Seeing is believing, somebody once said.

Back when I was a youngster, a charming young bubbly boy who had the world as their oyster. Anything was possible from that age. I used to laugh about everything, run around until my legs couldn’t take any more, bounce around without a care in the world, i did what I wanted. I said what I wanted. I like to explain my younger, child self as an extraordinary, entertaining and cute individual. The wider picture being that actually, I was a dick. That is what the majority would say. Old teachers would agree, my parents definitely do. Sorry Mum. Sorry Dad.

This being said, I was told during this charming, indulgent period of my life that seeing is believing. I cannot remember exactly who said this, may have been a family member, may have been somebody in school, may have been a weird stranger, whilst offering me sweets and pointing to their van. However, I believe this thought process is seemingly interesting, quite frankly, i think it’s wrong.

You can look from the point of view that you have to see something before you know it exists, before you know that its “real”, before you know its something to believe in. On the other hand, does something really need to be physically viewable in order for one to believe in it? I don’t think so. I think that belief in something is like a faith, you can believe in whatever you want to. Sometimes people believe in something out of hope. Sometimes they believe because it’s something they imagine to be real, because it brings them happiness. Whatever the case, seeing is NOT believing. Nipping back to the time when I was young, there was Santa Claus, something that nearly every child believes in. No I have never met him, i’ve never even seen him, but who am I to say he exists or not? I’m just a hairy bearded man with a keyboard and a blank page to fill with my words. As a child, christmas would suck without the belief and the hope that Santa was coming. Yeah there is more to christmas than presents. It’s a day of celebration, a time to spend with the family, a great dinner. A really, really good dinner. These things you take for granted when you’re young. I especially did. I still do now because deep down I don’t like “family” time. There are many reasons behind this but maybe thats a thought for another day.

Whilst on the topic of Santa, Father Christmas, St Nicolas, whatever the lovely old chaps name, what about the Tooth Fairy? I believed in the tooth fairy, it made losing a tooth not too bad. It was 20p for a small tooth, £1 for a big tooth. Or if I was lucky, maybe more. £1 was 100 1p sweets back in the day. All the ingredients of sugar to help me lose more teeth..

Thinking about this statement I realised it isn’t about seeing at all, it’s deeper embedded in our souls than that. It’s about hope, faith, happiness, excitement, determination and so on. I believe in many things. I don’t believe in God (you can say i’m “bad” for that, but as mentioned in a previous post, every body to their own). I still believe their is somebody up there, up in the sky looking down on me. A friend who i’ve lost, or a family member no longer with us. I still believe that we’re here for a reason, I believe that if I work hard enough and push towards my goals they’re achievable. I also believe that many people thought I was a dick as a child. Maybe think i’m a dick of an adult. Even though that one is more obvious but hidden by my ego.

Belief is a very important part of our society, without dreams or putting our trust in an idea or a concept, what do we really have to guide us? What do we have to look forward to? Whats next? Where are we heading during this journey of life, as a species, evolving, learning, why? No matter how you look at it, I think everybody believes in at least one thing. I used the Tooth Fairy and Santa as examples, they were the first thing that came to mind at the time to prove my point about happiness, excitement and acceptance (especially how sad it would be losing a tooth as a 10 year old knowing nothing would come of it).

Seeing is not believing. Believing alone is a beautiful thing, something internal, something incredibly powerful to pick us up from our lowest points. That can’t be taught by anybody, that is some thing that comes naturally to us, us humans, us as one species. We’re all individuals and you’re as good as everybody else. A life is a life, no matter how famous you are, poor, religious interests, your skin colour, you’re equal. You’re beautiful. You are a human being, just like me. We’re all stuck on this planet together so how about we stick together and stop arguing about crazy things and starting wars. I’m going to end that there before I go off on one for ages.

Don’t let anybody say something isn’t real because you can’t see it. As humans we can only see between ultraviolet and infrared light, there could be wonderful things all around us and we’d be unaware anyways. Believe all you want, put your faith in something that makes you happy. Strive towards your dreams, and never let any make you feel like you’re not equal.

Birthdays

Birthdays are a strange concept to think about. The fact that they’re a yearly celebration from the date you were born is understandable. It’s the bits about how people feel about their birthdays, that’s what makes it unusual..

When I was a child, a birthday was the most exciting time to look forward to (except for Santa or the Tooth Fairy for example). The counting down to the big day, I’M GOING TO BE OLDER!! Getting presents in the morning and then celebrating with some friends and eating cake. What a day to look forward to. Thinking back, I’m not sure if I was so excited about becoming a year older or just receiving presents (possibly, just the cake). Yes that makes me sound spoilt, and I understand there are many people in the world who aren’t privileged enough and that saddens me, but I’m trying to understand my own experience of life here.

The strangest thing about the “BIG DAY” is how people respond to it. When I was younger I was excited, as explained above, it was BRILLIANT! Now I’m getting older all of my excitement happens to have evaporated. It doesn’t seem like that long ago that I was turning 18 years old. Being an English gentleman (you read that right, a gentleman), that’s a big deal, legally I could drink alcohol, or smoke cigarettes, or go into a nightclub. The important word here being ‘legally’. Basically everything that “cool kids” get up to these days, yet it didn’t change anything because I was already doing that stuff. I looked older than my age, fortunately. I was already tattooed by then too, wow that’s weird thinking back about.
Now I have realised that in less than a month I’m going to be turning 22 years old. This upsets me slightly.
No, my 18^th birthday doesn’t feel that long ago, however, since then I’ve been in a wonderful relationship, got a degree, released two EPs (possibly 3, I can’t remember…), played many gigs, met some great people and learnt a lot about myself. This all makes me think. It makes me think that it must have been a long time ago, times has just come and gone too quickly.

Sometimes I think it’s best to take a step back and actually see what you’ve accomplished in a specific period of time. I had a checklist of things I wanted to achieve before I was 21 years old, hardly any of them were ticked. Yet as I mature, I realise that time doesn’t change anything. It was created by mankind, it was mankind that meant an hour had 60 minutes in it. If we changed it to 70 minutes from now on, as weeks go by, that slightest change would bring darkness to day, and light skies to night, how unusual.

Anyways, my point is, when you’re younger you get excited about growing up, birthdays are brilliant.
When you’re my age you’re a little uneasy about seeing how quickly your life is going by, comparing that to your success and getting yourself into a tangled mess.

Adults, the older generation wish that they were younger. What an unusual concept. I’ve met older people in the past who literally do not celebrate their birthdays anymore because they don’t want to come to terms with reality or how old they are. Age is what you feel! Remember?

Enjoy being young, you’re only young once. Enjoy being adventurous, find out what you enjoy or hate the hard way. Don’t become an old man or woman regretting they tried to become successful or something else. Be the old person who can sit there and say, “At least I freakin’ tried my hardest!”.

p.s. Today is an old friend birthday, I’d like to wish her a very Happy Birthday, see me soon? (<< here is a test to see if she actually stalks my blog posts or not)