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The other teams—the guys from Shelby and Benzie Central and Hart—they’re all snow shovelers just like you. I always thought you should go at the end of the event and thank those people for giving you the opportunity for another step toward finding your strengths or limitations. You should recognize that the hurdle is you, and then acknowledge the person’s role in your learning about yourself.
We were being prepared for desert warfare. Something was already up in 1983, but nobody tells you things like that.
In theory, the energy of the universe wants to go in some direction. You have a goal, and the push and the pull of opposites is what gets you there. Grand Rapids is a Garden of Eden where rents are cheap and family is nearby and most people aren’t motivated to leave because it’s so easy to stick around. Here in the Garden, everything’s cozy. One school of thought says we’ve reached our goal when we have everything we need and there are no distractions pulling us toward anything more. Keep all the conflict and the darkness away and life is perfect. Then you have the other school of thought,
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player, the voice he heard was unmistakable. “I listened to it, and wait a minute! Yes! I loved
Having that moral ambiguity could be the makings of a sociopath, but on the positive side, it could be that I think outside the box because I was never confined in one. I’d done some inappropriate things that I wasn’t even aware were inappropriate. But that lack of conventional boundaries helped me push the envelope in other areas. It’s the way I was wired.
My firm belief is that comedy—to quote Steve Martin—isn’t pretty. Comedy is bound to offend somebody. It’s self-deprecating or somebody else is getting thrown under the bus. We have to laugh at ourselves. Never mind that some guy writes a cool song and puts a nice video online. That’s not what gets the traffic. “Fatty Falls Down a Hole in a Convenience Store,” that’s the one that goes viral. Somebody’s the butt of that joke. Deal with it. I’m the butt of many jokes, but I’m not going to lose any sleep over it.
If you have the means, the knowledge to create something and you don’t, shame on you. If you’re able to be good at your job, to raise a child, to plant a garden, whatever, it’s your responsibility to do it—not only for yourself but for the world.
In light of the tragedy, the themes of Lateralus seemed curiously prophetic. The world was indeed in need of healing, and if the lyrics encouraged anything, it was a breaking down of barriers between individuals and thinking for oneself, and Maynard closed the show with a heartfelt entreaty. “Take the feelings you’ve experienced in the last few days and hang on to them, good or bad,” he urged the Grand Rapids audience. “And please create something positive with them.”
A long time ago, people understood that the only thing that kept them alive was coordinating in groups and being more creative than the creatures that were threatening them. They were never going to be stronger or faster than those creatures, so they had to be smarter. We’re losing touch with that, because everything we need is readily available. You can’t walk ten feet in any direction without running into food, shelter, or clothing.
