This e-mail is making the rounds. I’d reblog it from someone, but that would seem pointless. What I really like are the bits about the Flaming Lips and “saying yes”:
The thing is, I really like saying yes. I like new things, projects, plans, getting people together and doing something, trying something, even when it’s corny or stupid. I am not good at saying no. And I do not get along with people who say no. When you die, and it really could be this afternoon, under the same bus wheels I’ll stick my head if need be, you will not be happy about having said no. You will be kicking your ass about all the no’s you’ve said. No to that opportunity, or no to that trip to Nova Scotia or no to that night out, or no to that project or no to that person who wants to be naked with you but you worry about what your friends will say.
No is for wimps. No is for pussies. No is to live small and embittered, cherishing the opportunities you missed because they might have sent the wrong message.
…
What matters is that you do good work. What matters is that you produce things that are true and will stand. What matters is that the Flaming Lips’s new album is ravishing and I’ve listened to it a thousand times already, sometimes for days on end, and it enriches me and makes me want to save people. What matters is that it will stand forever, long after any narrow-hearted curmudgeons have forgotten their appearance on goddamn 90210. What matters is not the perception, nor the fashion, not who’s up and who’s down, but what someone has done and if they meant it. What matters is that you want to see and make and do, on as grand a scale as you want, regardless of what the tiny voices of tiny people say. Do not be critics, you people, I beg you. I was a critic and I wish I could take it all back because it came from a smelly and ignorant place in me, and spoke with a voice that was all rage and envy. Do not dismiss a book until you have written one, and do not dismiss a movie until you have made one, and do not dismiss a person until you have met them. It is a fuckload of work to be open-minded and generous and understanding and forgiving and accepting, but Christ, that is what matters. What matters is saying yes.
Die, trolls, die.
The Year of Yes
Been a little quiet around here lately. Time to start thinking more in the world of yes.
Gilda Radner (via Ivan) (via yearofyes)
Ain’t that the truth.
Langhorne Slim - Say Yes
Been a while since I’ve been here. In that time I’ve forgotten about this year’s promise to myself and it’s proven pretty crushing. Chasing my tail and living in my head. As a matter of fact, I can look at this blog and even see where my mental state has been since Feb or so. Lots of arm waving. You see, I’ve been living my life around someone else. Trying, trying so hard, to get noticed and it’s just not happening. It’s hard to say yes when you’re busy breaking your own heart. I mean, I can’t blame anyone except myself because I’m the one who was convinced I had a shot. What is it that they say, never make someone a priority when they only make you an option. I don’t even know if I even amounted to that. Shoe’s on the other foot this time around, I guess.
So it’s time to move on. Time to take back my life and back to flying solo. I need to heal up some and get back to the business of Y-E-S.
This movie rattled my cage and changed everything. I feel like me again for the first time in a long time.
