So, I’m increasingly interested in what separates us. I am mostly intrigued by this notion because I am so frustrated by it. I suppose it would be safe to say that I am mostly interested in discovering a way to bring us together. I am sickened by the course of our world, so sad about it, so depressed. Solace from the events is easy to capture, it’s just a matter of ignoring the greater problems of our world, ignorance IS bliss, but it’s no way to escape the eventualities.
I have stumbled across a neat-o website www.pandora.com . The site takes on your musical tastes and streams a similar taste based on your picks. It seems to have some pretty deep tracks and I think it is probably funded by those that want me to spend more money, (and I probably will) but not through their pathways. I will write down the artists that I have never heard and like and march down to my independent music store and buy the records.
I bring this site up because it has helped me think about isolating a discourse that no one can argue with and can only help to serve us in the end. We need to find a common denominator that allows us to think at a level we can all be on board with and proceed. Yeah, yeah, idealistic drivel, a song we’ve sung before, I know. I guess the idea I am feeling is one that starts in our hearts and moves out from there. One thing that the aforementioned site does not do is analyze lyrical content. It bases its picks on musical qualities that are similar and groups the choices in this way. That is what I believe we must do in order to find the common ground.
And let’s not take this too far. I don’t think that common ground needs to come from compromise (well yes I do, just not my compromise). There should not have to be compromise if we can come to the place that we love enough to care. 1. We need to love ourselves (personally) in order to care about another, at least healthfully care for another. 2. We need to care for others 3. We need to care for others no matter what. I think we need to be able to do these things if we care to save ourselves. If we don’t (and I don’t think we do now) we won’t accomplish a thing. To a certain degree we need to think about taste. Others may have different tastes than our own but does that mean we don’t all like to eat food in general? There are people that don’t even have enough means to eat at all; do they care fuck all about taste? Our common goals of protection in life should be the basis for our outreach and I am not sure we are anywhere near it right now. I saw a picture in the paper the other day of Israeli children writing messages on bombs headed to Lebanon. Do you think they were writing, “I’m sorry about killing you, hope this bomb finds you well – love, ________”? I doubt it. Why would kids do this? Because they are being taught this way and I personally cannot deal with that idea. We have seen the slaughter of innocents for too long and we are no longer ignorant enough as a species to claim ignorance. Personal responsibility for our actions must be realized and it should start at home. Yeah and sure this means recycling and not buying so much crap and watching so much garbage on TV but I think first and foremost it means not hitting your little brother and talking about why we love each other and establishing a dialogue at a very early age that allows the freedom to express our feelings. It means undertaking the task of figuring out who we are as people, why we got that way, and how to make ourselves better. We need to listen to the music together and figure out what makes us like it. We need to make sure that the lyrical content does not distract us from our common goal.
The ability to commit atrocity and continue a cycle of violence comes from the lack of truly loving ones own heart. The impedances of loving ones self are many. I think it is probably easier to hate and destroy than it is to love and grow. I think progress is much harder than maintenance. We seem to be doing a good job right now at achieving regression.
