I've been reluctant to post a Cloud Cult song because I didn't feel like I could pick one that would do them justice. Cloud Cult is so diverse in their stylings that I am fairly certain that you could hear a song that could annoy the piss out of you, and then hear another that you love to death. This morning, however, I realized that I should get over that and post this song, one that has stuck with me for a while now, that made it into my best 2008.

I wrote this big long rambling paragraph and then I deleted it! I am expressing restraint.

There is so much joy and beauty in this song, and hearing it felt like a revelation: I've been trying to tell people this forever. It's not an eye for an eye, it a favor for a favor. It doesn't matter if there's a billion saviors, because there's so many things to be saved! A miracle's a miracle even when it's ordinary! I guess it sounds like a collection of motivational catch phrases or something but it's all true, so fuck it.

I'm not religious, I've become all moodily disenchanted as I am certain so many do when approaching the ripe old age of twenty-four, but this song is important to me, and the messages it contains have absolutely nothing at all to do with religion or God. (Kind of like what Jesus preaches in the Gospel of Thomas [and a decent amount in Matthew], to let my former religious side cut in for a second.)

Just... be good to people, and don't sweat the small stuff. ("And it's all small stuff!") I don't know why this is so hard to for people to understand, but all you've got to do is stop doing things to other people that you wouldn't want done to you, and vice versa, do things for other people that you'd want done for you. (I'd say that this usually begins with: stop telling people what to do unnecessarily, stop giving unsolicited advice, and stop saying needlessly bad things about other people when they are not around.)

The whole "do things for others" part is really hard sometimes, but I like to give money to people/homeless people because I know if I were homeless or needed money bad enough to ask random people, I'd want some skinny guy to hand me five dollars, you know? It's tough when someone calls you up right as you're going to bed and they want you to rush out of the house to do something with them and you're lying in bed thinking: Damn, I really want to sleep right now, but if I were on the other side of this phone call I'd probably want me to wake up and do this... Shit. It's worth it, though. Generally people will start to think you're awesome and want to be nice to you.

If you start doing this and your life doesn't immediately become awesomely stress free, then I'll give you $50 and tell you to quit your job, get some self-confidence, and stand up for yourself, because you're probably letting other people get you down. If that doesn't work then you should really stop being so much of a pussy. It's possible to be nice to people without being a floor mat. Maybe that's the hardest of all.

~fin

Site Note: So much for restraint! Maybe tomorrow.