TLC and Other Things I Like To Sing On My Bike

"Mom, it's not that you're funny... it's just that your life is funny."  -My sister to my Mom.

Today I rode my bike through playhouse square and didn't realize there was a film crew shooting a scene of the street until I noticed a camera right in front of me.  A camera right in front of me while I was singing Creep by TLC.

And I died.  It was too funny.

Later on the bike ride, the Tyga classic, Rack City, comes on the radio.  When the protagonist of the song, presumably at a strip club in the titular city, says "Rack City, bitch.  Rack Rack City, bitch. Ten ten tens twenty and a fifty, bitch," my slight-OCD side is comforted to note that he gave exactly $100 to this woman.  You can call her a bitch all you want, Tyga, but she just got $100 of your money in less than 4 seconds

Bike riding gives you a lot of time to think about such things.

On the rest of the ride home I thought more about these two songs.  TLC's song, a 90's R&B gold-standard about a woman cheating on her boyfriend once she suspects that he's cheating on her -- not out of spite or jealousy, but simply because she wants the attention -- is actually pretty insightful stuff when you think about it.

One of the best things we get out of relationships with anyone is attention.  Our need for attention is really underrated, probably because we think it's better to be autonomous or we don't want to come off as too needy.  We like thinking we can just be awesome people all by ourselves.  Think Indiana Jones or Kanye West.  They think they're pretty awesome, and a lot of other people do too, but do any of us really want to be friends with either of them?  Does Kanye West text his pals on Sunday to see how their weekend was?  Does Indiana Jones ever asks his friends out to brunch?  Probably not.

And Tyga wants just as much attention too, even though he may try to come off as a bad-ass, he just wants us to think he's a bad-ass so we'll give him that attention.   You can keep throwing those hundreds, Tyga, if you want to get you noticed.  It'll work, but it won't be cheap.

At least TLC is honest about our need for attention and honest with the understanding that sometimes to get that attention, we sink to really low levels.  T-Boz is pretty explicit.  She loves her man, won't leave him, but god damn it, if he's not going to pay her any attention, she's going to get that attention somewhere else.  So she creeps and she'd prefer us to keep it on the down low.

Imagine how fast someone would go crazy if they were the only person on earth.  Or, if you have time, watch Castaway, starring Tom Hanks.  If left all to our lonesome, we'd make a friend out of something, just so we could have someone else around.  We wouldn't take a volleyball and make a sex-doll out of it, we'd make a lil' buddy.

Though we're told we're not supposed to judge ourselves against other people, it's actually kind of necessary -- to an extent.  Constantly believing that we need to keep up with the Jones's in order to be successful isn't healthy.  But we have to get our idea of what a successful life is from somewhere.  If I was the only person left on earth, how would I know if I'm living my life right?  There is no right or wrong and no success when you're the only person left.

I know, right?

So I look to my friends and family.  I look to people who I admire, who I think are doing it right and try to be like that.  If it feels right to me and I feel like it's having a positive impact on my life and the people around me, I keep doing it.  If it feels wrong or it's pissing my friends off, I stop.

Honestly, I think this is what everyone is doing naturally all the time.  The problem comes in when we get an idea in our heads of what life should be like from some unrealistic source -- like television, the internet, or Tyga songs.  When we have an unrealistic idea of what life should be like, an idea that doesn't really provide us with what we need to be stable, we start to feel ashamed of all the little quirks and problems we have that are seen as bizarre or wrong by that unrealistic standard.

Imagine growing up gay in a conservative community that considers homosexuality immoral.  In order to fit in, you have to deny your strongest feelings.  I can't imagine how hard it is to be told that your love for another human being is wrong.  It's one of the most un-human things imaginable.  Taking away a person's ability to love while living is nearly the same as death.  At least Romeo and Juliet thought so.

But when we can laugh at the silly little things that we do -- the things that might not be seen as cool, or manly, or feminine, or whatever -- we at least can be comfortable with being human.  And when other people can laugh with us at those little things, or better yet, say "I DO THAT SHIT ALLLLLL THE TIME!" it's the best kind of attention we can get.  It's the kind of attention that turns something that we once thought was weird into something human.  It turns something we thought separated us from the rest of humanity into something that connects us with it.

So I love Creep.... yeah, just keep it on the down low, cuz no one is supposed to know.

No, better yet, let the whole damn world know.