in life, the little things make all the difference…

One of the most important conceptual ideas of life that I feel is too often overlooked: by young and old is knowing who you are. It’s imperative to throughly understand the concept of self-worth. Generally speaking, because the world is a big place and we do share this ground with others, people will look to dispute your ideas. It is not because they don’t believe in you, but because this is the way society has trained the greater part of our people. In order to be fully realized by, “pop” culture you must have hundreds of thousands of fanatics, obsessing about your music, but if you were genuinely here to make music then you’ve been making music since you picked up that guitar – “you git me mate?” People like to feel like they discovered something, the jury isn’t out on who “discovered” America yet, but the concept of “discovering” something where people have been living for hundreds of years is kind of pretentious don’t you think?

Moving along…

There are many that look at the world and don’t question the things around them: how John has, “X” but will never stop to think why Sally has, “Y.” I think of people like this as lab rats, because they aren’t here to hurt anyone, but simply a necessary part of the matrix as Morpheus would say. I don’t have a problem with lab rats, without people who buy into the system we wouldn’t have people that break the system. I understand their purpose, but they rarely understand mine. It’s difficult for them uncork a bottle of wine the same way we do, let alone walk in our shoes. Often lab rats need tangible proof of the things: that people like me feel. I don’t need to see it on paper to believe, the energy in people can be felt and will tell you if their passions are aligned with their heart. John & Sally wont understand the words we speak until they have been tried, proven, and tested the viscosity of its contents by the rest of you and guess what – there’s nothing wrong with that. Said persons probably have the same few things for dinner and rarely try a new restaurant. They wouldn’t know that skate wing prepared by the right chef taste more like chicken than chicken itself until they read about it in the New York Times… they will rarely step outside their comfort zone for the sake of their beliefs unless the concepts are proven by popular culture.

My friends: this is life – we cannot expect the world to conform to the way that we decide to live, but being aware of concepts like this is monumental for us. As a result of their linear thought process, John & Sally might question our decisions and attempt to define who we are, which is perfectly fine: everyone is entitled to their own opinion. What is NOT okay is for you to feel inclined to explain self to anyone. If you know who you are then you know where you are going. Although you will find more people in the world that will tell you how impossible everything that you’re doing is, you are actually proving their argument wrong as we speak (insert smiley face here). Those with little faith will soon be your disciples; when you reach your destination. Their opinions are justified with what they perceive as facts, they follow blindly, think primitively, and live meagerly.

If you know who you are then you will never need to prove who you are. For the most part everyone wants to decide who you are for you, and again that’s fine, but I respectfully disagree with the opinions of 6.5B people. Your opinions will not define me. People often ask questions about my line: prices, where do you sell, etc etc, I don’t mind sharing information at all, but to be honest, I listen to many people, but I value very few opinions. Furthermore, the people that I do acknowledge, well, they tell me, “I need to work harder and to keep creating my opportunities” they do not attempt to direct my aesthetic because they know my moral compass is aligned with my vision. Society wants us to prove to them why we are doing everything they are not: habitually, but we don’t need society because we have our own community and the currency is love, energy, passion, faith, imagination. Remember that. Although we are composed of the same things, we are not the same.

We will never be the same.

love is the answer.

RAF