Possibly one of my biggest regrets about my life as it is right now is that I don’t read.
It’s fucking tragic when I think about how back at varsity when I was reading English Honours I was motoring through about a book a week, some of the best literature ever written, and now I read about a book a year.
And it shows too. I used to be all clever and stuff and could write good, but now all I can do is shoot a buncha shit on my cell phone and work computers to make dorky internet videos and stuff.
Anyway, I digest.
For my birthday, J-Rab got me “Scar Tissueâ€, Anthony Kiedis’ autobiography and I’ve eaten that book alive, devouring entire chapters whole as the words rushed into my mind to fill the empty space that literature used to occupy.
It also helps that it’s a pretty amazing account of the life of one of the world’s craziest motherfuckers still alive.
I mean we’re talking about a guy who lost his virginity to his dad’s 18 year-old girlfriend when he was 11. And what’s even crazier is that not only did his dad know about it, but he brokered the deal after Kiedis asked him to!
It’s a wild read, but while I’ve loved every page of that book, it’s also made me think long and hard about my own life and how tame and boring it is in comparison.
The funny thing about life is that all those naughty kids back in school that everyone thought would amount to nothing seem to come out of the system with an edge that ends up getting them really far in life.
I think it’s because they get used to being confronted and put on the spot and being the centre of attention and those experiences actually equip them really well later on in life.
The people that break all the rules are the ones who end up making them one day.
If only I’d known that back when I was a kid maybe I wouldn’t have wasted my childhood and a good portion of my adult life so far colouring in the lines instead of drawing my own.
-ST
comparing our lives to those around us is the most disheartening (or satisfying) thing we can do. umm, something i’ve been throwing around upstairs, i think the reasons for a lot of the things we aspire to achieve are based on how others will react. some have said it’s a good enough reason, although i agree i kinda don’t like that. often i dream to live in a world without any influence. imagine if there was no-one to compare your life to, how would you live your life?
If there was no one to compare my life to, I think I might actually be really, really happy, but at the same time, I wouldn’t really achieve anything at all, probably just sit around a lot in my underpants with a big goofy smile on my face, content in every way but no idea why.
Every goal I’ve ever set myself has been based on how others will react which is already a recipe for disaster because the older I get, the more I realise that there are very, very few people out there that share the same sense of humour and ideas that I do, so generally the things I create and the ideas I have are met with totally blank stares or very little enthusiasm.
Fuck ’em. Fuck ’em all. Rejection makes me angry and, like The Incredible Hulk, anger makes me MASSIVE so I can smash buildings and stuff (metaphorically speaking).
That’ll teach ’em!
-ST
It’s like the two kids who go for the same job interview.
The first does not lie about his achievements, but is rather very honest and modest about what he has done and subsequently is able to do. As a result he is put in the “correct” job at say, “level 1” for which he is well “suited” and capable of doing. He will go through life an ambitious kid and grow from “level 1” gradually through his career.
The Second lies. He tells exaggerated and overly elaborate, but believable stories of his achievements and how fantastic he is and as a result is immediately slotted in above the first kid at say, “level 3” as this kid is obviously more “suited” for this job. Kid Two then somehow wings it, makes it and is a huge success. His career quickly grows and as a result his abilities grow exponentially and he rockets through the same company leaving Kid One in the mail room, while Kid Two is nailing his own series of secretaries, in the top floor boardroom.
Well, kinda, but I think you know what I mean.
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