Monday, May 7, 2012

Spew


Well first weekend passes with no post. It was a busy one with:
·         Friday night dinner with friends at the Orient
·         Saturday house work, guitar practice and 70th Birthday Celebration of my mom Risë. Lots of fun at City Winery seeing Nancy Griffith. I will touch on this later
·         Sunday More house work and up keep , guitar practice and Band Practice.. Will definitely touch on this again
I guess the thing that now sticks out for me as I wrote the list is how much as adults we are still children. Granted we cope with responsibility and most of us have learned to play fair most of the time. Most of us have not shaken the self centered thing completely. Going to the City Winery with my kids, wife, Father, Mother, Sister and Uncle highlighted what kids can be like as I still felt the need to separate my 12 and 16 year old. I would have hoped that they would be able at this point to grasp the concept that this was their Nana’s night not theirs and that they could suck it up without incident. I am not going to cross over and start playing the blame game but suffice it to say you ARE still a kid when you can’t manage to sit for a few hrs and just chill. If your disappointment causes any slight irregularity to throw you into provoking a fight or to perseverate on how much this ISN’T where you want to be you need to eat some humble pie and STFU. This touches off my feelings about us as adults. How do we handle things like this between us? I have come to the conclusion that sometimes there is little or no difference between us and our kids.

As I have stated in a previous post, I am in a band. It is a band of characters. Some of whom don’t do well with not being in charge. I want to make sure to be clear that I do not absolve myself from this discussion. We have all come to this with expectations, desires and a feeling of what we want to do. This can come across as an entitlement or a righteous indignation about how, what, when and why things get done. Things can get heated and opinions run deep and strong. There are a few controlling factions and an obvious competition between two members, DRAMA. I have noticed with my kids that being 15 or 16 can be defined by drama so to can it is if you are ‘40 something’ and in a band. Understand that we as a band can play some songs but we are by no means professional. Nor are our chops tight. I don’t want to sell us to short as individually we are OK and together we are growing but we are not Pro’s.  The band is a major compromise on all levels as we each are compromising what songs we play. Just know that if some of the songs we play come on the radio while driving I would not avoid an accident to turn them off or as like Bob did in let’s make a dope deal 2 I would be yelling for the Cleaver. 
 Cheech & Chong's - Let's Make A New Dope Deal!

There are also expectations of us to play gigs that we are obviously not ready for. We might in the future but now we need to focus on getting good. Be that as it may 16 year old girls have nothing on guys in the 40’s for drama or for wanting things their way.
As an adult it boils down to things be tenable. It’s all a compromise no matter what you are involved in. If you exist in a world where you don’t have to compromise you become insulated and eccentric and I don’t mean in a good way. You become hopelessly narcissistic. You will find that unless you own the people around you they will disappear. Compromise has its limits and everyone’s lines are drawn in the sand at different places but we all have them. At a certain point we find the acceptance of others needs trod too much on our own and we have to make choices. I think about this a lot as I feel like I make a bunch of compromises regularly and at times they provoke anger and or hopelessness in me. I have been trying to pay attention to my limits and to be conscious that I have them in an effort to reduce the strain reaching those put on my soul.  I am sure that others are compromising for me to but the question still remains how far you compromise before you are just giving in? Giving in and letting go can be healthy but if that is all that you do you become a door mat. All relationships have them. Getting past them to a healthier sincere give and take where you really want to compromise for the other is where I want to be. This extends way past others. It’s funny I find that the toughest compromises I make are the ones I make with myself. They usually are me keeping me from growing and becoming or doing what I need. This blog, whatever it is, finds me not compromising with myself any longer over taking actions creatively or with finding release. I am finally taking my own advice. At some point the posts will turn from self realization to creativity but for know you are going to have to just tolerate my spew


Enjoy the above Clip ... Minus 5 Great band not just because Jeff Tweedy is in it :-)


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