Naw'leans Decadence

So first and foremost, I must congratulate the town of New Orleans for simultaneously creating some of the best food and music in a place that smells of vomit, piss, and ass sweat. I guess I should retract that statement to say, that only parts of New Orleans (all of Bourbon Street) smell of the “holy trinity” of aforementioned odors. Anyhow, I bring that up, because that is why I liked New Orleans so much. Much of the fun of Las Vegas is concentrated in the glitz and glamour of the Strip, and the stunning displays of vertical architecture, grandiose cars, and picturesque models. New Orleans on the other hand is grimy, serpent like in structure, and smells like a dumpster outside Fraternity Court, and I absolutely loved it. It’s raw, unvarnished, and wonderfully rich all at the same time. And I should add that if one desires classy, more posh circumstances, then New Orleans can deliver that with a nice southern charm as well. Still, what appealed to me most was what would appeal to most young people – the debauchery, the lack of regard for traditional conventions, and the complete ease with which you accept it.

Truly the pinnacle of the entire 28 hours I spent there was Sunday night, known as the parade night of “Southern Decadence.” For those unfamiliar with this festival, it is the week-long Gay Pride event that culminates on the Sunday before Labor Day, so creatively called the “Gay Mardi Gras.” Your usual thin, Fauxhawk-sporting, and scantily dressed young gays were there; however, the surprise that met my eyes were the large number of bearded, fairly plump, gay men in what had to be their early 50s romping about as if they were 16 and getting drunk for the first time. For those that know me, you know that this in no way grosses me out, in fact quite the contrary. It makes me laugh because of how nice and free it looks – “Hey, I’m fat, you’re fat, oh you’re not wearing a shirt, let me touch you and then make out with you.” If only I were allowed to do that at my parties and clubs without having to be escorted out by some dude who always has is bald and wearing a black collar-less shirt.

Of course, one does not need to stretch their mind very far to deduce what the equivalent of flashing breasts for beads would be at this festival. I saw some nipples, and some were quite nice. I also so some straight up mashed ball-sack. The first guy who ended up showing his hang-dangle was being somewhat artsy – he was wearing low cut underwear and slowly revealing himself to the people on the balcony above him. Then some other guy sort of took this the way someone would at a karaoke bar – they see someone else singing and think that they can sing too, and then of course everyone leaves the karaoke bar. He comes along undoes his zipper and just waves ball-sack/dick upward towards these girls in a manner that pretty much looks like he’s just going to wank one out if nobody stopped him. At this point my other fellow travelers were either laughing hysterically or covering their eyes and walking away. Well, needless to say, Mr. Chod-head here basically summed up our whole trip in a matter of five minutes – good times that are slightly crazy, then get real crazy, and then just elicits gut-busting laughter. The other parts of the trip were awesome too – I rode the mechanical bull at Bourbon Cowboy and many told me I looked like I was sodomizing the bull, and then I felt the coolest when I started dancing at the intersection of Bourbon and Canal Street, to a jazzed up “When the Saints,” and of course I did the worm (please, it’s my signature move). I ate the biggest and best shrimp I’ve ever eaten, and had to remove the head and then suck out the marrow (gross sounding but delicious tasting), and realized that red beans and rice is one of those things I always forget to think about but love every time I eat them. I lifted up my own shirt to receive beads and was told no, but then as I walked away, the beads were pelted at the back of my head. I didn’t even think to get mad, I immediately laughed as soon as it happened – and laughed about it again when I had beignets and Café Au Lait the next day. Thus, it goes to show what I liked about New Orleans – I get hit in the head with beads, have dick waved near me, and shat out what smelled like crawfish the next morning, and I’m still smiling three days later. Long live the “Who Dat” nation.

Humor as the Cure

As I sit at my desk, I nervously await my roommate coming home. She generally asks me lots of questions, many of which I must fabricate some sort of worthy answer to, thus saving me a conversation about making the most of my time. If I were to tell the truth, I would be subjected to penetrative eyes and staccato rhetoric about how my life will go nowhere if I have no ambition.

