well, that could’ve gone better

OR: why feel hate when you can listen to kansas?

I think the most profoundly intimate thing we can do for each other these days is provide an excuse to not scroll through social media. I mean, what information are we actually getting on there, amirite? Oh, just that whole generations of people diametrically oppose each other and also NASA is suddenly playing it fast and loose with the whole interstellar lifeform thing?

Now, I’m not gonna go on a tirade about social media’s contributions to daily anguish. I’m not gonna toke the flames of our collective political superiority complex. I am, though, gonna tell you that while trying to notice and define emotions (heyo audhd), I realized:

listening to kansas on vinyl makes me feel better about the world than engaging in current events on social media.

critter-friggen duh. amirite?

And, I dunno, I’m with Border Cro|sing this week singing shimmery, earthly music by Modesta Bor and there’s so much poetry about the dichotomy of love’s pain & joy, and my nerves are shot to hell, and there’s so much violence in the world, and I’m just a speck of dust and I get to asking: ‘what hurts so much’?

Do you ever think about how recently it’s been since we didn’t know what was happening a few miles away? About 100(ish) years. Is that enough time to know how to cope with everything that happens always?

I’m all for the information boom and grateful to know about all the daily global atrocities. Compassion is important these days, but being a punk about it and taking action is better. And, of course, sharing information is action. So, that overburden is necessary to keep the goblins in check, spread the word, and all. It’s worth it to know.

All I’m trying to say is that humans these days seem to want to over-engage in traumatic events and then unburden themselves of it by sharing with as many other humans as possible, with an opinion attached for dessert.

And all I’m saying with that is that I recently realized that listening to music feels better than sharing my opinion on the internet. That voicing the terrible thing with a loved one renders the problem impermanent. That it’s impossible to both act and propagate. That global reality is not local reality. That local connection is global connection.

But, I get it. It’s hard to humanize any situation. They’ve gotten so good getting us to stop looking up and seeing who we’re here with.

A poem:

In my pocket
(near vital organs)
Is a radioactive computer
Where children
And adults
Are dying and
Suddenly legions
Of strangers
Hate each other for it.
But, on a run today,
The world showed me a dog
Named Webbs
Who I tickled on the head
For a second.
Which reality
Affects the other?

If you’re picking up what I’m throwing down, gather at a show. Share what the world is making you feel, converse, listen, observe, then go on your way. Luckily, Modesta Bor’s music exists. So do avant-choirs and improvisational metal bands. And way more songs than can be conceived. And and and.

See you at a show (tell yr frnds, bring yr enemies)

Luv, Justin