Otherwise I'd be screwed!
Here we go - it's time for WEDNESDAY WISDOM
The email format going forward will be as follows
Monday Motivation - kick start the week
Wednesday Wisdom - deep dive into some topics
Friday Fun - fun, on a friday
Here's todays deep dive in search of wisdom. If you don't fancy working your brain - as ever I'll include a photo of a puppy and you can go about your day reading no further than here.
If you have passed the baby Rottweiler phrase you're in it for the long run. Congrats
Young People Making Mistakes
Luckily... (or unluckily if you're the build up of arthritis around my decrepit ancient knees) I came through my youth and teenage years in an age before social media
I know it's hard to imagine with my fresh faced youthful good looks but I came up through the dark ages
I came through at a time when every man and his dog DIDN'T carry a magical device capable of recording any image and broadcasting it to the world at large immediately
(seriously how mad is that - anyone in the world can reach billions of people instantly with this device they have in their pockets!)
So... and this is the important bit... I got to make my mistakes in the dark (giggles at the sexual connotations of that one!) I got to make my mistakes out of the public eye.
My stupid actions weren't recorded and broadcast for all to see. My stupid teen hormonal brain and mind wasn't able to convey and communicate my thoughts to anyone other than the inside of my maths homework book or if i was feeling particularly rebellious the stall of the school bathroom.
(On a side note, the world really missed out on knowing that Barry Murphy used way too much hair gel and was actually a pretty sh*t footballer and I should be starting instead of him)
The result of being able to make those mistakes in a less pressured situation than the online hot cooker of the global internet means maybe only 20 people heard when I sang a rubbish note, or tried a funny joke that didn't work.
Now that I'm older I have an awareness and understanding of how the online world works. So I'm happy to put stuff online with the knowledge some people are gonna trash it and thats just the nature of the internet.
The internet is a place filled simultaneously with wonder and unspeakable horror and by putting yourself online you sign up to exposure to both.
I can appreciate and understand that in my ripe old age - teenage me?? Not a chance!
16 year old me would have struggled so much with dealing with the unspeakable horror bit! I'd enough problems with any criticism in person not to mind strangers on the internet piling in!!
Making mistakes whilst under modern society's harsh public eye!
There is a reason why the word mistakes exists...
Humans are... human, for want of a better word.
We're going to mess up. We're going to mess up every day until the day that we die. That's the beauty and fragility of the human condition. Mistakes are a part of life. Mistakes are ok. As long as you see them as opportunities to learn
For example: Here's a man who fell over on national TV...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3vVDUuC0yw
Now if you're lucky you'll make your mistakes in situations where the consequences aren't recorded or wide reaching (unlike the poor ice fella). And you will have the opportunity to learn from these mistakes and become better without it becoming a worldwide global internet meme.
Mistakes and artists
Making mistakes is especially important for artists as a process of learning and discovery.
Musicians and singers and artists aren't born amazing at their craft. Like anything they practice over and over again and make incremental improvements and if they have some natural talent and it is given an opportunity to flourish it can. They try stuff and get it spectacularly wrong. They try sing notes where the mind is willing but the vocal chords say "NO SIR". And that's how they learn and develop...
However if they are trying this in an environment which squashes that desire, passion and belief with negativity then the artist never becomes the artist. And we as a society miss out.
How sad would it have been if someone called Leonard Cohen "a mopey pr*ck" on his youtube account when he was 15 and he never went on write music and instead became a craft beer designer
Cohen the Beerbarian - fine pale ale's
Here's the preachy wisdom part of the email
Young people are going to make mistakes - Don't write rubbish things about young artists mistakes on the internet
Don't be the person that squashes an environment which might otherwise foster an artist of considerable brilliance. Don't be the person who tells a budding Carole King she can't sing (and that's true - she's not a great singer - imagine if she'd listen to @bigboy444 and never bothered trying to write Tapestry!"
This is especially important if it's a young person. If you don't like something a young artist has posted just move on. Young people are supposed to get stuff wrong and get better.
Being young dumb people with big dreams - is a vitally important phase of life - it comes just after the "born and need help eating and pooping" phase and right before the "old and still dumb but ever so slightly less dumb than I was when I was young and dumb" phase.
Don't get upset when people write rubbish things about your mistakes on the internet.
If you're an artist trying things it's ok to be sh*te - as long as you realise through hard work and dedication you'll get less shite. As I said in a previous email - even Hozier has people who criticise his music online!!! The internet is always gonna bring out that side of people unfortunately.
I'll leave you with some words of wisdom from the legendary Dave Grohl
"Musicians should go to a yard sale and buy an old f** drum set and get in their garage and just suck. And get their friends to come in and they'll suck, too. And then they'll f* start playing and they'll have the best time they've ever had in their lives and then all of a sudden they'll become Nirvana"
Have a good week - make some mistakes in the dark!!!
Now we're sucking diesel
Stephen
P.S. Barry Murphy cost us the U14 county final and if I had started that game we would have won.