My roommate is nice though – she lets me eat whatever she’s cooked, and she does my laundry with hers. She generally looks out for my well-being, and lies to her friends about what I am doing so that I don’t look bad. It’s a mutually beneficial relationship – I screw in light bulbs, lift plants, and unscrew jars, and she does most of the other stuff to keep our residence looking good.

So, the question might beg of itself, who is this roommate of mine, and why have I voluntarily agreed to live with her. The answer is quite simple. My new roommate is my mother, and I live with her because at the moment my life is not following the GPS navigated course I had set up for it. I made a left turn a little too soon, and need to get back to the main road. Too many metaphors, I know, but think about all the symbolism I just put into two sentences. As Gob on Arrested Development would say, "C’MON!"

Now many would find the fact that I live at home sad or darkly funny. What’s even funnier is that the valedictorian of a high school is working an $8 an hour job at Borders Café, where we do brew a great cup of coffee for a quality value (Plug-in for work: Check). But I know it sounds cliché, but I’m not worried. I’d be more worried if I were one of a kind (I mean I am very unique, and my roommate has commented once that I have special eyes), but the fact of the matter is, I am one of many who has made the trek home. The prodigal son returns, for pretty much most of the suburban households I know. Out of a random sampling of 10 of my friends – whom I met at different points, all with different abilities and accomplishments, 6 of us live at home. That’s 60%. For something to be an anomaly, you would expect the percentages to be 10% or less. So while I know most of us have come to terms with rooming with old parental units again, sometimes it still saddens me a little bit, so I remind myself at those times, that it’s part of the game. It’s simply good poker strategy – wait for your big hand, and then play aggressively. If you’ve got nothing, play the blinds and then get out, and wait for the next deal. So while I wait for the next dealing of hands to come around, I have decided to pass the time with humor.

Thus, I think I need force myself to laugh more about my observations instead of getting upset – which in turn means that I will be now writing my blogs as humor entries, mixed with some insight here and there. So, first and foremost, I must credit those who are much more adept than myself, and recommend a book to everyone. It’s called “Sh*t My Dad Says.” You can find it for the low, low price of $15.99 at Borders Bookstore, where your music, media, and book needs can be fulfilled with a smile (I better be getting a goddamn promotion soon). But seriously, if I were you, don’t buy it, but go in sometime and read it for 15-20 minutes, and you’ll have a great laugh. You can also check it out online, and I’m telling you, it’s the kind of blunt, unvarnished humor that only a senile, old, yet oddly keen person would say that makes total sense to us in our 20s. Also, listen to “September” by Earth, Wind, and Fire sometime this month (it is September after all), and write me back if you don’t bob your head along. I'm telling you, you can't listen to that song and not feel good. Look for the next post soon.

A Day in the Life - 2020

So, as a final project for my students, we are describing in as much detail as possible, what one day looks like for all of us in 10 years. So if we were to wake up and it was 2020, and not 2010, then what would our day entail. Here is what the 2009-2010 T.G Barr Fifth Grade and myself decided my life would be in 10 years. Enjoy

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! As my eyes open, and the world is still fuzzy, I look at the clock and see that the red letters are glowing with 5:30. I guess it’s time to get up, and feed my son. Oh Fuquan, how I wish I hadn’t lost that bet in college, and had to name him that. He’s a good kid though, and he just turned two a couple weeks ago. I turn and see that Beyonce is still sleeping, which is good, since she works so hard during the day. She doesn’t complain though, which is amazing. As I go to Fuquan’s room, I’m hoping he might say “Da-da” again today. He said it last week, and I got goose bumps. I tried to tell Beyonce about this, but she claims that I am making it up.

