You get one lifetime...apparently
Living someone else’s life is easier than living your own life – well at least trying to.
After a conversation with someone yesterday I was seriously disturbed while trying to figure out where their own personality/sense of identify ended and their idol’s personality started. It all seemed to flow into one entity – no real sense of original thought to be seen - and this is all based on what can be scrounged from television and tabloids.
I’ve noticed it before and never really thought about it – and you’ll find it all over the place: From the bimbos whose life ambitions are to be WAGS to a guy whom I knew who had problems interacting with people and to compensation decided to emulate the Vulcans from Star Trek (I’m not joking)
It’s just too easy to copy something that’s been done before and generally requires no thinking on your part. Which saddens me – how can you learn about yourself if you try to be somebody else? Most people tend to learn things from experiences they have had – not taking cribnotes from the latest celebrity autobiography (in this country they seemed to be released before the person in question is 30, hell 25 even – what’s worse is that they appear to have been bubblegumified so that the simple people can read them…sometimes I rue the fact that I get to read Book Seller at work) and then finding ways to apply them to their lives…doesn’t always work like that - unless the bloody book is done as a self-help guide to bettering yourself. Queue Tony Robbins and others like him.
If there’s one thing I have learnt is this: you have to learn from your experiences…you don’t. You will just keep repeating them over and over. What worked for the flavour of the month might not work for you – and if you keep wondering why you keep fucking up and doing the same idiotic thing over and over even though you completely copied your idol get someone to administer a swift kick in the arse.
Mind you being complacent in your life and living in a rut is just as bad as trying to be someone else…that I can at least speak about from personal experience. So can most people who have been bothered to pull their finger out their arse and do something about their situation.
I have had it with people still living like it was 1 to however many years ago. Bitching about the same thing as they have done in the time period. It’s as if they have stopped time on that point and are happy about the static point they are at…even if they bitch all the time. And they also expect us to make allowances for them with regards to them being that way.
An example – I used to bemoan the situation I was in at one of my old jobs until I made some effort and looked for another one…eventually that decision led me here. My girlfriend at the time used to tell me to quit bellyaching and do something about it – which only happened when I decided to do something about it…the solution wasn’t handed to me on a platter, even though at the time I kept thinking it should be.
Now I have two people like that whom I interact with…one here and the other back in South Africa. The one back in ZA is easy to deal with – when I go back in December, I’ve decided that if he’s still bitching about the same stuff they was before when I left South Africa 18 months before, I’m going to tear them a new hole – if that costs me my friendship then so be it…after over 15 years of having to keep my mouth shut, I’ve had enough.
The other is back here…worst that could happen if I confront then would be a possible suicide…damn manic depressives…maybe I should just point out which methods would be most/least painful. Actually it doesn’t bother me that much…I feel like emailing them the “Mr Razor says walk down the road, not across” cartoon from Something Positive™
After a conversation with someone yesterday I was seriously disturbed while trying to figure out where their own personality/sense of identify ended and their idol’s personality started. It all seemed to flow into one entity – no real sense of original thought to be seen - and this is all based on what can be scrounged from television and tabloids.
I’ve noticed it before and never really thought about it – and you’ll find it all over the place: From the bimbos whose life ambitions are to be WAGS to a guy whom I knew who had problems interacting with people and to compensation decided to emulate the Vulcans from Star Trek (I’m not joking)
It’s just too easy to copy something that’s been done before and generally requires no thinking on your part. Which saddens me – how can you learn about yourself if you try to be somebody else? Most people tend to learn things from experiences they have had – not taking cribnotes from the latest celebrity autobiography (in this country they seemed to be released before the person in question is 30, hell 25 even – what’s worse is that they appear to have been bubblegumified so that the simple people can read them…sometimes I rue the fact that I get to read Book Seller at work) and then finding ways to apply them to their lives…doesn’t always work like that - unless the bloody book is done as a self-help guide to bettering yourself. Queue Tony Robbins and others like him.
If there’s one thing I have learnt is this: you have to learn from your experiences…you don’t. You will just keep repeating them over and over. What worked for the flavour of the month might not work for you – and if you keep wondering why you keep fucking up and doing the same idiotic thing over and over even though you completely copied your idol get someone to administer a swift kick in the arse.
Mind you being complacent in your life and living in a rut is just as bad as trying to be someone else…that I can at least speak about from personal experience. So can most people who have been bothered to pull their finger out their arse and do something about their situation.
I have had it with people still living like it was 1 to however many years ago. Bitching about the same thing as they have done in the time period. It’s as if they have stopped time on that point and are happy about the static point they are at…even if they bitch all the time. And they also expect us to make allowances for them with regards to them being that way.
An example – I used to bemoan the situation I was in at one of my old jobs until I made some effort and looked for another one…eventually that decision led me here. My girlfriend at the time used to tell me to quit bellyaching and do something about it – which only happened when I decided to do something about it…the solution wasn’t handed to me on a platter, even though at the time I kept thinking it should be.
Now I have two people like that whom I interact with…one here and the other back in South Africa. The one back in ZA is easy to deal with – when I go back in December, I’ve decided that if he’s still bitching about the same stuff they was before when I left South Africa 18 months before, I’m going to tear them a new hole – if that costs me my friendship then so be it…after over 15 years of having to keep my mouth shut, I’ve had enough.
The other is back here…worst that could happen if I confront then would be a possible suicide…damn manic depressives…maybe I should just point out which methods would be most/least painful. Actually it doesn’t bother me that much…I feel like emailing them the “Mr Razor says walk down the road, not across” cartoon from Something Positive™
posted by Shaun at 3:19 PM
1 Comments:
I actually find that you learnt he most about yourself through pretending to be someone else. Whether it's trying to fit into a certain scene, listening to someone else's music, taking on a certain skin...all this just makes you realise what you feel comfortable doing and who you feel comfortable being.
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