Think Less/Say Yes

"In the end, no one will ever give a shit who has kept shit 'real' except the two or three people, sitting in their apartments, bitter and self-devouring, who take it upon themselves to wonder about such things. The keeping real of shit matters to some people, but it does not matter to me. It's fashion, and I don't like fashion, because fashion does not matter. 

What matters is that you do good work. What matters is that you produce things that are true and will stand. What matters is not the perception, nor the fashion, not who's up and who's down, but what someone has done and if they meant it. What matters is that you want to see and make and do, on as grand a scale as you want, regardless of what the tiny voices of tiny people say. Do not be critics, you people, I beg you. I was a critic and I wish I could take it all back because it came from a smelly and ignorant place in me, and spoke with a voice that was all rage and envy. Do not dismiss a book until you have written one, and do not dismiss a movie until you have made one, and do not dismiss a person until you have met them. It is a fuckload of work to be open-minded and generous and understanding and forgiving and accepting, but Christ, that is what matters. What matters is saying yes. 

I say yes, and if that makes me the enemy, then good, good, good. We are evil people because we want to live and do things. We are on the wrong side because we should be home, calculating which move would be the least damaging to our downtown reputations. But I say yes because I am curious. I want to see things. I say yes when my high school friend tells me to come out because he's hanging with Puffy. A real story, that. I say yes when Hollywood says they'll give me enough money to publish a hundred different books, or send twenty kids through college. Saying no is so fucking boring. 

And if anyone wants to hurt me for that, or dismiss me for that, for saying yes, I say: Oh do it, do it you motherfuckers, finally, finally, finally."

-Dave Eggers*

Eggers is a pretty smart motherfucker and, while sometimes a bit overwrought, one of the better writers out there today. After about half of his A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, I'm beginning to think the title may not be an exaggeration.

His point here is one I think about a lot, though I have little success implementing it. Even though we have greater ability to communicate today than ever before, we seem even more separated and fragmented and distant than usual. I guess it's because every time we communicate we're putting a little piece of ourselves out there to be judged, and that fear doesn't go away even for the most self-assured. In an era of constant communication, those pieces eventually add up to a paralyzing fear of opening up to new people or revealing new aspects of our lives to those we do know. And it all leads to the routine and stagnation we humans seem to naturally crave.

Eggers says, and I want to say, "Fuck that." If you want to do something, do it. If you're happy smile. If you're sad cry. If you're angry buy a Mitt Romney cardboard cutout and punch the hell out of it. If you're masochistic watch a Rams game while listening to Nickelback. Don't lie about how you feel to seem normal or to gain some perverted sense of community. Fuck the haters and the potential haters. Stay true to yourself and you won't have any regrets. Appreciate yourself and eventually others will follow suit.

Listening to the haters breeds regret, but so does not listening to the inviting call of opportunity. Better to do something and hate it than not do it and always wonder. So do things you've never done. Go outside. Laugh at others, laugh at yourself, laugh at life. You'll sleep when you're dead.

Now, if only I could listen to my own advice more often.

(song vaguely related to the larger point-you can figure out how, my genius readers!)

((plus, Japandroids are fucking awesome, so you really should listen!))

(((that is all.)))

*Eggers is a UIUC graduate! This is a fact that will hopefully please roughly one-third of our readers!