resolutions, kindness, strummer
Have a happy.
The new year arrives, the old year lapses. i wonder if we ever take any lessons that last year has to offer to heart.
Somewhere over this land, under this sky, in the middle of our fortune, this came to mind.
a lot of people won’t get no supper tonight
a lot of people won’t get no justice tonight
Some lyrics from armagideon time as done by the Clash. Stuck in my head since seeing again the excellent documentary on Joe Strummer: his life post Clash being the most fascinating aspect. ‘The Future is Unwritten.’ Find it once, watch it twice.
It’s been a decade since he died, but what he had to say during the final years of his life, when he was doing a wildly eclectic radio show, make as much sense today as then.
After the Clash achieved worldwide success and then crumbled under the pressure, Strummer went underground. he became a searcher, a seeker. his soul always hungry for a beat from Malaysia, a West Indies raga, a drummer from L.A. with a cool sounding name.
I wonder at the choices he made, the quasi-philosophy that guided him, his losing, then finding himself. I wonder what he would have said in these occupied times.
resolve
In this same spirit, I wonder too about these new year’s resolutions, about their purpose, about keeping to them. So many resolutions, while good things, are quite selfish. Selfish isn’t necessarily bad and some people genuinely need to be more selfish to be better humans.
I’ve been considering what if any resolution I should make, that I can actually realize without twisting myself into a pretzel. Something simple yet meaningful.
Kindness.
That’s the best i have to offer. Simply try to add to the kindness in the world. Hold the door for someone. If a homeless person asks for 25 cents for a coffee, and you can afford it, give it to him without thinking he’s just going to drink it.
Kindness, in small everyday ways. Nothing grandiose (or course, grandiose is good as well) but the kindnesses of small consequence that accumulate over time.
remember to think it over
Thanks for this, tmcd. RIP, Joe.
Natasha Bedingfield may have found it twice.
He might have said that philosophy had long ago achieved the point of practical unintelligibility.
He might have said that philosophy had long ago achieved the point of practical unintelligibility.
Awesome!
perfectly strummer - i think he might have said that only smokers should be taken seriously.