life.  We know that, despite false promises that the Internet can make anyone a star, real success will never come unless we relinquish things like sleep, financial security, social lives and sanity.  We also know that the if-then situation isn't immediate.  More likely, it becomes a situation where if you give up everything that makes you a stable, functioning adult, then maybe you will obtain the desired end result.  The sacrifice must always come first and the gain is never definite. If and when that gain does arrive, though, we should be better for it.  A fluke is meaningless, success after strife is something special.