On January 11, 2016, I began a daily practice of writing a joke meditation of the day, called Cracked Pot Meditations. I was still recovering from the treatment of cancer, and I was having very challenging cognitive issues, so I chose just to put something simple and easy to write every day. Posting it to the blog allowed me to hold myself accountable. Some of those meditations were poorly written and unedited. I have gone back and begun editing these and adding an illustration, starting with the April 27th meditation. I hope you enjoy.
Meditation for July 15th
Being Into Everything That Everyone Else Is Into Because Everyone Else Is Into Something, And You Can’t Ever Be Alone Or Not Do The Same Things As Everyone Else
We find ourselves fighting to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. Like the cells that make up our bodies, we try to attach ourselves to other people so we can become one cohesive unit.
We do this by liking the same music, wearing the same clothes, enjoying the same culture, and jumping on the same bandwagons together. We are so scared of original and interesting thoughts that we look to our peers for guidance on what to like and what to dislike.
We could reject the social norms and become advocates for individualism and free thought. We can be so comfortable in our skin that we enjoy what we enjoy and overlook the rest.
Or…
We could jump on any bandwagon so we can be part of the greater stampede of consumer zombies trying to find the meaning of life. With only six corporations (maybe less, I dunno) shoving media down our throats from their culture factory, we are marketed to feel and believe we have taste. We no longer have a strong, infallible church to lie to us for meaning; now we have advertisements to lead us to spiritual bankruptcy.
It’s popular, so therefore it’s the best
McDonald’s sells 225 million hamburgers a year, but does that mean its hamburgers are good? What about the condition of a McDonald’s hamburger? It is a terrible hamburger, but thanks to cost and marketing, the cysts on a steroid “beefed” cow can be put between two slices of white bread buns and sold with fries and a Coke, and will sell like hotcakes.
Right now, popular culture is shit. It has never been worse, and you are enjoying one of the shitty things corporations vomit down your throat like a mama bird makes you as dumb and blind as the McDonald’s burgers your fat ass chokes down to hide your inadequacies.
Maybe the snobby people who eat at some cutsie place that has an ‘&’ in the name know what’s up.
It helps people
War helps people. It thins our population, bolsters industry and innovation, creates change in a world that resists it, and makes great movies. Sure, millions of people have to die – mostly from slow festering wounds, but hey! It helps the world. Millions more people become homeless refugees roaming the world looking for a home that will probably never accept them. Still, they will bring their good aspects of their culture, such as food and music, and break the homogeneous Western culture we are trying to protect from “them”.
Everything can help people. It isn’t that this product helps people that’s bad; it’s that these individuals need help because they cannot help themselves. Yeah, it’s nice when the pop diva signs a cancer child’s bald head, but that child is still going to suffer while the pop diva will fly all over the world in a private jet and not think of that little girl ever again.
You don’t understand
Yes, you’re right, I don’t understand. I also don’t know how, in a pretty well-educated country, we have around 93 million Americans believing that the book of Genesis in the bible happened exactly as it is written. Yes, I don’t understand why our congress is making foreign policy decisions that are based on the book of Revelation at the expense of millions of people’s lives. I don’t understand the need for the seventeenth retelling of the Batman story. Tell me something I don’t understand and want to learn about for once.
Some things aren’t understood, and I don’t need to try to understand them because my gut, intellect, and education have me making an informed decision without “understanding” a fucking fad. Is it causation that music tastes have become the way they are with the several decades of musical education funding cuts?
It builds community
So does someone killing themselves. Everyone gets together and mourns this person’s death. They try to answer why. They look for things to blame. People who haven’t spoken in a long time, but had this suicidal person in common, can get together and communicate their grief. They will argue over who loved the deceased more.
Why do we need a thing to help us get together? Why can’t we just be together? Why can’t we build a community on love and respect instead of cultural tribes banding together to back either DC comic movies or Marvel comic movies – if you leave out the X-Men shitty Fox movies?
We are so accustomed to the media and information in our pockets, which have replaced the tools used to communicate with people, that we have no idea how to build a community, so we need an identity.
It’s just fun
Of course it is. You’re adorable. You thought vaping and hoverboards were fun, too? Now put on a fedora and a black shirt covered in flame designs and watch soccer.
But…
Maybe I should read yesterday’s post.
It might be fun.
But I won’t play it.
Mostly because I know how to read.
Prayer
Ephesians 2:10
For we are God’s
handiwork, created in Christ
Jesus to do good
works, which God prepared
in advance for us to do
And when God created me,
Far in advance of my birth,
I was made to scorn your tastes,
as bland and directed by the Romans.
I am a tool of the Anointed One,
to bring shame to your basic likes,
to blog angrily about pumpkin spice lattes,
Beyonce, Taylor Swift, and Love Island,
So you may never utter an opinion
in my presence again,
In Jesus’ name,
Amen
Craft
If you don’t like something in the world, such as all the books in a genre you like or a music style, make your own. It won’t be good, but it will be made.
Goal
You don’t have to like what everyone else likes. It might be lonely when you enjoy your little things, but if they bring you joy, hopefully, it will attract someone who wants to know why you like them. If you don’t gatekeep it, you can make friends by sharing your little joys.