That statement is a big fucking ask.
How do you become A GOOD PERSON?
‘GOOD’ is pretty subjective. This man’s Terrorist, That man’s Freedom Fighter. This man’s Prime Minister that man’s Lizard overlord.
To be a good person should I pack me and my cod psychology up and move in with the monks or start pumping wells in the third-world? Maybe.
But, let’s be honest, i’m not Googling sherpas just yet.
One of my favourite songs of all-time, alongside J.Geils — Centerfold — which will be a whole story in itself, is ‘Head Rolls Off’ by scarf wearers and general guitar botherers Frightened Rabbit.
“When my blood stops, someone else’s will not
When my head rolls off, someone else’s will turn
And while I’m alive, I’ll make tiny changes to earth.”
The song, to me, is the sonic punch in the face that ‘THIS IS IT’. This exact moment I type this post, the moment I deleted that last crappy sentence, this moment when i write/wrote ‘this moment’ is my life. The bit you just read. THAT WAS MY LIFE.
It doesn’t begin later or start again when I die, at least not from where this part beanpole is standing.
To borrow another phrase from the song ‘it’s not morbid at all’ to say that one day my life will end.
I may be wrong about the ‘after-life’ thing and when I die, most likely Googling myself while driving, I’ll look like a right fool as I queue up for another shot at being an ‘enthusiastic, if somewhat naive, sex lizard’.
My thinking though is that it’s probably best to hedge my bets and do ‘this one’ as best I can and deal with the humiliation of ‘not believing in coming back as sea urchin at a later date’, should the situation arise. Hence the longing to be ‘GOOD’.
So, before I go about trying to ‘make tiny changes to earth’ I thought that I should first ‘make tiny changes’ to myself.
Over the last week I have been writing a list of rules that I would like to hold myself accountable to.
But, they are mine, and this is they :-
People don’t notice your fuck-up’s as much as you think.
It’s fine to not like The Beatles.
It’s not what you do. It’s why you do it.
Days are long but years are not.
What makes you happy? Do that.
Write and draw and play and live as only you can.
Sometimes life is hard. It just is.
Pretend to be someone wise and behave as they would.
Nothing I ever did for money alone has benefited me.
The harder you work the luckier you seem to be.
When you think you can’t, pretend you are someone who can.
It’s funny how you would know exactly what you wanted if there was a gun to your head.
Everyone thinks everyone else knows more than them.
Sometimes it’s you stopping you.
When you say something, mean it.
Make it hard to spot the general by working like a soldier.
Criticisms of your ideas are not criticisms of you.
Don’t ever make a decision based on fear.
Take something you love. Make it even better.
Do something nice and expect nothing in return ever.
If you don’t want to dance? Don’t.
If you wake up unhappy too many days in a row, change something.
What’s fun for you might not be fun for someone else — that’s fine.
You can’t profoundly change someone by nagging.
Never start a sentence with ‘No offence…’
Do things for pleasure not for rewards.
Don’t postpone any task that can be done in one minute.
A famous Chinese man, probably the lad who thought of building that cracker of a wall, once said :-
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