23 April 2007

SON OF A GUN

Up up up and down
Turn turn turnaround
Round round roundabout
And over again
Gun gun son of a gun
You are the only one
Makes any difference what I say
The sun shines in the bedroom
When we play
The raining always starts
When you go away

— Kurt Cobain

He died at twenty-seven. I’m now twenty-nine, which means that I have outlived Kurt Cobain. But have I outlived Kurt Cobain?

Assignment: ask yourself if you have — or will have — outlived him at twenty-seven. If not, make a list of ways to remedy that. Then execute those plans.

One Response to “SON OF A GUN”

  • Glam says:

    To be fair Bill, one should ask themselves this question if they are a depressive, suicidal living with crushing recognizability, the pressures of performance-based fame, and unlimited access to drugs and firearms.

    The average person, no matter how excessive or tormented their life, will most certainly outlive the age of 27. Even if they think their blazing glory of youth is taking them down a path of destruction. It probably isn’t.

    Now…if you want to ask the same question using Keith Richards or Peter O’Toole or Ted effing Kenedy as an example then you may have a point. In other words, and I say this with kindness, 29 is no age to start feeling like you’ve accomplished anything significant simply by reaching it.

    Look, most of us overcome - or live with - our personal demons. Some don’t. That’s just the way it is. Making improvements may - or may not - keep you from self destruction.

    20 May 2007: 12:24 pm

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