told to keep walking, to “mind our own business.” We learn to pass by unspeakable things and situations without ever stopping, whether it’s a mother hitting her child at a Wal-Mart or a homeless person starving or freezing on the street while we’re on our way to American Apparel to get a two-for-one special on T-shirts. We’re fed meat at every meal, but nobody would eat a ShopRite steak if they saw how the animals were treated! From a young age, we’re programmed to believe that to be normal means not fighting the injustices all around us. Well, I don’t believe we can kid ourselves anymore.
In order to have a full life, one’s life must be full —of struggle, strife, glory, victory, living, education (both book and street), and, most important, one another. We need to connect and relate to all the others on the planet. We live in a world that’s full of everything, yet we walk by homeless kids on the street! Do you see the disconnect? Not to sound 1960s, but isn’t it time to “Stop, children, what’s that sound, everybody look what’s goin’ down”? We shouldn’t just accept destruction and individual devastation as normal everyday occurrences. Only when we start to attune to what’s really happening all around us can we start to transform it. If you have the time to go out to a bar with your friends four times a week, you can go to a soup kitchen at least once. In fact, call me up, and I’ll go with you.
I now believe that in order to have a balanced life, you have to do something every week for other people or your community—that making a difference should be on par with making love or making money. I’m not saying that just getting up in the morning, going to work, and doing your best can’t be a service to your community; after all, people need jobs, and the fashion industry, for example, employs people from the shipping, trucking and freight industries to the garment district and definitely keeps the employees of Starbucks afloat. But it’s no longer enough to just have a job. Doing good is not the exclusive responsibility of cute nonprofit vegan kids. We all have to have a HEART:
H ealth: If you’re going to die young like Jimi or Janis, you’re only temporarily helpful to the world. We have a genetic responsibility to live longer than the previous generation.
E arth: Protect and be connected to this earth. In other words, have your feet on the ground and your ears to the sound. I’m talking about recycling. Water. Power. Government. Safety. Violence. Neighborhoods.
A rt: There is a calling and demand for beauty, even in the ugliest places. Art is a need of civilization. Bringing beauty into a place full of pain and suffering is compassionate and productive.
R evolution: Transform through action. Fight for truth like you fuck: with passion, commitment, blindness, and openheartedness.
T ruth: Act when every one of your cells is saying yes . To me, there’s no point in fighting unless you feel called. There are many injustices that I’m just not called to fight against. Who do I feel called to fight for? Young women and gay men. Everyone has different talents, but we’re all called to fight for something. We’re like a Divine football team: God made quarterbacks, linemen, safeties. So you better fucking take your position.
In our twenties, our time is mostly taken up with getting a job, finding an apartment, paying the rent, dealing with four roommates, finding someone to have sex with, partying, and then realizing, Oh my God, I have to get up and go to work again ? In this period of your life, you may be very self-indulgent; I was. When I first moved to New York, I wasn’t the most compassionate or well-informed person. I was consumed with having a wild time and thought mostly about myself. Thinking about Kelly was actually a pretty full-time job, between late nights out in clubs in the East Village and long mornings recovering, so I’d be ready to do it all over again. I
In order to have a full life, one’s life must be full —of struggle, strife, glory, victory, living, education (both book and street), and, most important, one another. We need to connect and relate to all the others on the planet. We live in a world that’s full of everything, yet we walk by homeless kids on the street! Do you see the disconnect? Not to sound 1960s, but isn’t it time to “Stop, children, what’s that sound, everybody look what’s goin’ down”? We shouldn’t just accept destruction and individual devastation as normal everyday occurrences. Only when we start to attune to what’s really happening all around us can we start to transform it. If you have the time to go out to a bar with your friends four times a week, you can go to a soup kitchen at least once. In fact, call me up, and I’ll go with you.
I now believe that in order to have a balanced life, you have to do something every week for other people or your community—that making a difference should be on par with making love or making money. I’m not saying that just getting up in the morning, going to work, and doing your best can’t be a service to your community; after all, people need jobs, and the fashion industry, for example, employs people from the shipping, trucking and freight industries to the garment district and definitely keeps the employees of Starbucks afloat. But it’s no longer enough to just have a job. Doing good is not the exclusive responsibility of cute nonprofit vegan kids. We all have to have a HEART:
H ealth: If you’re going to die young like Jimi or Janis, you’re only temporarily helpful to the world. We have a genetic responsibility to live longer than the previous generation.
E arth: Protect and be connected to this earth. In other words, have your feet on the ground and your ears to the sound. I’m talking about recycling. Water. Power. Government. Safety. Violence. Neighborhoods.
A rt: There is a calling and demand for beauty, even in the ugliest places. Art is a need of civilization. Bringing beauty into a place full of pain and suffering is compassionate and productive.
R evolution: Transform through action. Fight for truth like you fuck: with passion, commitment, blindness, and openheartedness.
T ruth: Act when every one of your cells is saying yes . To me, there’s no point in fighting unless you feel called. There are many injustices that I’m just not called to fight against. Who do I feel called to fight for? Young women and gay men. Everyone has different talents, but we’re all called to fight for something. We’re like a Divine football team: God made quarterbacks, linemen, safeties. So you better fucking take your position.
In our twenties, our time is mostly taken up with getting a job, finding an apartment, paying the rent, dealing with four roommates, finding someone to have sex with, partying, and then realizing, Oh my God, I have to get up and go to work again ? In this period of your life, you may be very self-indulgent; I was. When I first moved to New York, I wasn’t the most compassionate or well-informed person. I was consumed with having a wild time and thought mostly about myself. Thinking about Kelly was actually a pretty full-time job, between late nights out in clubs in the East Village and long mornings recovering, so I’d be ready to do it all over again. I
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