I'm not actually sure that this is the twenty-sixth year that I have made a New Years resolution. I'm fairly certain that it didn't happen much (or at all) when I was a small child, but I remember myself as the kind of kid that "wanted one of those" even if I wasn't totally on top of whatever one of those was. As a result I'm sure that my early resolutions were probably along the lines of, "play more video games" or perhaps even "I like bananas", which I still do.
I want to talk about Phil Collins for a few lines, which may initially appear to be unrelated, but I'll bring it around. Phil Collins, who I will call PDCC from here on in, is a musician. He was the drummer in a band called Genesis until the original lead singer left to wear his own pants. PDCC stepped up and the band changed, which is the kind of thing that happens when people leave bands. I like the original lineup of Genesis, and I also like the lineup that followed. There was another lineup after that that I am actually unfamiliar with, which is on me.
PDCC later went solo, and the stuff that he did when he was solo is the kind of thing that I quite enjoy listening to. Serious Hits... LIVE! is one of my favourite albums. I get down to it in an enthusiastic and delighted sort of way. As a result, PDCC has at times made me very happy.
In the last decade or so people have built and populated a 'hating PDCC' bandwagon. A bandwagon which apparently transcends being actually able to name or hum any PDCC songs. Eventually he walked away from it all, and even defended the people who had been mean to him. This is a guy that did what he loved, and it reached a point where he retired believing that he was doing the world a favour.
There is this thing of which I am aware, and it is a thing of which I am aware a lot of the time, but I have become painfully oversensitive to in the last couple of months. We as a society say a lot of really mean things about people, and then we start laughing. This kind of seems weird to me. I guess it always has, but like so many things it is easy to tell ourselves that it isn't really so bad.
It can be bad though. I can be very bad. It depends a lot on what's happening on the other end, which is something we can't really be aware of all of the time. We justify it to ourselves that it is okay to say these things, because we don't really mean it, and that person is just going through some stuff so it is not really on us.
A lot of you that know me in the real world know that I have probably been one of the worst perpetrators of this in the past, which really extends pretty much most of the way up until writing. I want to change this. I don't want to be hurting people anymore.
As an extension, we as a society are quick to cut people down instead of finding a more positive and supportive way of communicating with other people. This ruins people. We are ruined by these things as people.
I'm going to find better things to laugh about, and I'm going to find better ways of communicating with people. I want people to feel better around me. There are some habits that need to be broken, but I'm committing myself to breaking them. When it becomes hard and I don't know what I should do or try next, I'm going to turn to the fact that PDCC is writing music again with the intension of returning to the stage, which makes me happy.
I want to talk about Phil Collins for a few lines, which may initially appear to be unrelated, but I'll bring it around. Phil Collins, who I will call PDCC from here on in, is a musician. He was the drummer in a band called Genesis until the original lead singer left to wear his own pants. PDCC stepped up and the band changed, which is the kind of thing that happens when people leave bands. I like the original lineup of Genesis, and I also like the lineup that followed. There was another lineup after that that I am actually unfamiliar with, which is on me.
PDCC later went solo, and the stuff that he did when he was solo is the kind of thing that I quite enjoy listening to. Serious Hits... LIVE! is one of my favourite albums. I get down to it in an enthusiastic and delighted sort of way. As a result, PDCC has at times made me very happy.
In the last decade or so people have built and populated a 'hating PDCC' bandwagon. A bandwagon which apparently transcends being actually able to name or hum any PDCC songs. Eventually he walked away from it all, and even defended the people who had been mean to him. This is a guy that did what he loved, and it reached a point where he retired believing that he was doing the world a favour.
There is this thing of which I am aware, and it is a thing of which I am aware a lot of the time, but I have become painfully oversensitive to in the last couple of months. We as a society say a lot of really mean things about people, and then we start laughing. This kind of seems weird to me. I guess it always has, but like so many things it is easy to tell ourselves that it isn't really so bad.
It can be bad though. I can be very bad. It depends a lot on what's happening on the other end, which is something we can't really be aware of all of the time. We justify it to ourselves that it is okay to say these things, because we don't really mean it, and that person is just going through some stuff so it is not really on us.
A lot of you that know me in the real world know that I have probably been one of the worst perpetrators of this in the past, which really extends pretty much most of the way up until writing. I want to change this. I don't want to be hurting people anymore.
As an extension, we as a society are quick to cut people down instead of finding a more positive and supportive way of communicating with other people. This ruins people. We are ruined by these things as people.
I'm going to find better things to laugh about, and I'm going to find better ways of communicating with people. I want people to feel better around me. There are some habits that need to be broken, but I'm committing myself to breaking them. When it becomes hard and I don't know what I should do or try next, I'm going to turn to the fact that PDCC is writing music again with the intension of returning to the stage, which makes me happy.
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