… when dealing with stupid people.
Watch this**. Repeat as necessary. It’s 4 minutes and 25 seconds.
Especially that part about “Everyone you know someday will die”… It can help reset your registers when staring down the barrel of an assload of stupid, selfish and inexplicable behavior.
But also for those of you grieving. For those missing someone who’s not around. For those of you who have batted around the idea of tracking down an old friend***. For those losing patience with an elderly relative…
We’re all circling the drain. No point being cranky…
__________
* thanks, kono for the reminder… and a special thanks to dolce and The Brave Little Toaster for providing the gentle bitch-slaps to get me over my holiday annoyance. The Flaming Lips “Do You Realize” has been one of my favorite redemptive, feel-good songs for the past year or so… discovered it on one of The Girl’s playlists on an old cassette tape, and it’s saved the day on more than one occasion.
** Not a great video, necessarily, but a beautiful song. Mildly annoying that Wayne Coyne doesn’t seem to be actually playing anything other than a “C” chord in the video… but ummm…. that’s like a small thing. “Mouse nuts” scale in the grand scheme. i shouldn’t let it bother me, right? i mean, he’s gonna die. So am i… what difference does it make if the video annoys me?
*** No. “Drunk dialing” an ex doesn’t count. That’s NEVER ok.
Tags: Do You Realize, everyone you know someday will die, Flaming Lips, how to, life's short, lighten the fuck up, patience, perspective
December 2, 2008 at 6:49 pm |
Cool song. Just what I needed after a frustrating day wrestling with technology. Thanks.
December 2, 2008 at 8:04 pm |
excellent… and good that there are friends who can merely ‘gently’ bitch slap you back… so, yeah – - lighten the fuck up!
December 2, 2008 at 9:10 pm |
Circling the drain? That’s an interesting way to put it, but so true.
December 3, 2008 at 12:05 am |
I have a different song for those days.
How is your life today- porupine tree.
December 3, 2008 at 12:05 am |
porcupine tree, dam you typo’s
December 3, 2008 at 1:24 am |
Funny, I take the opposite view: we’re all circling the drain, so no point in being serene.
December 3, 2008 at 2:54 am |
If I was surrounded by those goddesses, I wouldn’t really care about much else …….. [luckily, I am surrounded by goddesses, in and out of the virtual world so I'm smiling as I accelerate towards the plug-hole ........ yippppppeeeeeeeee]
December 3, 2008 at 3:30 am |
couldn’t watch this video daisyfae, can’t bear to play the cd either. too many memories but it’s a great song. Flaming Lips and Radiohead are my two favourite bands. actually, I can’t listen to any radiohead yet either, they were played at the funeral.
one day I’ll be able to though
December 3, 2008 at 7:14 am |
silverstar – you vs technology? my money’s on you! it’s an odd song – dark, but uplifting at the same time…
gnu kid – considering myself smacked — again! Thanks. Now YOU lighten the fuck up!
annie – interesting way to look at it, for sure. and makes me feel guilty for all those odd things i’ve washed down drains in my life!
alex – nice… hadn’t heard it before! that same “darkly uplifting” thing…
kyknoord – bastard. now i’ve got to rethink the whole thing. off to scream my way through the grocery store….
DP – smiling and singing! great visual… but please, leave Gertrude behind! she’s a massive hairball waiting to happen!
nm – sending some hugs… one day….
December 3, 2008 at 8:13 am |
Here’s some hard-fought wisdom for everyone: Tracking down an old friend is never a good idea. The internet is the devil’s playground. A Pandora’s Box. A slippery slope. And several other metaphors that indicate a mistake is about to be made.
December 3, 2008 at 12:10 pm |
someday i will instruct the boy, all things willing, that he is to play this when he buries his dad… nursie i understand completely, the more bits and pieces i acquire about S. the more i wish i would’ve met the man, all signs point to him being a complete gem. and if it helps i get misty eyed everytime i listen to this song.
December 3, 2008 at 6:48 pm |
unbearable banishment – i’ve found some good friends that way, but agree that it’s not a good plan if you’re looking for someone who’s exchanged body fluids… not likely to end well…
kono – i’m going to make sure my kids add it to the “Dead Mother Playlist”. They’ve been working on it for years… Norman Greenbaum’s “Spirit in the Sky” will kick it off, and there’ll be a good bit of dance music. nursemyra’s S was not only an amazing man, he was a lucky, lucky man for having nm in his life…
December 4, 2008 at 2:33 pm |
Leave Gertrude behind!!!!!!!! ……… that’s a thought
December 8, 2008 at 12:52 pm |
Hey Daisyfae, I’m stilling lurking here and enjoying your blog… Had to pop in to say “We’re all circling the drain” is the saddest, most pathetic, weirdly poetic way I’ve ever heard our mortality described before. If I have your okay, I must use that line in a future short story….
(And which way do we circle that drain, clockwise or counterclockwise?)
December 8, 2008 at 6:13 pm |
Mercurio – delighted you haven’t thrown in the towel yet on my amateur ramblings! hope Singapore was wonderful – and that you’ve made progress on the book! no need to ask permission – i picked it up from a friend a few years back. To me? It’s not sad, or pathetic — but a very visceral and funny way to consider our temporary status as “breathers”… Regarding clockwise, or counterclockwise? Beats me, man!
December 8, 2008 at 8:54 pm |
Allow me to rephrase: that *description* is just wonderful and weirdly poetic (which is why I’m stealing it
), but it portrays our breathing years, I think, as somewhat sad and pathetic, which is kinda why I like it. And the answer to the clockwise/counterclockwise question: depends on what side of the equator you’re on, right?
“Amateur ramblings?” Pshaw! I’m a fan!
December 8, 2008 at 10:26 pm |
Mercurio – [grinning] i now have a wondrous visual of teeny-tiny human heads, struggling to stay afloat, swirling (counterclockwise, i think) in a cosmic toilet bowl… while some twisted giant (with bad hair) experiments and photographs the results for her own scientific curiosity. Kinda like “Horton Hears A Flush…”. Say hi to MA for me! Believe it or not, i’m still farting around with getting all of our south america photos uploaded…