It's all been said before

Magnificient
Originally uploaded by Puss.In.The.Hood

I decided a moment ago that I wanted to post something, but I realized that there was a slight flaw in my plan, because I didn't have anything to say.

Now, this isn't entirely true, because I have lots of things to say; there is a lot floating around the caverns of my mind, but none of it is focused, none of it is meaningful enough to share. And that is what we do here, on the Internet, we share. Often we share ad nauseam, and I really think that cheapens the experience sometimes. If you just shell out every last token of thought that zooms around your head, how do I know what I should take seriously?

In an ideal world, everything everyone says should be worthy of my attention, because individuals are unique and important. But however true that might be about individuals in principle, the reality is that I cannot know the worth behind what you say unless I know you as a person. Lately I'm learning that all my perfect, self-righteous idealistic theories are naive bubbles waiting to be popped by the society that says "ideal isn't real," the mantra I have ignored all my life because people said it too much. You see my problem?

I suppose now is as good a time as any to learn that the cliches and dead metaphors of life may have been used in earnest by past generations trying to show new generations their own lives' beauty and strife, but that no matter how many words you throw at me, I won't learn to see unless I open my own eyes.

Incidentally, this reminds me of a hilarious quote, heard at the movie theater in 2002, where a British child watching the spider scene in Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets wailed, "Mummy, close my eyes, I'm scared!" Oh the ignorance of youth.