I don't give a fuck, do you?

At some point, perhaps around 2007 or 2008 I made a comment to a friend regarding our government.  I said that if a government loved its people it wouldn't allow them to have sugared cereal such as the kind we see on store shelves. 

If you read this now, you probably also know I like to eat pop tarts. So much so I may get a tattoo, like this person.

I no longer feel the way I did circa 2007 or 2008.  I think it was a logical extension of how I always felt I related to the world.  I didn't really listen to anyone.  I "didn't give a fuck," if you will.  To the point, I give less of a fuck, than ever before. I'm of the opinion that a lot of people do give a fuck about the wrong things in life.  Furthermore, nobody should give a fuck whether I eat poptarts, drink sodas above 20 ounces or wear seat belts. 

During the time I gave piano and guitar instruction full time, I was exposed to a lot of children and young adults. Many of them gave a fuck about what their parents thought.  Some of them gave a fuck about what I thought (the smarter of them all questioned what I said and found their own way).

The thing I noticed is that when given the freedom to choose, (and in turn not give a fuck about what their parents thought) the lessons went smoother.  I didn't have to teach them any boring shit that they didn't want to learn or weren't ready to learn. Like chord theory, or music reading.  In turn, the student wound up happier and progressed faster, and learned songs and skills they liked. This made me really fucking happy because the time flew by.

The overall concept I was going for was to show that you didn't have to follow a perceived norm for happiness in your craft.  The ideal paradigm perceived by others (and me to a great extent) upon entering as a beginner guitar player was as follows:

1. Start playing on an acoustic guitar.
2. Learn to read music.
3. Play Beethoven or other assorted classical pieces.

I started similarly. My first guitar was electric, instead of an acoustic though.  I learned theoretical components of music and then went on to write my own shit.

The mold I tried to teach to and am still trying to break out of today was to a form of more unconscious thought to do what I do.  Others would call it going by feel, intuition, learning by ear, or whatever.  This comes back to giving a fuck.  Had I not given a fuck back then, I would have progressed faster, developed my intuition and learned (and gained unconscious awareness of) theoretical concepts quicker.  Alas, I can concentrate only on what is next to develop those skills.

Chuck played with three fingers, though he had all five on his left hand.  He clearly gave no fucks.

Sometimes, these same students would stick with me until they were in college.  Talk about a mind fuck of a social norm.  I gave just enough fucks to buy into that one too, though I didn't listen to my parents and do anything practical.  I am happier with the choice I made simply because I know so many people who did what their parents wished and wound up miserable.  I would hear the same complaints often, and my answer was--and still is--to quit school.  They had the power to quit.  The response would be they would lose financial support, or they need school to get a job, etc.  But, they could have been better by not giving a fuck. 

The question raised is "how do we not give a fuck?"

I posit that the first step towards not giving a fuck is to question everything.  You will become knowledgeable, and a lot of people will argue that knowledge will you make you unhappy--the whole ignorance is bliss idea.  However, the more pathways you open up, the more chance of self discovery you have, and you can find out and unlock shit you didn't know about yourself.  You'll always adapt, whether you like it or not.  Religions are a great example.  We will use Christianity as an example, since most of us are familiar with it, but if you ask the right questions you can find the following to be true with any faith.

The tenets of the magus figure of Christianity (Jesus) were rooted in certain sectarian aspects of Judaism and were regarded as another group of Jews in the diaspora.  Fast forward to today, most Christians worship on Sundays, probably couldn't tell you anything about Levitic laws or the Noachide covenant.

We can see, over time, derivations from the original teachings (which many teachers love to see) but for a 2000 year old religion, we can make the argument that the rate of adaptation is slow, due to the lack of questioning.  Stop giving a fuck about your dogma, you evolve faster.

The second step is to realize that what you do to better or yourself (or destroy yourself) will affect you the most. Sure, if you give yourself a shotgun face lift your close friends and relatives will feel sad.  You'll be the dead one, they still have a chance to better themselves. 

If you find yourself adapting at a faster rate than your peer group, you will be alienated.  It's not your fault if you know how to get better, quicker, and your friends don't.  Someone said you are like the five people you hang out with the most.  Do you want to be another random fuck? Didn't think so.  Disregard what is not useful.

I don't claim to have all the answers to this.  Surely there are more things associated with not giving a fuck, but these are a few that I can think of off the top of my head. If you question these things, you can find other things to question to lead you down your own path to better.  Then you can eat your poptarts in peace.