Transcript

Sense Of Self · Wanzology

Sense Of Self Par-rum pa-pum pum, rum-pa-pum pum, bum-pa-pum pum! I know it's early, but I gotta practice. It's a reminder that in a month and a half, I have to have, like, five or six Christmas songs written and in the can so that they can be submitted for playlists around the world. How are you doing? Welcome to another episode of WANZOLOGY!! I am your host, The Wanz! How's your Wednesday? How's your day? Don't know what day it is where you're at when you're listening to this, I just know it ends in Y. That's what I know. No worries. I am in a weird... Well, geez, I say that almost every week, don't I? I'm in a weird space. That's because I think a lot, I can't help it. I think a lot about some of the silliest things, and I've spent the last couple of days thinking about self. Not myself, yourself, just self in general. How do we determine our own sense of self? It starts early, I know, and it's guided by your parents. You determine along the way whether you like Brussels sprouts or hate broccoli or wanna be vegan or whatever. You figure all that stuff out, but at some point, you take over the controls, and it's all on you, your ‘self’ (two words). So what then? Your mom and dad or mom or dad or significant parental figure is no longer buying your clothes. What do you think looks good? That dress that Becky has? Maybe it's that jacket that George has. Maybe it's neither and you don't care. Maybe you don't wanna get a haircut because you like your hair in your face, and you like it being all ratty and nappy and whatever. Your ‘self’ (two words), at some point becomes your responsibility. But how do you determine your sense of self? We all do it. It has to happen. Christ, you know it has to happen because every year there's new clothes, there's new cars, there's new stuff every season. There's a different twist on something that's been around forever, a bikini. Maybe the straps go a little bit this way, or for a men's swimsuit in this color, or flip-flops that have characters on the bottom of them so that when you're upside down, you can figure out which one is yours and which one is his. Something like that. Style, self, I don't know what you wanna call it, but we're made up of so many different little things. What we like to eat, how we like to sleep. What's our favorite snack? What's your favorite candy bar? What's your favorite movie? What was your favorite song in ninth grade? For a lot of people, if you can remember those things, those help determine who you are. They are a piece of fabric in the blanket that is who you are. Now, this is all trial and error. Not everything works, especially not the first time, right? So when did you try to develop something for you just because you liked it? For example, call me crazy, but I'm not a big Nike fan. I rarely ever, if ever, buy Nike shoes. The last pair of Nike shoes I had, the only reason I had'em, Macklemore gave them to me. I had a pair of shoes given to me by Macklemore, they were Nikes, and I wore 'em because it was a gift. Not because of who he was, but just the gesture in general. It was great. But I don't go out and buy Nikes because a zillion fricking people have Nikes, and I'm kinda different. I don't wanna look like a zillion people. I used to. Back in middle school, junior high we used to call it, there was this trend that started in blue jean fashion. It started with an embroidered star on the back pockets, and they were called ‘Star Jeans’. Man, if you had a pair of Britannia Star Jeans right around 1974, '75, you were happenin'. I tried to tell this to my mom. "Mom, I wanna go to the Squire shop, and I wanna get a pair of Britannia Star Jeans. Just one pair." That one pair cost something like $17.00. My mom said, "Oh, we're not doing that. You don't need those." And I was crushed. "Mom, all the kids at school are wearing 'em. I, I..." "Michael, you don't go to school to be in a fashion show." So off to Sears or JCPenney we went to get the Lee or Wrangler jeans or Toughskins, something. And then when I was at school nobody cared. Nobody paid attention to what Mr. Wansley was wearing. It was so, so droll. Or at least that's what I thought. So when I got a little older, I decided I was going to wear what was comfortable, especially when I got to college. When I got to college, it was the end of the ‘overalls’ phase of fashion. I never really liked ‘overalls’ 'cause, yeah, I just never really took to those. But one trend that I liked was I would cut the sleeves off of my T-shirts so that my arms would show, not that I was big and burly or anything. It just was more comfortable, especially on stage! I kept that trend for a long time. When I moved to Seattle, I kept the trend going by cutting out the collar of a T-shirt, and if I cut it right, I could wear it front ways, back ways, nobody would know the difference because it had no sleeves and the collar wasn't angled like T-shirts are. Well, why didn't you wear button-down shirts? Because only