Remember the first time you heard rock 'n' roll? Remember that
overpowering guitar riff? Those Punchy as FUCK Drums? Do you remember when you
first heard the truth?
No. I'm not saying Rock 'n' Roll is your truth. Our realities
differ. And that's okay. It could be some pop or classical song you heard (Fur
Elise was that piece of music for me) but that isn't the point. Remember that
one song that changed your world? Go listen to it again. Right now. And if you
feel the same insane thrill (nostalgia doesn’t count), that song is the truth
for you. And hold on to that truth man. In case that song isn’t the truth, go
listen to more songs that had that effect on you. And if none of them work, go
listen to one hundred new songs. Not as they come to you. There’s no joy in
listening to a song just because the radio decided to play the new big
bollywood hit. No. Go find some music. Hell! Go ask your grandparents or
parents or your uncles or aunts or neighbor or annoying cousin a what they’re
listening to. Go ask an obscure friend for some. Or go to 8tracks. Google great
songs. Youtube the fuck out of the idea. And a few years from now, maybe, just
maybe, you’ll listen to one or more of those again and say to yourself, “Yeah,
that’s the truth!”
Don’t get me wrong here. I’m not trying to be preachy. And I’m
not just talking about music. I’m talking about books and poems and movies and
paintings and essays too. Man, I’m talking about life.
I’m talking about the motherfucking passion to LOOK for
something! I’m talking about that yearning to explore the unknown. The
addiction to knowing more. That dirty dirty habit of questioning. I’m talking
about the truth.
Every single day, I realize more and more and more that for some
obscure reason, we’ve just stopped asking questions. Not silly little questions
like ‘when is the next MI match’ but more important ones. Essential ones. Like,
‘Is there anything more to this?’ or ‘What’s the story behind that?’ or ‘How
does all this work?’.
It’s that gradually growing lack of curiosity that has made it
possible of us to allow ourselves, almost willingly, to be dumbed down to the
point where we find so many of us believing in and defending this notion that
we posses the God given right to mediocrity. To a mundane existence. To not
giving a damn. To being okay with something that we know in our bones, is
fundamentally wrong.
Of course, we rarely even know if something is wrong or right.
We’ve been so very successful in closing ourselves into that fuckall tiny box
full of Bollywood and alcohol and the latest scam to even realize the real
problems we’re facing both as individuals and a people.
When was the last time you asked yourself what your deepest darkest
problem was? When was the last time you asked yourself about your demons? I’m
not asking you to fight them. That is not my place. But I’m asking you a
question in the hope that maybe, just maybe, it’ll make your ask yourself one
or two.
I can’t say that I’m some supreme being. Some awakened wizened
soul. But I can tell you without an ounce of dishonesty that I’m trying my
very best to be the best I can. When was
the last time you honestly tried that?
No. It doesn’t make you a good or a
bad person. In my experience, everyone’s an asshole and everyone’s nice
depending on how well you know ‘em. It hardly matters. But maybe that’s the
problem huh?
Maybe if it was drilled into our
heads that questioning all that we see is the supreme right. Maybe the idea of
blind obedience was never taught in schools. Maybe you’d have heard the truth
ten times over today.
Again, I guess it really isn’t my
place to say. So I’ll stop here. But I’ll ask you this one more time. Remember
the first time you hear that Rock ‘n’ Roll?
