Oh, to be young again
Apr. 3rd, 2006 05:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
volksdragonI had an... "experience" this weekend. Widget and I visited ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
whuffle's parents in Brookline (we go WAY back) this weekend, as they love seeing Widget, and I can talk cars and music with Whuffle's Dad.
We decided since it was such a beautiful day, that we'd all go to the playground nearby for Widget to play. While we were there, I got to listen in on/overhear the conversations of three Highschool-Age girls (older end of HS, I think) talking about music. Specifically, talking about "Death Cab for Cutie." The dynamic between the three of them was interesting, and here's what it SEEMED like:
One of them was the cooler more hip but less trendy friend who travelled to New York to see concerts and liked to talk about music, and artists and their intent in their work. The second one was the more shy less assertive one, who liked to hang out with the two other girls, but maybe didn't know quite as much about music. The third one was the more bubbly popular-music one, who pretty much thought "DEATH CAB ZOMG I LOVE THEM."
They were describing how Death Cab was pretty much "happy fun music about depressing terrible things." The hip girl specifically quoted the lyric, "Love is watching someone die" (From "What Sarah Said") It struck me how someone in their place in their life would see that so incredibly differently from someone in the place where I and many of my friends are getting to, places where your immediate family and friends may be starting to die, or you may lose a lover or a spouse.
I was also reminded of James Blunt's song, "Cry", "I have seen birth. I have seen death. Lived to see a Lover's final breath." That line always takes my breath away, because I can't even imagine the impact it would have on me if someone that close to me died. My grandfather dying was bad enough, and I cry a lot at funerals anyway, but that is just inconceivable to me.
I guess hearing them talk so deeply about something they probably know really very little about made me wish in a lot of ways I could go back to that level of knowledge about the world. There are, as they say, many things you can never unlearn, and life certainly was a lot easier in a lot of ways when I was 17 and talked like that about music I realize I knew nothing about. Don't get me wrong, I don't begrudge them their discussions. Rather, I envy them their freedom to discuss it more airily than I think I ever could at this point in my life, when every few months brings news of either another upheaval, major illness or death of someone I knew well.
Wow, this rambled. Summary? I saw some girls. I wished I could be like them.
whuffle's parents in Brookline (we go WAY back) this weekend, as they love seeing Widget, and I can talk cars and music with Whuffle's Dad.We decided since it was such a beautiful day, that we'd all go to the playground nearby for Widget to play. While we were there, I got to listen in on/overhear the conversations of three Highschool-Age girls (older end of HS, I think) talking about music. Specifically, talking about "Death Cab for Cutie." The dynamic between the three of them was interesting, and here's what it SEEMED like:
One of them was the cooler more hip but less trendy friend who travelled to New York to see concerts and liked to talk about music, and artists and their intent in their work. The second one was the more shy less assertive one, who liked to hang out with the two other girls, but maybe didn't know quite as much about music. The third one was the more bubbly popular-music one, who pretty much thought "DEATH CAB ZOMG I LOVE THEM."
They were describing how Death Cab was pretty much "happy fun music about depressing terrible things." The hip girl specifically quoted the lyric, "Love is watching someone die" (From "What Sarah Said") It struck me how someone in their place in their life would see that so incredibly differently from someone in the place where I and many of my friends are getting to, places where your immediate family and friends may be starting to die, or you may lose a lover or a spouse.
I was also reminded of James Blunt's song, "Cry", "I have seen birth. I have seen death. Lived to see a Lover's final breath." That line always takes my breath away, because I can't even imagine the impact it would have on me if someone that close to me died. My grandfather dying was bad enough, and I cry a lot at funerals anyway, but that is just inconceivable to me.
I guess hearing them talk so deeply about something they probably know really very little about made me wish in a lot of ways I could go back to that level of knowledge about the world. There are, as they say, many things you can never unlearn, and life certainly was a lot easier in a lot of ways when I was 17 and talked like that about music I realize I knew nothing about. Don't get me wrong, I don't begrudge them their discussions. Rather, I envy them their freedom to discuss it more airily than I think I ever could at this point in my life, when every few months brings news of either another upheaval, major illness or death of someone I knew well.
Wow, this rambled. Summary? I saw some girls. I wished I could be like them.
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yup
Date: 2006-04-03 10:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-03 10:44 pm (UTC)Though I agree, I don't know how I'd deal with someone close to me dying. Never did handle death well. Though it is like the Dylan Thomas said "After the first death, there is no other."
no subject
Date: 2006-04-04 02:44 am (UTC)Thank you, Grammar Man.
From www.M-W.com
Impact (Noun)
2 the power to bring about a result on another -- see EFFECT 2
SHUT YO PIE HOLE. :)
no subject
Date: 2006-04-04 03:29 am (UTC)Talk to most english majors and they will say the same thing. In my mind it up there with people who say "Good" when you ask them how they are. Or people who ask if they can go to the bathroom.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-04 12:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-04 12:23 pm (UTC)But to actually speak to the point of the post...
It does sometimes give me pause to re-read or listen to things and realize that my perspective has shifted, deepened and changed. I actually would rather stay where I am - if I was given the choice to go back to the end of high school. On the other hand, if that choice were offered with all the knowledge and perspective I have now, I might take it. Lessons learned and all that.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-05 10:31 am (UTC)