Sunday, January 20, 2008
Much Inward Looking To Come In This Post....
I was recently reading "Lennon Remembers" the book length interview with Rolling Stone magazine that John Lennon gave in 1970. The interview took down much of the superhuman facade of Mr. Lennon and showed off his human side as he offered bluntly candid comments on his life, his music, Yoko and The Beatles.
One particular part of the interview that stuck out was when Lennon made the observation that most geniuses realize they're geniuses when they're very young and kind of want validation for it. He talks about how his aunt threw away some poetry and song lyrics he wrote when he was a teenager and how he told her she'd be sorry.
Why, Lennon wonders, was he not encouraged in following his own form of self-expression?
I raise the same question about myself. I labor under no illusions that I'm a genius on the level of Lennon or Ray Charles or Stanley Kubrick. Yet I wonder: Why, when it was obvious early on, that my true interest and talent lay in creative expression, was I not guided in that direction?
My parents always encouraged me to "follow your dreams". However, they seemed to talk the talk. But very rarely walk the walk. More often than not, it seemed like I was being guided on to the path toward corporate America. What was the reason? Was it fear that if I did not follow the path they envisioned for me, I would end up as a starving, free-loading, dilettante?
A while back my father and I were talking about how one of my former HS classmates went to law school and became a lawyer. Since then, he's used that as an example of how he feels I have not lived up to my potential yet.
You know what Dad? I agree with you on the second part. However, on the first part I strongly disagree. Did it ever occur to you that maybe I didn't want to be a fucking lawyer or accountant? Did it ever occur to you that I didn't like being browbeat on to the corporate path, be it either by well-intentioned but misguided parents or by an educational system that's interested less in teaching its students how to think than what to think?
In all honesty, the only career outside of the creative sector to really have any appeal to me was teaching. But when I talked about maybe doing that back when I was still in school, I was told that I couldn't become a teacher unless I passed college level math. WHAT THE FUCK????? Why would I have to pass college level Math to be a history teacher??? Why????
Maybe I shouldn't have quit college when I did. Maybe that could have saved me form ending up exactly where I am now. Maybe. But maybe not. Maybe I would still be a corporate drone, only without any of my creativity or originality. Maybe I'd be convinced that being a drone was doing a great thing for myself and for society. Maybe. But I doubt it seriously.
At the time I started this blog nearly 4 years ago, I was working towards a goal of maybe being the next Mark Twain. At the time, I was looking for a job. Today I have a job and my goal has changed from being the next Twain to being the next Scorsese or Spike Lee. I cite those two men as my prime influences because they consistently put out great work and the work they put put is what they want you to see. That's what I want to do.
So off I go with my camera to shoot some scenes for a music video I will post on Youtube when it's completed. And I will close this entry with the following quote from the aforementioned Spike Lee:
"Parents kill more dreams than anybody else... so don't let anyone stand in the way of your dreams … I say my prayers every night because I get to do what I love."
I was recently reading "Lennon Remembers" the book length interview with Rolling Stone magazine that John Lennon gave in 1970. The interview took down much of the superhuman facade of Mr. Lennon and showed off his human side as he offered bluntly candid comments on his life, his music, Yoko and The Beatles.
One particular part of the interview that stuck out was when Lennon made the observation that most geniuses realize they're geniuses when they're very young and kind of want validation for it. He talks about how his aunt threw away some poetry and song lyrics he wrote when he was a teenager and how he told her she'd be sorry.
Why, Lennon wonders, was he not encouraged in following his own form of self-expression?
I raise the same question about myself. I labor under no illusions that I'm a genius on the level of Lennon or Ray Charles or Stanley Kubrick. Yet I wonder: Why, when it was obvious early on, that my true interest and talent lay in creative expression, was I not guided in that direction?
My parents always encouraged me to "follow your dreams". However, they seemed to talk the talk. But very rarely walk the walk. More often than not, it seemed like I was being guided on to the path toward corporate America. What was the reason? Was it fear that if I did not follow the path they envisioned for me, I would end up as a starving, free-loading, dilettante?
A while back my father and I were talking about how one of my former HS classmates went to law school and became a lawyer. Since then, he's used that as an example of how he feels I have not lived up to my potential yet.
You know what Dad? I agree with you on the second part. However, on the first part I strongly disagree. Did it ever occur to you that maybe I didn't want to be a fucking lawyer or accountant? Did it ever occur to you that I didn't like being browbeat on to the corporate path, be it either by well-intentioned but misguided parents or by an educational system that's interested less in teaching its students how to think than what to think?
In all honesty, the only career outside of the creative sector to really have any appeal to me was teaching. But when I talked about maybe doing that back when I was still in school, I was told that I couldn't become a teacher unless I passed college level math. WHAT THE FUCK????? Why would I have to pass college level Math to be a history teacher??? Why????
Maybe I shouldn't have quit college when I did. Maybe that could have saved me form ending up exactly where I am now. Maybe. But maybe not. Maybe I would still be a corporate drone, only without any of my creativity or originality. Maybe I'd be convinced that being a drone was doing a great thing for myself and for society. Maybe. But I doubt it seriously.
At the time I started this blog nearly 4 years ago, I was working towards a goal of maybe being the next Mark Twain. At the time, I was looking for a job. Today I have a job and my goal has changed from being the next Twain to being the next Scorsese or Spike Lee. I cite those two men as my prime influences because they consistently put out great work and the work they put put is what they want you to see. That's what I want to do.
So off I go with my camera to shoot some scenes for a music video I will post on Youtube when it's completed. And I will close this entry with the following quote from the aforementioned Spike Lee:
"Parents kill more dreams than anybody else... so don't let anyone stand in the way of your dreams … I say my prayers every night because I get to do what I love."
