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.
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
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.
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.
The Smirk Face
You know what I enjoy about people, and more specifically - white people - when a song that they like comes on, they get the smirk face. Let me explain.
The smirk face has a little bit of the eyebrows furrowed so that there are wrinkles on the top of your forehead. Then there is the move of one side (only one) of your lip towards your cheek. Then, there is the head bobbing (kind of like a titled head nodding yes). Try this move right now. Pretty interesting, huh?
Now if you're thinking that nobody does this - you are wrong. In fact, you probably have done this. Many of you would be doing this right now if "Bump, Bump, Bump" by B2K came on. You pretend that you don't know what I'm talking about, but you do. I tried to point this out one time back in college, only to a mixed reaction of laughs and airplane bottles of Jaeger being pelted at me.
I didn't say anything was wrong with it, I just said I enjoyed it. People tend to assume that you are making fun of them more than commending them. I think it's great people have passion and umph for their music. It shows that you still have blood running through those veins. It's really the reserved people that bother me - I mean I'm all about staying stoic sometimes, but if you're like that all the time, it doesn't mean that you're some sort of cool, mysterious, mature being. It means you're unhappy. Unhappy people are the ones that trick themselves into thinking they are "cool" because they don't give into these things - Facebook, dancing, giving someone the fist pound.
My first bit of advice on the blog. Do something weird and crazy every once in a while, but make it like mayoanaise or butter. Spread it out, don't glob it all on at once or people won't be able to to stomach it, but do take the time once in a while to be a bit crazy, energetic, or weird so that if nothing else, you can gauge other people's reactions.
- Mr. C
The smirk face has a little bit of the eyebrows furrowed so that there are wrinkles on the top of your forehead. Then there is the move of one side (only one) of your lip towards your cheek. Then, there is the head bobbing (kind of like a titled head nodding yes). Try this move right now. Pretty interesting, huh?
Now if you're thinking that nobody does this - you are wrong. In fact, you probably have done this. Many of you would be doing this right now if "Bump, Bump, Bump" by B2K came on. You pretend that you don't know what I'm talking about, but you do. I tried to point this out one time back in college, only to a mixed reaction of laughs and airplane bottles of Jaeger being pelted at me.
I didn't say anything was wrong with it, I just said I enjoyed it. People tend to assume that you are making fun of them more than commending them. I think it's great people have passion and umph for their music. It shows that you still have blood running through those veins. It's really the reserved people that bother me - I mean I'm all about staying stoic sometimes, but if you're like that all the time, it doesn't mean that you're some sort of cool, mysterious, mature being. It means you're unhappy. Unhappy people are the ones that trick themselves into thinking they are "cool" because they don't give into these things - Facebook, dancing, giving someone the fist pound.
My first bit of advice on the blog. Do something weird and crazy every once in a while, but make it like mayoanaise or butter. Spread it out, don't glob it all on at once or people won't be able to to stomach it, but do take the time once in a while to be a bit crazy, energetic, or weird so that if nothing else, you can gauge other people's reactions.
- Mr. C
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
A First Time for Everything
So, for many a drunken rant, I have made fun of people who kept blogs. I found it completely and utterly weird that so many people wanted other people to know what they were feeling, how they were feeling, when they were feeling it, and why they were feeling a certain way. I guess in a way, I'm still a bit skeptical about why this is necessary (I feel like I let my thoughts be known fairly well in the flesh), but perhaps it's the softness that creeps into your body the older you get that gives you bits of hope that maybe somebody will read your thoughts and laugh - either out of pity or concordance - and that a record of your wit should prevail on in the netherworld of the internet even if you perhaps do not.
As I sit and write this particular post, I cannot help but let my mind wander to the idiosyncrasies of this place we call "home." I wonder if perhaps we miss the permanence and simplicity of our youth to know that no matter what things were, we could give them a label easily when we were younger - "This is my house. This is my room. These are my friends. This is how I feel." Perhaps the greatest and worst tool college instills in you is a feeling of fluidity - we begin to see life and ourselves much like water- adaptable, powerful, and versatile, yet utterly bland, amorphous, and indistinguishable at times. This numbness that crept into you without even the realization that it was there came somewhere between recognizing your SAT scores don't matter at all and then realizing you are one of many people who are privy to the same guilty pleasures - hedonistic or intellectual - as everyone else. It's wonderful to realize there's a niche for you everywhere - people you can talk heady stuff with and people that will drink as much as you and perhaps embarrass themselves as well. But it also makes you realize that you can create that environment in many places and the thought of home starts to dissipate. I say this not to reiterate the message of "Garden State" (oh dramedy movies with a soundtrack, how you seduce us all), but more to wonder when we start to feel like the new life we are creating is our own, and not an escape/replication from our previous one. Does it take marriage, kids, or simply a certain amount of time away before you begin to sever ties with what life once was, and now what it is. When do we lose the nostalgia for the past and gain the ambition for the future? At 22, it seems weird that I am so nostalgic, yet I don't feel I'm alone. Therefore it makes me even more confused to think that I am happy to be home, yet can't really define what home is anymore. I shall think about it more this summer.
As I sit and write this particular post, I cannot help but let my mind wander to the idiosyncrasies of this place we call "home." I wonder if perhaps we miss the permanence and simplicity of our youth to know that no matter what things were, we could give them a label easily when we were younger - "This is my house. This is my room. These are my friends. This is how I feel." Perhaps the greatest and worst tool college instills in you is a feeling of fluidity - we begin to see life and ourselves much like water- adaptable, powerful, and versatile, yet utterly bland, amorphous, and indistinguishable at times. This numbness that crept into you without even the realization that it was there came somewhere between recognizing your SAT scores don't matter at all and then realizing you are one of many people who are privy to the same guilty pleasures - hedonistic or intellectual - as everyone else. It's wonderful to realize there's a niche for you everywhere - people you can talk heady stuff with and people that will drink as much as you and perhaps embarrass themselves as well. But it also makes you realize that you can create that environment in many places and the thought of home starts to dissipate. I say this not to reiterate the message of "Garden State" (oh dramedy movies with a soundtrack, how you seduce us all), but more to wonder when we start to feel like the new life we are creating is our own, and not an escape/replication from our previous one. Does it take marriage, kids, or simply a certain amount of time away before you begin to sever ties with what life once was, and now what it is. When do we lose the nostalgia for the past and gain the ambition for the future? At 22, it seems weird that I am so nostalgic, yet I don't feel I'm alone. Therefore it makes me even more confused to think that I am happy to be home, yet can't really define what home is anymore. I shall think about it more this summer.
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