I read something this morning about singer/songwriter and activist Bob Geldof (Sir Bob, to be correct) reincarnating "Band Aid" and also reconnecting with old band mates for a reunion tour of the Boomtown Rats, his contribution to the punk/new wave scene in the late 70s and early 80s. I am not a huge fan of such reunions as they often have more to do with nostalgic "cash-in" than any relevance of that nostalgia to today, or to the contemporary art form.
However, Sir Biob has done a lot of good with his celebrity, even today, as he nucleates "Band Aid 30" to help tackle the current Ebola crisis in Africa. And sometimes a song resonates for an entire lifetime, bringing me back to the massive BR hit, "I Don't Like Mondays" which reached #1 in an unbelievable 32 countries - a staggering achievement for a bunch of musical scallywags from Dún Laoghaire ("Dunleary"), a small seaside town in County Dublin, Ireland.
For us schoolkids the song hit home with us for very fundamental reasons - the imagery in the video of kids forced out of bed and into a prison-like classroom at school made us feel like they were singing about us! Interestingly, the song was released decades ago and related to disaffected schoolkids and their desire to "shoot the whole day down" - a premonition becoming increasingly prevalent in American schools today.
As bad as that "imprisonment" feels when young, the idea in life is that we grow up and out of that situation, yet the harsh reality for many it seems is that school is simply replaced by work when we do grow up, and thus our love for the weekend and dread of Monday morning pervades almost our entire lifetime! Doesn't this seem quite absurd? Who would want to live that life? What would be the purpose of that life?
Even though it appears ridiculous as a concept, how many of us truly jump out of bed with some fire on a Monday morning? Well, okay, let's refine the question a little - when one first wakes up at 6am on a chilly November morning, no one can blame us for feeling groggy and desirous of another hour in bed. But once up and once showered, our feelings about it should have come around considerably - ready to hit the streets and take the day!
I can imagine that some are ready to argue that it is easier to feel like that if you are a minor celebrity or own your company or do something apparently very interesting for a living. Or, if you make tons of money doing something, no matter how trivial, well it's all more fun. But it's actually not about the money, at all. Generalising somewhat, those who chose to stay on in school and get more degrees actually wanted to, and those who left school early to get a regular job and start "living" did so out of choice (often), also.
We truly are the outcome of such choices, even if they can be tinged with regret later on. But irrespective of the level of sophistication in our work, the key is doing something that we at least like, if not actually love, and being paid to do it for five days a week is a bonus. Nevertheless, anything becomes routine after a while, and everyone seems to have a boss, but these are mere facts of life. We have to get over it, and get on with it. Or, if one is truly unhappy about one's life, then the only thing that will change anything, is, well......change!
Most of us might escape change for a long period of our lives, but inevitably change is gonna come-a-knocking. People fear change for both rational and irrational reasons, but sometimes the only way to face change is to dive into the deep end of it, and see how you actually cope with it. And guess what? We can often shock even ourselves by not only how we cope with it, but how we actually begin to thrive in it!
Unquestionably, compared to waking up in a hospital bed or uniquely challenged in ways that so many have to face daily, those of us with the capacity to jump out of bed and into the shower, unaided, are completely blessed. We simply need to be reminded of it, more often. More importantly, we need to remind ourselves of it, much more often. Write it on your bathroom mirror and face it with your face, every single morning. Get those words off the mirror and onto and into your forehead, and carry them with you out into the world.
Most of us have so much to be grateful for, yet we find small things to moan about instead. It's human nature, but if so then we must fight our nature! Start counting the things that make this world and our presence in it so remarkable, and emphasise them more, and dwell on the negative a little or a lot less. It's often only by relegating the negative things to where they belong in terms of priorities that we get to see more clearly the beauty of the things above them on the list; suddenly they don't seem to matter so much.
Get out there, and make a difference to your circumference, every single day. It doesn't matter whether it's a brilliant new idea in engineering or a work mate calling you brilliant because you helped solve a little problem they had or the fact that some junior person draws inspiration from you - as long as you project positivity and resolve, even in the face of adversity, you can make a difference and change someone else's viewpoint even without knowing it. It's also true that you can make your employer look at you very positively when one of your major attributes simply happens to be that positive attitude in solving issues and getting things done. A smile can go a long way on a tough day!
There will be enough time later for sitting by a warm fire with the pipe and slippers, and retiring to bed early. For now, it is time to say "I don't hate Mondays!", and get out there to change lives (including your own), and if necessary, lay the bricks for a reconstruction of your own life and slowly build in the change that you need to get your life back on track and on the up-and-up. It's a cliché of course, but one interlaced with truth - anything might be (I won't say, is) possible, especially if your bust your butt attempting it!
It really is in our own hands, each and every one of us, and the only sure thing is that if we do nothing and change nothing, then we are unlikely to succeed in constructing a better tomorrow. However, if we get off our rears, and at least try, most days, then we are stacking the odds in our favour and our chances increase - and trying our best is basically all that we can ask of ourselves, right?! We are all allowed a slow or bad day, but it is the accumulation of many more good days that lays the foundation from which a new future gets constructed.
Oki doki, it is time for this boy to try to put together a steaming masterpiece involving the new "Bolivian Black Bean Breakfast Blend" that was just imported by my caffeine supplier, and word is that I will be jumping out of bed for days to come after just one large cup - even if this morning it looks like the streets I will jump out onto tomorrow will be streets of white!
Happy Sunday to one and all.
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