So I go to his room and he’s already up, playing in his crib. He got his mother’s eyes, but he got my smile – a good combination. I pick him up and take him to the kitchen and sit him on the high chair. Then I open the cabinet and take out the Gerber baby food. I remember the first time I went to the store, and how the clerk had to help me out picking the baby food. I had no idea what I was doing. I figured apple sauce was good enough, but apparently that didn’t have enough nutrition. He seems to enjoy the baby food even though I tried it one time and almost puked all over the bathroom.

So I feed him and make sure he gets some milk from the fridge, and then I take him back to his room. I go ahead and get to the bathroom quickly, while there’s still hot water left. I quickly shave, making sure to be careful around my lip because I cut it last time. A couple years ago, I tried to grow a beard, but people said I looked homeless and bits of food kept getting stuck in it, so I got rid of it. I hop in the shower, and am out in five minutes. I still refuse to use Pert Plus because of the incident when I was four years old, so I use Head and Shoulders instead.

Anyhow, I throw on some lotion when I’m out the shower to keep from getting ashy and to soothe the skin, put on some Old Spice, my shirt, tie, pants, and belt. Then I go for the final four – cell phone, keys, wallet, and watch (still the UNC watch). I check to make sure my hair is looking fresh, throw on a spray of the cologne I know is the bomb, and then I’m out the door. On the way out I kiss Beyonce on top of the head, but she just makes a soft sound and stays asleep. I put Fuquan in the car-seat, make sure his belt and my belt are on, and then it’s on the road under an orange-red sky. As I drive in the Nissan on 22s to work (actually they’re 10s, but I keep them clean though), I am still rocking out to some good tunes. Fuquan will learn from an early age to appreciate music, and he already bobs his head along. I drop him off at Daycare, with Nelly, the attendant there. She says he’s always pretty good and doesn’t really bother the other kids. Well, he doesn’t take after his old man, that’s for sure. I was a terror at daycare.

I get to work by 7:30, park the car, and take the elevator up to the 7^th floor. As I get to my desk, I see that I left lots of post-it notes for me today. They all contain different to-do lists, or tell me where things are supposed to go. Nobody else would understand the system but oddly enough, it seems to work well for me. It seems like only yesterday, I was getting hired. I remember applying for job during my last year in law school, out in San Francisco. I was worried about the job, not because I didn’t like it, but because it was in Washington DC, and I had just met Beyonce a couple months earlier. I knew that the job was what I wanted to do, but I didn’t want to be apart from her either, so that’s when I decided to ask her if she wanted to marry me.

It was just another beautiful day in the Bay Area, and we had gone out to lunch. I had called ahead to this bakery she likes and asked if they put the ring on top of a cupcake. After lunch, we were just walking, and then we stopped inside (the chef winked at me as I walked in). We were looking for some stuff that we could get in a to-go box, when the chef popped out with two cupcakes and said, “On the house for the beautiful couple.” Beyonce was about to take a bit of her cupcake when she noticed the sparkle and then she saw the ring.
So at the point, I got down on one knee. I’m not really one for the traditional stuff, so I just said point blank, “I am moving to Washington, and I want you come with me. If you eat the cupcake, I’ll know you’re for real and want to come with me for life.” She looked at me for a second, and then ate the cupcake, frosting and all, and then held out the ring for me to put it on her finger. It was an odd way to propose, but all our friends thought it was cute.

Anyhow, as I get back to work, I think about all that I have to do today. The case I have today is a big one. If I can get Gonzalez family a chance to win back their house, it will be a tremendous win for me. They were kicked out of their house because of the terms of their contract, but since it wasn’t printed in two languages, I am going to try and argue that the contract was never broken, and instead that it was not firmly acknowledged yet. I go ahead and get some coffee, and then sit down and prepare my statements for the judge. I need to be pretty baller today if I’m going to pull this off.

