Tuesday, December 12, 2006

we are so much more

We want to have fun. We want to have it so much that it doesn’t matter any more what the fun is, we just want it. Imagine yourself at say, a kareoke bar. A mix of all kinds of people, sitting around and getting up in front of everyone else and singing a song. A very chilling atmosphere, where we are all having fun. And then an older gentleman gets up to sing a song. Someone perhaps in his mid forties, dressed normal, no strange appearance about him in any way. So what crosses our minds when we see this fine gentleman standing preparing for a rendition of, say, white rabbit, or maybe Leila, just to get the feel of the old times? Some punk might think “what’s an old fart doing up there”, or someone a little more open minded might think that this guy is trying to get a taste of how it used to be, even though he’s way past this type of thing, just let him have his fun and be on his way. Whatever one might think, it all boils down to one thing, he doesn’t belong. However you look at it, whether to mock him, or to sympathize with him, what crosses our minds? That he just doesn’t fit the scene.

This is not to mock this scene, these are my ideas which I’m addressing, the question being, why does this older gentleman, not fit in? What makes him different than us that we do fit in? What makes what we do okay and him wrong? What if we are also wrong and we shouldn’t fit in either? The reason why, I believe, this fine person is looked strangely upon, is because, he has moved on, he is established, he is bona-fide. It doesn’t become a man, who is leading the real life, the life of responsibility, the life of supporting a family. Perhaps in a way it would seem to be a sign of immaturity on his part to act in this fashion. And as for us, well, we’re still young, we’re trying to live life to the fullest, we have to chill and this is how we do it. The scene was created for us by us, it is our niche and we fit in. we have a “status quo” of chillage to complete, so let us get to it.

But, I have a question for us. What makes us different from this man, that we can allow ourselves to chill in this fashion? This also goes for all other things us youth do where an old guy would look weird doing. Why do we reserve the right to just hang loose, and he not? What if we created a farce for ourselves, one which makes us believe we can do what have you, whereas the old guy can’t?

We need to have fun, life is very hard and we need to calm down. And we do have a ton of pressure being forced on us. But I think that we got ourselves thinking in status quo mode, meaning that we think that we must have this pleasure in this way and in these amounts, because we need it. The real chillers in my book are the ones who flow with it. They only take when they really need it, and in amounts that really satisfy, not the overflowing amounts that we convince ourselves we need and in the end walk away drained from all the pain and effort needed to get the pleasure, and not really having got much out of the “chill” at all.

Look at the people around us at this bar. So much talent, so much sitting and waiting to be opened. At one table, strong minds, sitting, huddled and talking, but about some stupid TV show. And in another corner, the great speaker, who can use the English language to create art, maybe change people's lives with his power of words, but belittles his friend instead because it’s cool. Or on stage where her great voice sings a beautiful, heart wrenching song, for the guy who is talking with some other girl at the bar. This is not who we are, these people are not this, they are so much better than this. Look what our scene is causing us to do, to become. There could be nothing wrong with a karaoke bar; it’s just how we use them that might be the problem.

So what is the right thing to do, and what is pleasure that is really pleasurable?
What I wrote is something to think about, as is the question about right and pleasure. I still have to think about them. I was at a karaoke bar, and these are my thoughts about the experience I had there. Let us think. I think, therefore I am.

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