Shinybass Journal 01/29/24

Chasing the cat string…

Life. Is. Hard. 

We all know this. It’s cold the moment you are born, and some parts (like my feet) have been trying to get warm since. We struggle, we fall, we get up, we fall again. In the over-analyzation and my completely non-qualified, untrained assessment of life, I would say that at the end, when on the cold slab at the end of our time on Earth, the quality of time spent will be determined by others, not by you, since at that point you have no say. Was your life good or bad, and who is to say either way? 

Men have pondered existence since existence began. We have but a blink of an eye on Earth, then all that is left is our journal, a great painting, or maybe just our kids. (Kids being the best legacy, of course). We try to make life as good as possible, but are we really? 

Being on the road for so long, I saw a lot of ‘things’. My most heartbreaking: parents that stared at their phones at a meal instead of engaging their child. I saw kids yearning for conversation, just met with looking at the back of a cell phone instead of seeing the one person on this planet on which they could rely. 

Remembering this, I started thinking of the time before smart phones. We read the paper (morning or evening edition), and folded it up and ignored each other in different ways. Social media has certainly made us less social. I find myself waiting in a line and pulling up a platform out of habit. Why? I don’t usually scroll that far. I had to ask someone what FOMO meant, as there are a lot of things I don’t really care to watch. I am on a quest for ‘the’ bass guitar and Italian villa, so maybe I do have some fear of not missing on my wants. 

We played a lot outside when I was a kid. Growing up, we also had a lot of kids in the neighborhood, which we have none in ours now. My kids and I are the play squad. I’m OK with that, but part of growing up is riding your bike with a friend just past the boundaries, getting a flat tire, and hearing ‘I told you not to…’ All part of learning. 

Whether we knew it or not, we were living. We were exploring as far as we could, and dreaming about the rest. We were taking each day given, learning our pythagorean theorem, then running the hell outside to get into whatever we could. Now, we run home to get on our phone to see what everyone else is doing. 

I have news. Not a shocker, but it’s true: Not everything on socials is as it really is. I know, I know. I appreciate the access to all of the information the world has to offer, and now I know just how much plastic is in the ocean. That’s a good thing to know and try and fix, right? One argument is that by being on socials, we get information that is helpful. Are you cleaning a stream, or just reading about it then moving on? I’m not as active of an activist as I could be, but I do leave the trail better than I found it. Hell, if everyone just did that we’d be fine. 

But back to living. I give this advice on living because people around me are getting older. I’m getting older. One day it’s all done. And where was our time spent? Scrolling TikTok. Watching TV. Playing video games. Yep. We’ve stopped building violins and watch people’s cats make violin sounds. Cool. 

3000 years ago, did someone look around and say ‘I’m not going to watch the gladiators again, I’ve got my own life to live!’ I hope so. I’d like to think that 3000 years ago, someone just set up shop just outside of town and had a kiln and made pottery, not needing the distraction of the city to find happiness. They paid their taxes to the republic, lived a quiet life with lemons and figs, no dental care, worked fingers to the bone daily, and probably an early death because of some foot infection. Hooray! 

The other day my son was playing with the cat and a long twig. The cat was just running in circles, chasing the twig on instinct, probably half play, half ‘let’s be sure it’s not food’. At the end, the cat was tired, my son was dizzy and no one came away with any more or less than they brought to the table. Is that life? Is it really that simple? 

Just have fun and at the end you leave with what you brought in. 

There it is. 

Shite. I mean, there are a lot of x factors in between the beginning and the end (oh, like money and work and such), but the Leary mantra of the 60s to ‘Tune in, Turn on, and Drop out’ certainly has some merit. 

I’m not asking anyone to ditch their phones. I am not saying go live in the woods. I am saying just be smart about it all. We only have a certain amount of lemons to harvest before it’s all over. Shouldn’t we be making lemon pie? 

Make good choices, people. There aren’t any do overs. 

See you on the road?