“Whoosh.” As the wind rushes past my hair, I let out the traditional smirk. I rocked that courtroom today; the judge didn’t even know what to say, and the other prosecutor was speechless. The look on his face was priceless. I had effectively argued that a contract can’t be upheld if people don’t know what they’re agreeing to. Even though there were signatures on the original contract, we effectively showed that people will put needs first and it was the job of the housing department to provide a translator. Anyhow, I shook hands with the Gonzales family and then got back to the office. I finished my paperwork, let my boss know about the win in the courtroom, and then left work around 5:30 pm.

As I pick up Fuquan from the day-care center, we jam out with a little Lupe Fiasco. Even though it’s like 12 years old, we still love “Superstar.” That boy is going to be a good dancer, he just lights up when he hears music. As we drive home, we stop at a Dairy Queen, and pick up one of those brownie milkshakes and 3 spoons. We make it home a little bit before Beyonce gets back. She is wearing her doctor’s coat, and still carrying her stethoscope. The patients must love her.

Anyhow, we have the milkshake together and talk about our day, and then we change real quick like, and take a walk around the neighborhood. The scarlet tinged sky is fading in the background to a cool blue dusk. Some other families are around, so we wave, and sometimes I miss the days where I would do the same thing – take a walk, but instead of thinking about my cases, I would think about my students, and what I would say to them. I don’t know if they ever listened, but sometimes I wonder what their lives have become. As Fuquan sits on my shoulders, and I see Beyonce’s hair fluttering a little bit with the wind, I think to myself, am I living a life I’m proud of? As we get to our front door, and I think about my times in North Carolina to Phoenix, to San Francisco, to Washington DC, I would have to say that if nothing else, I never stopped striving to be better. So I am proud of that, and one day I think I will start giving Fuquan little speeches here and there. In the mean time, dinner waits, and since it’s my day to cook, it looks like it will be chicken soft tacos yet again. I guess I should start cooking soon because 5:30 tomorrow morning will come faster than I know it.

THE END

Do I Really Need to Read Another Top 10 List?

Abso-fuckin-lutely. What do you think this is? Some sort of progressive blog where I don’t resort to clichés and actually talk about stuff with substance and meaning? Well, if you answered yes or no, you’d be correct – nobody truly knows the answer. However, the point of this blog is to go ahead and play into the popularity of the time and give my analysis on not just the year, but really the decade.

I feel honored to be able to fully analyze a decade with a cognitive mind (Let’s face it, half of the 90s, we were focused on trying to be tall enough to ride the fast rides at amusement parks and debating the reality of the tooth fairy. Sadly, some of us had to wait till the 2000s before we were allowed to ride everything. Damn PETA activists and their desire to get our animals “natural” and “growth-hormone-free.” I could have used some of that you know.)

Anyhow, especially the second half of the decade, it was interesting to see what it is like to be a true consumer. In all honesty, you learn about yourself a lot through the things you’re willing to spend money on. Therefore, I have compiled a Top 10 List of things I spent my money on this decade, and while I know that I am not a great perspective for the whole, I am just going to pretend that I am. In naming things I might stop and give a brief elaboration – for examples listing clothes might elicit a few ramblings out of my mind, but I hope you enjoy.

TOP TEN THINGS THAT ROBY CHATTERJI (aka “30 and under Society”)
SPENT MONEY ON THIS DECADE

10. DVDs
I remember the day we got our first DVD player at our house – it was probably 2000. I remember because I asked to borrow the new Matrix DVD that day from a friend to test out the speakers and sound quality. Much more than CDs, I think discs for movies have been huge this decade. CDs were cool but then came mp3s and really it didn’t matter whether you had a CD player anymore, because all you needed was speakers (therefore we have #9 on the list), but DVDs hold their own because most of still like TV to remain stationary in an ever-growing portable world. It’s one of the few last bastions of sitting around culture. DVDs have been great, especially since they put TV shows on them as well, but I do worry about their longevity. Hookups between computers and TVs becoming easier and easier, and with things like Hulu and instant Netflix, we might be entering the last decade where DVDs are big.

