NaPoWriMo 2019 Day 30 + Poems in April 2019 Day 30: Thank You Jimi

Copyright Nico van der Stam

I want to thank you

For some much-needed wisdom

Across many years

~Cie~

Notes:

I watched the Jimi Hendrix documentary, Voodoo Child, this evening. 

I didn't really become a Jimi Hendrix fan until I was in my teens. He died when I was only five years old. I saw a documentary about him when I was eighteen or nineteen, and it was good, but this documentary reveals more of his personal thoughts. He was brilliant and he left a lot of wisdom for the world. 

The wisdom he imparted to me today is to stop looking for adulation and approval from others. This is something that I've struggled with my entire life.

When asked how it felt to receive so many compliments about his work, Jimi said that he really didn't care about compliments, in fact, he found that they distracted him from what was important: creation.

I think that's what it really means to be secure in oneself. Not so much thinking that one is flawless, but to be able to see the worth of one's goals and actions regardless of the opinions of the masses. 

Lots of views and comments stroke the needy ego of the insecure and wounded child that remains within the crusty, curmudgeonly, and likely not at all tasty exterior shell which houses my soul. 

This becomes a distraction to the creator. I start wanting to please my visitors rather than express myself through my words.

Next time I get stuck in that unharmonious groove, I need to remember Jimi's wise thoughts on the matter.

I will always be a fan of Jimi Hendrix the musician. 

Perhaps most people won't understand this, but that doesn't matter.

I also appreciate Jimi Hendrix the philosopher, and I'm grateful for the wisdom and works that he left behind.

(Don't move: this has been a Haibun!)

The Cheese Grates It: I Just Can't Even With This Shit

Yep, this isn’t gross, disrespectful, or fetishizing at all.
Not like it totally ignores a person’s illness and suffering. Forget that. They looked sexy when they posed for a picture 50 years ago.
Yes, this shit actually is a problem. It isn’t cute or funny. It’s entitlement.
Let me break it down a little.

Here’s David Bowie. He was so very talented. He was kind and gentle. Yes, he was attractive. Shockingly, it is possible to find people attractive while still respecting them and not fetishizing them. This kind of becomes even more important when the person is no longer of this world.
David Bowie died of cancer early in 2016. But by all means, let’s fetishize and objectify him. Because that’s hawt.

Here’s a picture of a young David Cassidy with his brother, Shaun.
David Cassidy was very attractive.
He was also much more troubled than most people realized.
He developed dementia in his later years. This isn’t what killed him directly, although it eventually would have. He died from multiple organ failure. His last words to his daughter were “so much wasted time.”
That’s really fucking sad.
But, by all means, do continue to objectify him. Because your masturbation fantasy is far more important than showing respect for the dead, and it surely is not possible to find someone attractive without fetishizing them.

Malcolm Young wasn’t conventionally attractive, but there are certainly plenty of entitled individuals who see fit to fetishize him, even though his illness and decline were beyond tragic. For the past ten years, his brain was literally deteriorating, and, at the end, he didn’t even recognize the people who meant the most to him, such as his children and his siblings.
But, by all means, objectify the fuck out of him, because one time, nearly forty years ago, there was a picture of him that looked like this.

Don’t forget to fetishize his grieving brother too, even though he’s still alive. It isn’t like he’s a human being or anything. He’s there as fodder for your fantasy.

Since the grossness wouldn’t be complete if you weren’t fetishizing the entire family, here’s a picture of a youthful George Young back in the 1960′s. George died back in October. He was a really talented musician and producer. But who cares about that? He was sexy in his youth!

As an added bonus, you can fetishize Alex Young too. He died in 1998 from lung cancer. Suffering and death, that’s so hot. Particularly since it’s completely impossible to find people attractive without objectifying them.
The reason I find this sort of thinking atrocious is because it is rife with entitlement (my desires above everything else) while completely lacking empathy. It isn’t cute. It isn’t funny. It isn’t edgy. It’s perverse.
When I say “perverse,” I don’t mean sexually kinky. I mean it deviates from right thinking. By right thinking, I mean having an attitude of compassion towards others. Seeing others as objects to be ogled and utterly ignoring their struggles is sociopathic. It takes only your own desires into account. People become things. A world in which people are seen as things is an ugly world.
The Cheese Hath Grated It

30 Days of Haiga Day 23 + OctPoWriMo Day 6: The Hand Dealt

Original Background Image

Copyright: thirteenfifty / 123RF Stock Photo

The Story:

This Haiga-turned-Haibun started out being about me and my chronic condition of being overworked, broke, and tired, but I decided instead to dedicate it to someone who was tough yet tender, a kind gentleman with a rough exterior who cared about others but would suffer bullshit from no-one.

Lemmy Kilmister has been gone from this world for close to two years now, but his music will live on forever. He can never be imitated, but his influence will continue, to be sure.

This one's for you, Lemmy, with thoughts of love, friendship, and admiration always from one of your fans from way back. I hope the Afterlife is amazing because you deserve nothing less.

Love ya,

Cie

In Memory of Bon Scott 2017

9 July 1946 - 19 February 1980

It is hard for me to believe that it is 37 years since Bon Scott's passing. I found out only a few days after I turned 15. This may seem like a real lame ass admission to the sophisticated types who may be reading these words, but I was rather in love with him at the time, and beyond that, I just liked him. He was a good person and something of a personal hero, someone who I would think of when I was trying to be brave. 

His death devastated me. I've actually never gotten over it, although, and you can take this as you want to, (but don't be a dick) I've accepted it because he's told me that things are okay. 

Bon may be best known for his infamously cheeky song lyrics, but I always thought that the best thing about him was his wish to bring a bit of laughter and fun into the lives of others. I always felt like he realized that a lot of people were living difficult lives and maybe he thought he didn't have a lot of ability to change that, but he did have a knack for writing songs and making people laugh. It was sort of like he was saying "I know you've had a raw deal in life, Mate, but here's something to take your mind off that for a minute. It's my humble gift to you."

That humble gift was worth a lot and far outweighs any of the mistakes he may have made along the way. He was a good guy, and I will always think of him fondly.

~Cie~