"Positioning"

     Status is a funny thing. In this country especially, we are made aware of it and it's implications, at a very early age. There is hierarchy within the family: parental, parent to child, as well as parent to parent; and sibling status within the group. A lot of dynamics, all playing off one another and all having something to do with the status each individual enjoys out in the world, separately from the group.

      Status at school. If you didn't have it, you were acutely aware of that fact and even if you thought you had it, it's only fucken high school, it doesn't really count. College might be another story, but when you're in college everyone is busy blowing smoke up your ass, telling you what a bright and special flower you are, so it isn't very realistic.


     Yes, you only truly know what the world thinks of you once you leave the bubble; and it isn't very much, trust me. My grandfather used to say, 
   "Don't take yourself too seriously, nobody else does." I have only recently clued in to how accurate a statement this is. But it takes a long time to realize how ultimately impotent and mediocre you are in the cosmic scheme of things. No one would ever leave the nest without the requisite hubris and over-blown sense of self. It's only a few thousand kicks in the teeth later, that you realize why old guys move so slow. There's no fucking hurry. From dust whence you came, so too shall you return. 

      But there is some living to do in the meantime and to be even marginally successful at it, you need some God damned positioning. And lest you forget that every other swingin' dick in the territory is jockeying for position himself, we now have the aid of mass media to constantly remind us. Women: you'd better be beautiful. (forget smart, that shit's overrated.) Men: you'd better be rich. (and good looking if you want to spend some of that money on a woman.) Everyone: Be fit. Be rich. Be good looking. Be a perfectly shaped, independently wealthy, underwear model that eats vegan food paste made from sustainable green fuel.

     What a perfectly shaped ball of shit. Does anyone care if you're nice to people anymore? Do they care if you have respect for your elders and family? Do they care if you are truly a good person at heart? Pfft, are you kidding?!? Of course they fucking don't! Mother Theresa was a beautiful person. Ghandi was an amazing man. I've never once heard of anyone telling their children to be like either one of them. Michael Jordan made more money than God, by playing a game and being a giant self-centered prick. Just so he and his father could drive sports cars, drink all night, gamble and dick whores. There are countless parents nation-wide, women and men, that would kill to have their kids be exactly like him.

      My point is, in this massive struggle for supremacy we have going on out in the world today, how do we expect people to be able to differentiate between the necessary amount of confidence one needs to be able to effectively bring home the bacon and an amount that bleeds out over the family and can color an entire lifetime with resentment and despair. Success at the cost of family and friends isn't much of a success. At the end of the day, things are just things and while some money is needed to live and definitely can make things more comfortable; I don't think that amassing huge amounts of wealth is necessarily a guarantee of true happiness. David Lee Roth said,
   "Money can't buy you happiness, but you can get a huge yacht, pull up next to happiness and crawl all over it." And while I completely concur with this statement, one hundred percent; it would be pretty sad crawling all over happiness by yourself.

     I guess what I want to say is this; think about it. At what cost, this thing success? And success at what? Excelling at some endeavor that only serves to widen the gap between the haves and have nots? And in turn widens the gap between family members? It has been my limited experience that friends and family will stick around, even when all your 'stuff' has been taken from you. I mean, if you've been nice to them. I've known a couple of rich folks in my time and I don't know if I would classify any of them as 'happy'. I have also known a few poor folks that had some of the most wonderful existences and richest lives I've ever seen. It was mostly due to their particular experience, usually coming from some sort of adversity, and having a life perspective that shines a light on what is truly important.

     Nobody wants to be subservient to someone else, but try and show each other a little fucking respect from time to time. It goes a long way.