On Purpose

Recently I bought my first iPod (being a historically anti-Apple person). It’s a 1GB orange (this was before they launched the new colors) Shuffle. I love it. It also gave me the chance to finally organize all my music using iTunes (which of course is the best way I have found yet). One of my favorite features is the autofill. Just plug the iPod in, click autofill, walk away, and when you get back you got a full new set of songs to listen to. I also have a ton of music that I had never even listened to mainly because it got lost in the void my music folder used to be, but now with autofill, new songs pop up here and there. One of these is from Aesop Rock on his Labor Days album called “No Regrets” (full lyrics here). I’m not going to copy and paste the entire song here, but it’s an awesome story (which is by far my favorite type of hip-hop format) and one that immediately rang true and important in some way.

The synopsis is that Lucy, ever since she was little, kept herself busy drawing:

The many faces of the various locals that she would meet
There was joshua, age 10
Bully of the block
Who always took her milk money at the morning bus stop
There was Mrs. Crabtree, and her poodle
She always gave a wave and holler on her weekly trip down to the bingo parlor
And she drew
Men, women, kids, sunsets, clouds
And she drew
Skyscrapers, fruit stands, cities, towns

When people would approach her and ask her why she spent so much time on something that would be gone later “she would only smile” and when the other kids asked her to come play she would say “I’m busy, thank you much.” The same type of story repeats when she is mid-aged and then the last part of the song focuses on when she is in a retirement home. Again, it’s hard to really sum up the whole thing in less words than what Aesop used, but in the end:

And she said:
“Look, I’ve never had a dream in my life
Because a dream is what you wanna do, but still haven’t pursued
I knew what I wanted and did it till it was done
So i’ve been the dream that I wanted to be since day one!”
Well!
The nurse jumped back,
She’d never heard Lucy even talk,
‘Specially words like that
She walked over to the door, and pulled it closed behind
Then Lucy blew a kiss to each one of her pictures
And she died.

It’s this kind of story that I feel could change people. Too many old childhood friends have been relegated to inferiority (yes, I’m casting judgment :P) because of lack of vision/commitment/drive. In my experience this kind of “indifference” permeates throughout the young generations of late. I’m not saying you have to be a Type A personality go-getter or whatever you’d like to categorize it as, just that you need to have an idea on what you’re going to be doing in the future. There are too many blog posts to count about how to find out what it is you want to do, but in general, many people still seem to be lost.

Everyone is going to have something they want to do in this life, and it’s going to vary, but more than anything, if you have no purpose in your life, you can just float above the water endlessly until eventually the end comes. Even those with purpose but lacking the drive to make it happen will just sit and dream because “A dream is what you wanna do, but still haven’t pursued.” I have tried to exhort those who have dreams to follow them, or in some cases, race after them as they go flying by, because a dream alone, is useless.

The story of Lucy can be applied in many different ways, and I could write about healthy applications of her dogma for quite a while, but I think I’ll let you draw your own conclusions.

I do want to say for the record though, if you live your life with purpose, whatever purpose that may be, in the end, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed when you look back.

Can’t get enough? You may be interested in these posts as well:

Ignorance is Freedom

On Risk

Moving on up, to the North side

Love = Heart

Our Greatest Fear