9. Audio Accessories:
DJ Rob can’t deny his place in this list. Speakers, headphones, armbands, more speakers, and of course iPods have definitely been a large part of my spending this decade. What can I say, the ADD tendencies I have mixed with a sincere appreciation of music makes the iPod like crack to me. Also my guilty sense of pleasure at being flattered about playlists or music selection makes me even more tempted to buy nice outlets to let out my musical tastes.

8. Energy Drinks/Coffee:
The Redbull era is far from over. It is just beginning. Welcome Monster, Rockstar (my personal favorite), and of course now the ultimate: Coffee + Energy beverages, and you have of course one of the great icons of these last ten years – instant energy in anywhere from an 8 to 24 ounce can. I must admit, I am extremely guilty of giving into these when I know most people refrain. I hated the idea of these at the beginning, plus I thought Redbull tasted like bad sweet tarts, but now I am a pretty regular consumer of Rockstar Zero Carb, and of course my love for coffee has only gotten stronger as this decade transpired. From lots of sugar and cream in my early years to pretty much all Espresso and a couple packets of Splenda these days, I have a fond appreciation for the almost subconscious cure of coffee – the feeling of the warm beverage going down your through and warming you from the inside out, and the “ahhh” you say sometimes after a good brew is almost automatic for me. I hope that my teeth don’t get badly stained in the next ten years.

7. Jeans:
Well let’s be real. If you don’t like or own jeans, you’re forsaking the most versatile piece of clothing we have. They can be used for going out to the bar, to get milk and eggs, and even on Fridays to work. Sneakers, fancy shoes, sandals all can adorn their lower end, and they are great for times you want to show off your ass. All in all, just a good piece of fabric that will likely be timeless. Definitely could have been written in any decade’s big buys for the last 40 years.

6. Shoes:
From the early 2000s when I was really into Nike basketball type shoes, to the whole easy looking Saucony/Puma phase, to the organic New Balance phase, to my “old man” phase because I enjoyed my sneakers to have little design and be plain, to fancy adult shoes that are square at the end – I think my shoes are a nice corollary for my mindset at a given time. They can be a fashion statement, they can simply be a tool to get you from one place to the other, but all of us deep down (male or female) know that we do like to make sure shoes look good to us, and perhaps others. If I had written this blog 10 years ago, I would have definitely mentioned Vans and skater shoes, but it seems that their heyday has ended.

5. Computers:
I’ll keep this one short and simple. Laptops and phones – which really are mini laptops – have taken a chunk of our money and culture this decade. Think about how necessary they’ve become for whatever purpose – working, music, communication, and it’s easy to see why this is one gadget that will continue to icon-ify our generation and lives.

4. Alcohol
Ahh! Where to begin? Definitely something that consumed my bank account in the second half of the decade –a growing realization that we are using tools to enhance our feelings. I know that not everyone drinks, or that other people have their tool of choice, but this is the blanket beneath most of our adult fun. Generally the terms “going out” or “party” have become synonymous with drinking in some shape or form. It may not be the focal piece of your evening, but it’s rare that we go out or go to a party where there is no alcohol. Weddings, birthdays, Thursdays, and of course “New Years” – all seem to point to the fact that we spend a fair amount of time/money on the hydrophilic beverage that eases our tensions, makes it easier to put up with our family, and makes our memorable moments filled with stories.

3. Mexican Food, but really the burrito:
This might be a Roby thing, but really, I think the explosion of big burritos and the whole “wrap-it-up” culture was a big thing to take off this decade. Coming from all angles – expansion of Mexican culture into American, the health conscious idea of vegetarian and wheat bread/wraps, and the ease of which you can consume a burrito – made this the perfect decade for the burrito. Fast, cheap, healthy, flavorful – it’s everything we are striving for, and you can have endless hours of fun going, “buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurrrriiiitooooooooo.”

