May 19, 2008

It's What You Do With It!

Part One: god i need to shave.

Since I couldn't think of a more appropriate subtitle for this blog (p.1 of 3 that I have in mind), and since the main title is actually the title of a pennywise song, I thought that a decent enough subtitle would be to just write what I realllllly think I need to do more than anything in the world right now. No. I mean RIGHT now.

k. I'm back. And I am smoooooothe as a (insert something smoothe here). And pennywise can sure perform. But what I really wanna talk to all you kids today about is impact. What are you doing with your life? And WHY are you doing it that way? Why aren't you doing it differently? Harder, better, faster, stronger, as one daft punk might even say. How do you come to your decisions about what you will be doing on that day, that week, that month, that year? It boggles my mind completely.

Most reasonable well-informed, non-sacreligious, non-belligerent punks or rednecks go through life wanting to leave behind some sort of lasting positive impact - one might even use that "legacy" buzz word. doubleyou tee eff. So in your so-called life you might want to produce a report reccomending environmental protection or funding for senior care programs or public transit, or you might write a poem or a song, make a painting for The One you love, or maybe even raise some offspring to be a functional contributing member of (a) society. Maybe you blog. You might plant a tree. Or maybe adopt a cat from the SPCA or a child from Chad. Even the self-loathing Schmidt (jack nicholson in About Schmidt) eventually gained a sense of satisfaction in finding out his monetary contributions to some kid living in poverty somewhere were in fact making a difference) afterall. So we go through days. weeks, months, and years. All hoping that in the end it will have been worth while.

Maybe you read. Non-fiction and history. Why bother with anything else, right? Because like in the Kite Runner, kids - dreamers - are laughed at when they're passion is as silly as writing fiction. Well, without dreamers, "science would be sterile and empty, and progress nonexistent" (m. kaku) But you continue to read your non-fiction anyways. You learn about what was, what is, and what will be given the path we're on and how history repreats itself (ice age here we come). Then there might be some sort of call for action. Maybe you even join a mailing list or write to an MP!

You well-respected member of society, you. I'm impressed.

In Craig Ferguson's (fictional) book he writes: "All God wants for us to do is help eachother".
This to me, is great. It simplifies everything. We don't have to worry about anything as long as we are helpful to our fellow man or woman. Rather than persuing that "call for action" in Al Gore's or George Monbiot's latest bestseller, we will all just be welcomed into the kingdom of heaven so as long that we help eachother. Rather than reporting and criticizing and implementing what we may think is the best solution for somebody else, we just have to be nice and smile? ok, if you say so. Sign me up for a shift at the Bissel Center.

...More reasonably...

Is there a necessity in any or all of us to contribute to this world and all of its greatness anyways? Could a few billion people really have an impact on how a few million are shaping our world (through government and industry mostly) Irrespective of any apathy or hope for the future, couldn't we all just do better in our decisions/actions? Even if downloading global national's podcast supports some big media conglomerate, isn't it still good to be a little more informed than just giving that mustard seed resident 50 cents for a copy of Voice Magazine once a month? Rather than writing a song or getting a report approved or reading some Chomsky, isn't there something more that we could and should be doing???

What this all comes down to is priorities. How are you spending the little time you have in your life? Who are you spending it with? What impact, if any, do you hope to have given those 2 questions? The next blogs will focus more on where these priorities lay in our day-to-day lives. Stay tuned.


note: i hope that this makes at least some sense, as it is currently past 2am.

note2: is draining the power into this pc worth writing this at 2am now, especially since i could potentially be doing something that might have an impact tomorrow if i had more sleep?


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