goofy, weird, nerdy people wore button-down shirts, that's why, and I wasn't one of them! I didn't have the brains to be a nerd! I wasn't tremendously smart yet. But I could figure out what I liked and what I didn't like. There was a period of time that I was so envious of my best friend at the time, Charles. Charles Silva had Cavallini slacks. They were lean, mean, and ooh, they were something else. I bought one pair of those, and then I bought another. I had a black pair, and then I had a gray pair, dark gray, and they would go with my platform shoes. I'd wear them to the dance hall, otherwise known as the disco, and I'd get down!! But then I got older and platform shoes went out of style and yeah, style. I really kinda hate style because it always changes. There are some things that never change, though. As I got through college and money became an issue, I decided my sense of self was going to be set up to be comfortable, so clothing had to be functional. I really stopped caring how it looked. It'd be nice if it was in a color that I liked, but other than that, it had to be functional. I didn't have very many dress shoes. I didn't have very many dress shirts, and I only wore them to concerts anyway. Always been a jeans and T-shirt kinda guy. That was my 20s, my 30s, my 40s, and now in my 60s I'm a jeans and T-shirt kinda guy. Yeah, because it's comfortable. I used to make fun of cats that had to, like, do the business dress suit, wear a tie with a button-down shirt, and then I had to learn that the universe was always listening, so when Thrift Shop came out, what happened? I was wearing a suit. So what did that mean? I had to always wear a suit. Fate, karma came to get me. ‘Oh, you made fun of all those people that you saw, made fun of them because they were wearing a suit and tie or a coat and tie or button-down shirt and tie…how about, how about every time that you perform, you perform in a double-breasted suit?’ Yeah, how about that? Man, some of them looked really good, but some of them didn't. I know because they're still in my closet and they don't fit because I got portly. But that's okay. I went back to my usual style, which was shorts, jeans, T-shirt, tennis shoes. That's my uniform. Did hoodies for a while. Eh, they're okay. Couldn't wear sweatshirts after wearing hoodies because I had no place to put my hands. But that's another topic. Now, after leaving middle-aged and I'm going to the senior set, I have another challenge to develop a sense of style, and it's not gonna be the Mr. Rogers button-down cardigan sweater. Definitely not that. It's probably not gonna be... I don't know. I don't know what it's gonna be. I'm probably not gonna care because I'm still a functional person. Shoes I buy, they have to be functional. They don't have to look tremendously good, they just need to be functional, comfortable. I can wear them for a long time. Never did understand how women could wear some of the shoes that they wear and then bitch about how their feet hurt. Well, they wanted to look a certain way. Yeah, for who? Why? I never got that. I never got that. I mean, I kinda did, but I'd rather be more the candy bar than the wrapper it comes in. It can be all sparkly and shiny on the outside, but if the inside, if it tastes like crap, doesn't matter what it looks like on the outside. Personality-wise, same thing. It's all an inside job, so I try to be caring, empathetic, honest, mmm, comical. I try to be a whole bunch of things because they're the things that I like. My ‘self’ (two words), is multifaceted. How about you? Yes, you are multifaceted as well. You like different foods, some from different countries, and even in those countries, you have choices of food that you like versus dislike. You have certain shirts that you like to wear. You have certain pants that you like to wear. You have certain shoes that you totally dig on wearing. All of these things are a sense of who you are, how you see yourself, reflective of your person. Your sense of self is packaged in things that you like, remember? Now, here's the challenge that I will leave you with. The things that you like, do you like them because you like them or because you saw somebody else like them, tried it, and then liked it yourself? How many things, how many shoes did you think looked good on somebody else, and so you tried on a pair and figured they would look good for you, and BOOM, you bought a pair? How about pants? How about a jacket? Remember the puffy coats with the ridges on them? I always thought those were the stupidest looking things ever. But you know what, there's a bazillion people who have them. More power to them. I'm never owning one. I don't think it fits my sense of self. Be who you are, everyone else is taken. That's how the saying goes!! Go forth and be who you are, because there's only one of you on this whole bloody planet! Be you and be you well, 'cause nobody else is gonna do it. That's all I got for this week. Thanks for tuning in!! I will see you later!!!