2. Books:
Well going along with number 1 on the list, it only makes sense that after tuition, we spent a fair amount of money on books. Throw in Harry Potter and Da Vinci Code phenomena, and those weird periods of time throughout the decade where you tried to be more well-read, and you have a fair amount of time and cash going towards words on paper that you may or may not have read. Books are slightly becoming obsolete because of the internet, but I would think that in some weird analogous manner, the internet is our new library – a very fun and adult library at times. So, I would say we have spent a fair amount of our money on tools that will hopefully increase our wisdom.

1. Knowledge:
Think about it. Most of us that have been through colleges or graduate schools this decade have spent money or owe money for the fact that someone instilled us with knowledge. Meaning we spent thousands of dollars to hear someone tell us their theories. Essentially we visited an educational consultant for however many years we did. I completely agree with why I did it also. I wanted a pre-set system of talking points for conversation as well as strategies for balancing different aspects of my life. Oh yeah, and that whole specializing in a subject area, because that made a lot of sense. Was it worth it? Time will tell.

Overall Themes
We have the capability of being a very well-informed generation, but the choice on what we want to be informed on in completely up to us. We have lots of ways to amp up, to be entertained, and to be educated. I can’t tell whether we are creating separate segments of our life – the work side and the play side or trying to mesh them into one. Work fashion is actually a good indicator of how we are starting to see if the two worlds can mix – casual Fridays, less need to be formal – while they seem like a good thing might point to the idea that we are less interested in applying our education and instead using it for entertainment, which is what I hope this becomes for some of you. The New Year awaits. Happy regards to all of you.

It Builds As It Falls – The Irony of the Jenga Tower in Our Lives

As I’ve read through my blogs, I’ve realized I am definitely all over the place – to the point where I have lost myself, and I’m the guy that wrote it – so I apologize for my creative misgivings, but not really whole-heartedly. I can’t really promise that my blogs will get much better or much more focused, but hopefully I can make it a bit more concentrated on one topic – although I would say my previous musings are what are making me write this piece. As cliché as it sounds, it takes staring at your mistakes point blank, your shortcomings straight up, and your tumbling fallacies in the light of day, before you can start to reinvent yourself. So I think the core belief in this blog is that sometimes it is necessary to completely fail and fall before you can reinvent yourself. If a part or facet of you is still working, then most of us will cling on for dear life to that part and see how long we can sustain it. But perhaps only recently, I am starting to find that sometimes it’s better to let your life go to shambles, so that you can start building fresh and new, rather than trying to sustain a dilapidated hodgepodge that might function, but it’s not what you want.

As an analogy, I want you to think about a dirty room. You can bear to live in the room for some designated amount of time, but after enough time has transpired, you will feel that the room is now inhabitable and disgusting to the point where you will embark on a thorough cleaning (a cleaning far more rigorous and fruitful than the one you would have done at the beginning of the mess) – cleaning everything from laundry to dust to old papers, and now you will have a fresh new room to mess up all over again. This to me seems like the more fulfilling option rather than having a mediocre clean room and picking up a dirty shirt every other day –within that particular environment you would never be pushed to the idea of total cleansing because it is clean enough, therefore contentment would outweigh ambition. However, like all my blogs, this is simply my opinion, not something I feel you must agree with. Yet, I do want to talk about reinventing yourself or rebuilding your life.

Reinventing yourself is a phenomenon that I find frustrating, fascinating, and futile all at the same time – probably because I have tried to reinvent myself at least 17 times in the last three years. Many a great philosopher or statesman has said their piece on rebuilding or reinventing yourself, probably the best of which was “The greatest gift we have as humans is not so much in reinventing our cities, but rather in reinventing ourselves.” This particular quotation was likely an amalgamation of different Gandhi maxims, but I like it for its holistic nature. It seems to place so much merit in the fact that we can change. Change has become a buzz word within the last two years, partly due to politics, partly due to the idea that perhaps people are finally starting to embrace the idea that change is not something that is simply going to happen, but something that already has. Yet my biggest problem with reinventing yourself is not that we do not have the right vision for what we want to change, it is that we as a people do not have the discipline to make it consistent.

