The Everly Brothers - Bird Dog: youtube.com/watch?v=HQKlO0GFxjo
My parents used to put this song on when they had friends over and they would make me sing and dance to it while they drank and laughed. It was all very genteel and innocent but it’s a bit embarrassing too. Parents: If your kid does something cute don’t pull your kid out in front of your friends and make them do that cute thing. It becomes something completely different. It’s not so much cute anymore as much as it is mildly exploitative.
That statement might sound a bit extreme. Okay, it might not be exploitative, I guess it’s just a little embarrassing; I feel I’ve always been entertainment for drunks and bored people. I was pulled out to dance like I was a trained dog or a monkey. Though, granted, I don’t remember not enjoying this. And I still wantonly seek out situations where I’m pulled out in front of drunk people and bored people and serve as entertainment; performing music, serving in bars, etc.
I guess this plays somewhat: A child's thought patterns can be monumentally interesting. I had a conversation with my 5 year old cousin Mila some weeks ago where she asked me if I could see germs. I asked her if she could see germs and she pointed up and down her arms, in between her eyes, and explained to me what germs looked like as if they were actually fully in view and colouring her skin. I didn’t feel this was something to pull attention to, to bring out for the rest of my family to hear, to exploit this wonderful idea for everyone's amusement. I thought that view was wonderful though, that this girl could see peoples germs in full colour when she looked at them. And she wasn’t wrong, I’m sure. Granted, the science of it would dictate that no, she can’t actually decipher a full germ colour spectrum, her eyes weren’t evolved to see differently from any other ordinary person. But that’s not to say that she doesn’t perceive in ways that are beyond my comprehension.
As our brains develop they make sense out of things that don’t necessarily make sense. We’re made to think quite logically; if A and B then C. Consider that the universe was made from nothing and has been expanding for billions of years, though the term “years” isn’t an accurate term at all because there is no real concept of time in a universal sense. There is an infinitude of knowledge we will never be able to comprehend because our brains are not built to understand them. And a child comes into this world with some basic and ancestral knowledge but has to make sense of things like mirrors and iphones and deciphering ages of individuals. They create and piece together and make sense as best they can.
And we still do that as adults, to a degree, however vainly. I do like to imagine, though, that our brains and our bodies are fully aware of everything, that we carry the knowledge of the universe and all that has been discovered and will be discovered in time. I base this on my modest understanding of quantum physics, that we were created by the universe and are a part of it. But we don’t access even a fraction of what we hold because to access it would ruin the point of living. We would be crippled in the complete senselessness of living 100 years in a crux of infinity and experiencing basically what a countless number of others have experienced before, all over again and again. And isn’t it quite pointless to not experience everything when we’re here to experience life fully? Why dig yourself in a hole and to hide when someday nothing you or anyone has ever done will really matter? Our species will die out and our history won’t matter. So do what you love.
I think what I liked most about this song is the guy who goes, “He’s a bird...he’s a dog...” The voice just sounds so strange and attractive.
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