It's All Cool Y'know Cos' We're Like Adventurers, We Are Adventuring, We Are Adventurers, We've Been To Every Place Anywhere In The World

--"Adventure", Be Your Own PET

Originally, I was going to write this post in a straight-forward fashion--well, straight-forward for me at least. I was going to start this post with how I was chatting briefly with my friend Carly and how we touched on why change is good, why staying in the same place is bad, and the usual rigamorale about how nothing endures but change. Blah, blah, blah. I mean--it isn't like I don't have a lot of ideas centering around this facet of life. It's just that try as I might I couldn't conceive of a way to make my thoughts on the matter the least bit interesting. What I ran into is the idea that I was writing about a topic so universally true that I don't think I could have added anything worthwhile to the discussion. It'd be like me starting off a post with this gem, "so what about that gravity, huh? That's some crazy, scientific law at work." Writing about change even sounds boring to me.

However, writing about videos where humans dressed up as bunnies get shot and eaten for dinner is right up my alley.

It's kind of funny but the video above is actually what got me ruminating about this whole topic of change in the first place. What, with the move and all, I had been attempting to classify what exactly this new chapter in my life is. It wasn't like a new beginning. It wasn't like a new hope for the future.

That's when I saw "Adventure" by Be Your Own PET while in the midst of doing a search for the band on YouTube. It was kind of decided for me that that was what I'd call my time living mere miles from the ocean, away from the valley, away from most of my well-known family and friends. Most importantly, it's kind of adventuresome to decide to room with someone I barely met a month ago for a whole year. I've roomed with people I've known for years. I've roomed with people I've even known all my life. To think that I could pack up all my things and share it with a newly christened roommate is a lot scary. But I've always prided myself on being remarkably impulsive. I've flown to places halfway across the country on a day's notice. I've driven eight hours away just because I was bored. And, yes, I've even met, talked to, had lunch with, went back to her place with, fought with, and broke up with someone all in the same day. However, I've never made a choice to attempt to get along with somebody for a whole year that I didn't have a vested interest in.

If that isn't an adventure tantamount to hunting wild human/bunny hybrids then I don't know what is.

But, again, this is not the post where I'm going to write about all that.

This is the post where I tell you how my illogical mind connects up all the random stuff I encounter. This is the post where I tell you that this silly, silly video has been stuck in my mind for the last couple of days. I'm a big fan of Be Your Own PET and a lot of it has to do with the fact that, from their songwriting to their videos, they do a lot of their work off-the-cuff. There's, dare I say, an edge to everything that they do that's raw and kind of haphazard. It makes for some unpolished, yet amazingly original material. They're not worried about how smooth something sounds or that the subject of their songs aren't these life-or-death dilemmas. They're just worried that everything they do speaks about them, about what they are, and what they do.

It's this facet, as well as the striking downer of an image at the video's end, that got me jumbled all up inside. That is how, when Carly mentioned that she was looking forward to what a new school and new surroundings bring, my advice suddenly turned to the aggresively impulsive variety. In the vein of the band's ethos, I told her that it's only with constant movement that we truly learn how to live and that, if we ever stop moving, we slowly die inside. I truly believe that. I know BYOP does too. I know this because I've been on both sides of the tide. I've been in situations where I jumped in with both feet with no parachute and blindfolded. I've been in situations where I waited too long or sat by idly for longer than I should have as well. Being in both circumstances has led me to believe that I've always benefitted more from not thinking too much about what I'm doing and just go with the flow. When I look back at all the decisions I've made in my life, it has always been the times I didn't look before I leaped that I've always been pleasantly surprised.

But, again, I don't want to talk about that.

Having had that mini-chat with her, it came time for me to write up this post. As aforementioned, I was going to just relay the events as they happened. I had this framework all mapped out where I'd tell you about the conversation, then I'd cue the layered harp music, and flashback to the butterflies in my stomach when I realized I was basically agreeing to put a year of my life as a wager against my future happiness. That's how I normally do things. But then I got to thinking that, whatever the topic I write about, it always starts with music. That's what I wanted to reveal a bit about. People constantly ask me if I arbitrarily decide what lyric I choose to title my pieces with. Sometimes, but most of the time it's thinking about how a particular song has affected me or initiated the brainstorming process that allows me to post extensively about my life. Listenting to music, dissecting lyrics, is the catalyst by which a lot of my creative process is allowed to happen. It's the same with Breanne. We're kindred spirits like that.

Most of the time it's the lyrics that gets me thinking.

However, with "Adventure", the actual philosophy of the band figured in a lot of what this post would be about.

Because, like all changes in life, writing itself is an adventure and I'll be damned if music isn't the perfect soundtrack to that adventure.

And, yes, I know I said this wouldn't be a post about changing and changes and, essentially, that's what it became. But, sometimes, I believe, it's in the attempting to change what you want to happen and failing that provides the biggest growth and the biggest adventure of all.

Now bring on the bunny sausages!

Yours Swimmingly,
mojo shivers