We are, we always have been, and I think we will continue to be “creatures of comfort” a group honed in on pleasure seeking, self-gratifying, and desiring the envy of others. Up until we have hit that critical point where the shit has hit the fan, we decide to close our noses and continue our patterns of behavior. Very few watershed moments in history have caused us to totally abandon something the way it is and start rebuilding, and I would say the same would be true for our lives. Sometimes it takes a bad accident on the road before we become better drivers. Sometimes it takes making a really stupid mistake when inebriated to realize that you need to not drink so much. However, many times when we decide we are going to reinvent ourselves, we don’t do it at the right time because we haven’t truly hit rock bottom. We always feel that something needs to change perhaps because of our sense of ethics. But that’s just it - we feel that things need to change. We want things to change. But feeling and wanting it aren’t enough. Those are temporary entities that shift and morph with time. What we need sometimes to really bring about a solid change or a legitimate reinvention of ourselves is to have completely fucked up. When we reach that point where we feel real pain and disgust at our situation the way it is, then it will be the time that is ripe for rebuilding and rebuilding in a way that will not just be temporary.

That instant will be the jarring moment, the climax if you will, when we realize that certain aspects of the life we have been living cannot continue to be replicated because we abhor them. They say insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. So when we finally reach the point where we can either choose to be insane or do something different, most of us then choose the “do something different” path. Therein lays the homage to the title of this blog – the Jenga Tower. The game that so many of us played as children was not without its prophetic message – your tower will stand for a while, even as you dismantle it, but at some critical point, the entire tower will fall and you will have to rebuild it all over again – stronger, straighter, and wiser. And perhaps the second time you play, you realize which blocks should not be removed so quickly so that you give yourself a little more time before it all falls again – but ultimately it will fall again, and you will rebuild it again, but that is the beauty of the game, and the beauty of our life – perhaps we should let ourselves fall so that we can rebuild, but this idea that the rebuilding should only happen once so we can be done with it – well, even as adults now we sometimes want to believe the fairy tale even if it’s not true.

Knowledge Speaks, But Wisdom Listens

So the title of this blog is one of my favorite quotations. It has been hypothesized that Jimi Hendrix said this, but if my research has done me well, he also got it from someone else, although who that person is remains a mystery. The originator isn't nearly as important as the meaning of the quote itself. The idea is that what you already know, you can say (Knowledge speaks). What have you have yet to understand, comprehend, and gain in this world can only come from listening (Wisdom listens). If you were to speak you would be divulging your own knowledge, which of course you already know, and you would not picking up any new knowledge.

To get new knowledge you must listen, but listening is only half the battle. It is like knowing how to add numbers, but never really using it to solve a calculation (sorry, math analogies come very easy to me these days). Wisdom comes from understanding that the build-up of your knowledge might have a theme, a pattern, a main idea if you will. Yet we are to quick to amass our knowledge into a pre-packaged theme that you might find in a fortune cookie or a Hallmark card. We rarely let the theme show itself or work itself out, and rather we are quick to label and judge our experiences and then further categorize them. I find this strikingly humorous, sad, and endearing all in one. It represents a perennial flaw of mine and yours - impatience.

I don't really have answers for you, but I do wonder how we work on not being impatient when the whole world is trying to get things to us faster, sleeker, and smoother. From 3G networks to Wikipedia to Google, we do have a knack for getting what we want exactly when we want it, and in some ways that's beautiful. To think that we can figure things out so quickly and have access to unlimited information - what other generation can say that? To simply be able to read in this day and age allows you to be a scholar. True, you would be standing on the shoulders of giants who researched things earlier, but that is no real matter, we all stand on the shoulders of giants for our own great epiphanies and gains. Yet we all wonder whether this double edged sword of unlimited information, and coming at you at fast speeds, will tilt us into a generation of doers or dreamers. A generation of listeners or creators. I myself wonder at how it will cause us to reflect.

