Better PeopleTM can play the
piano really well. They know all the quick things and the slow things
and the flashy things. But they're not just playing machines -
they've soldiered through intense drama with a broken
wrist/family/relationship, so now their musical interpretation has
depths you can't even begin to grasp. To support these yogic guru -depth
emotions, Better PeopleTM read a lot of serious books and
watch serious series. This helps them be better than the people who
read and watch the normal shit. The serious stuff has helped them
grow as persons, and by now they've reached towering heights.
Better PeopleTM have their
own chamber music festival, a concert series or at least an opera
house. They know how to write grant applications in ways that make
cultural foundations send truckloads of money to their direction -
the projects Better PeopleTM do are so new, so now, so
inspiring that the foundations compete for their support. Press is
charmed to write lovely things, and the festival/concert/thing will
continue next year with more money and prestige.
Better PeopleTM also
practice regularly and take care of their physical and mental health.
They have a balanced diet, but in parties they can be relaxed about
food because they're not uptight, just annoyingly Better. Probably
they shit rainbows. And because they're balanced, they don't burn
out. They have a lot of work, but not too much, and they don't stress
and worry and panic because music is really about being in harmony
with your soul. Somehow they're in harmony with their wallets as
well, and they make a decent living out of music while you starve.
Look around you. They're everywhere,
these Better PeopleTM, taking over the world while you
struggle in the dark and envy their things. They're your colleagues,
your friends, and oops, it looks like you're one of them. Because
there's someone somewhere thinking, oh how can she get all those nice
things - her life looks so easy and polished and lovely. I wish I had
that.
'I wish I had that' is good because it
makes you aspire to things, it makes you work and hope and reach for
something new. But it turns toxic when envy gets involved. In the
music world - this tiny bubble we all try to work in - it's so easy
to see others doing great, and so, so easy to see the jobs other
people got and you didn't. And it's easy to forget the jobs you
already have. The gigs you got, the projects you did. How proud you
could be of this corner you've cleaned for yourself, this career that
you've nurtured and fretted over. 'I wish I had that' could be
replaced with 'I'm glad I've got this' and the Better PeopleTM
would start looking more like normal ones.
Of course I might be wrong - there
might really be people out there who shit rainbows.
Well. I'd pay to
see that.
