Horrifying ...

Let me just start today’s entry out with a simple thought: I fucking despise Adele’s music. I don’t know the woman, so I can’t say much about her personally, and I will admit – she’s got a helluva singing voice. But whoever told her it’s a great idea to sing nothing but torch songs needs to be fucking shot. Of course, that is par for the course with the music scene … cram shite down the throats of the masses, tell them it is good enough times, and they will listen and buy. After all, what is the music industry really about anymore, but making money off the masses. Seemingly gone are the days when bands/musicians/artists could work their way up and be discovered; now we have shite like American Idol and the Voice to determine who is “good”. So I’m not a good musician if Steven Tired, J Ho., and Rand-Dawg don’t like what I sing? It’s a sad state when you have real musicians and artists overlooked for a flash in the pan … give me some Ray LaMontagne, or Paul Westerberg, or State Radio, or Elvis Costello (I could go on for hours) over the tripe played on most radio. But I digress …

Not that I have a rant out of the way, let’s move on to something more relative, shall we? As many of my dear readers may know, I am on a bit of a journey of self-recovery. Yes, it is a journey of self-recovery. I left pieces of who I am along the road as I have travelled over the past 15-20 years … so I am working on recovering those pieces that make up who I am – replacing the pieces I created to be someone other than who I really am.

As I am sure you have seen, I am ‘experimenting’ with quite a bit of honesty … and with that honesty and openness, also comes a filtering system. If you have seen “Invention of Lying”, you know the premise of the world – but do you realize what is missing? A filter … because one has a mental/verbal filter does not mean he/she is dishonest. There is a difference that some people fail to acknowledge and use – you can tell a person the truth without being brutal or damaging. It’s a matter of what you say and how you say it.

Look at a typical lie told by people everywhere: “Does this make me look fat/stupid/bad/insert descriptor here?”

What is the common answer? ‘Oh no, not at all’ when the person is actually thinking ‘yup, totally’. Why not look at what we’re saying instead of lying? Why is it so difficult to respond with “You know, that probably isn’t the best choice … it’s a little too clingy/revealing/clashes with your hair/etc”. While an initial reaction might be shock, how refreshing would that be? To know that someone cares to be honest with you, to be able to tell you what you are wearing/doing doesn’t quite work … why does it have to be so difficult (most politicians aside)?

I know I spent much of my time lying to be someone else … as I have previously discussed in these pages … but what is so difficult for us to be honest with each other and ourselves, instead of needlessly lying about matters that are often insignificant in the big picture? Being honest in the beginning can save us a lot of time down the line, picking up the broken pieces of yesterday’s lies.