I went to see Henry Rollins speak as part fo the Sydney Comedy Festival this week.
He talks (and talks and talks) about his thoughts and experiences which are often funny in themselves and certainly his observations highlight what is funny in a situation if it's there.
Henry Rollins sees many things wrong with the world but he is not crushed by that; he is driven by it.
I don't go to see motivational speakers. I don't like most self-help books. I have a deep, unsheakeable mistrust of people who proclaim to have answers to the so-called big questions.
I like discussions not sermons. How shall we live? Well let's talk about it, let's figure it out, let's reach our own conclusions.
I think I'm also a little bit afraid of my tendency to get carried away by charisma, wit, charm, intelligence. (Do you see what I mean?)
As a younger lass I was much taken by Rollins' music and strident delivery of very personal lyrics. I still am. Yes it's possible to like Rollins Band and Simon and Garfunkle. Mr Rollins admitted to liking Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam. But here I am getting swept away by admiration again.
I think what hit me so hard about the performance this time around was the optimism. It's not a passive everything will be alright optimism. It's a forceful, active, driving, Super Jumbo A380 optimism. You stand there as it's taking off and the momentum lifts you right off the tarmac.
It's not an ingnorance is bliss thing either. He is well informed of what's going on. He's on top of the media and travels all over the world to see for himself.
Life is hard and many terrible things happen. But he thinks change is possible and it's in our capacity to effect it.
For me it was an incredibly refreshing experience. Like opening all the windows and breathing in deeply. And I was surrounded by a theatre full of people who looked as if they too had just expanded their lungs.
Flo
That sounds terrfic, thanks for writing about it. Oh how I miss optimism! I'm still an optimist by nature myself, but it's slowly getting ground out of me by my situation.
ReplyDeleteMy partner has been a small bit better of late, but even during the "good" times we all walk on eggshells around him, testing the weather in each room he's in before we enter. In some ways, this is even more discouraging than the "bad" times because I keep thinking: Is this as good as it gets? And the answer is: Possibly yes. He's still the man I married, but he's also not the man I married. And I just don't know how I truly feel about that, I'm too tired, too keeping-up-with-every-day exhausted to trust my own feelings.
Lately, I find myself fantasizing about what it would be like to be with a nondepressed, more optimistic and life-loving partner. Someone who didn't start every day(in a beautiful home, with his beautiful, loving kids) is such a burden. I fantasize about an optimistic lover the way other women might fantasize about good-looking lover.
So I can see how the Rollins talk would have felt like a great fresh wind. My question is: How did it feel to go home again after that?