Some of the greatest reflections people of older generations had was working/searching for something so long and finally finding it. Yet we do not need to reflect on what a search has done for us as humans because our searches only last .003 seconds. Imagine someone back in the day searching for a lost journal entry from World War II or perhaps they were going to a new land to look for gold - either way the search remains the same - these people looking for something with no hope that they will find it - perhaps they alienate their family, perhaps they learn something about themselves, either way - good or bad something happens to them, because they gained some wisdom in their search because they spent a lot of time listening. We, however, are stuck in speaking our own knowledge. We want something, we find it (anonymously, perhaps with no human interaction whatsoever), and then we grab it, get it, make it our own, and boom - we're back in our bubbles, enjoying our own things without having to find new ones. It's the fact that people had to do things before that makes it so weird. If we wanted to have an adventure we could, but we would have to CHOOSE it. And when you have a La-Z-Boy chair, air conditioning, and great options for playing any sort of media, it's a pretty easy choice to not venture out. So, I guess in my own babbling, I wonder whether we will continue to get wise, or simply smarter with knowledge but with no real life applications.

Comfortably Numb

Blogging is more fun than I realized. I think it might because you are actually creating something instead of just thinking it and then letting media numb your actions down. In fact, I realize we as a society have become numb, almost desensitized to the day to day happenings in our lives and the world. Somewhere betwixt YouTube and Recorded TV, we have learned that life generally cycles the more exciting events to us over and over again, and therefore if we missed it the first time, we have the opportunity to pick it up on the second go-around. The idea that you MUST go see something, MUST create something, or MUST be somewhere gets downplayed with the general response of, "Ehh, I can catch it another time."

In some ways that is why I maybe enjoyed working with kids this year. To them, doing or not doing something means the world. Sometimes, I feel like I miss that raw energy and desire - the idea that something had to be done at that moment, that instant, and everything else could be cast aside. Now I'm too lazy to walk to the other room to catch the Daily Show in its live showing, mainly because I know I can watch it like 4 times tomorrow.

Perhaps, that is why I enjoy blogging. It must date back to old times when you get that joy out of creating something. Maybe what I'm really saying is that I'm lazy and numb, and I try to make myself feel better by saying society has made me that way - but I guess I am overlooking the millions of people that are always doing shit. I just feel that those people get enough credit. What about the lazy folk? Who speaks on their behalf and tells them that it's okay that they ate a whole row of Chips Deluxe Cookies with the M&Ms (They're so damn good, it's not even fair. They win every time in Roby vs. Cookie). Who tells the lazy people that perhaps numbness and lack of desire is something your ancestors worked hard to provide for you, so maybe it's okay to enjoy it.

So I say, enjoy your lazy days without all the guilt. I can't tell you the amount of people that tell me I did nothing today and feel bad about it. I also really don't like the people that get uber excited about doing nothing on a day either, because if they're too excited it means that they don't do it enough. You know the people I'm talking about. They smile, and they're all like, "I did absolutely nothing today and it was awesome." In my mind, if you're not numb about your lack of activity it means you do too much and you're not an authentic lazy person. That person that exalts their lazy day is going to do a fuckload of shit tomorrow, you just wait. And then it's not fun because they deserve their lazy day. The best is when you haven't done anything during the day to be tired except eat Bugles, and you still find yourself waiting to take a nice good nap. So, I say on to all thee who love the lazy life, be comfortably numb. And for all you "Type-A" personality types out there, know that nobody cares about your list of errands to do - just get it done and then come chill out and don't talk about it.