WHEN YOU DIE, and you’re wandering through the bardos, you’ll be terrorized by various demons. You’ll be very very afraid. But the important thing to remember is that, however terrifying the demons seem to be, they’re not real and they can’t hurt you. Remember that. Just keep going. They’re not real and they can’t hurt you.
Which brings me to Dixieland Jazz. What’s more terrifying? That frantic energy sends me over the edge every time. Those loud brassy wah-wah trumpets feel like hot razors in my ears! So when I hear it being played in a cafe or a store somewhere I try to keep telling myself that it’s only a sound. It’s not real and it can’t hurt me.
Primates in the wild like to break out into party mode out of the blue. They start thump-thumping their chests and banging objects together, the noisier the better, shrieking and causing a clatter. We just want to have a good time, I keep telling myself. Is that so wrong? That’s what those trombones are for, yeah, that’s right, they’re stimulating!
I know a guy who hates the color yellow-green. It’s a visceral response. I told him, Look at it this way. It’s just a color. It can’t hurt you. And besides, it’s better than beautiful, it’s useful. You know how they started making orange construction signs fluorescent yellow-green a few years ago? There are even yellow-green school buses now. It’s not the job of every crayon in the box to be beautiful to us. It’s the job of some crayons to warn us, and if they have to use our sense of disgust to do it, so be it. Lives are at stake!
Which brings me to Dixieland Jazz. What’s more terrifying? That frantic energy sends me over the edge every time. Those loud brassy wah-wah trumpets feel like hot razors in my ears! So when I hear it being played in a cafe or a store somewhere I try to keep telling myself that it’s only a sound. It’s not real and it can’t hurt me.
Primates in the wild like to break out into party mode out of the blue. They start thump-thumping their chests and banging objects together, the noisier the better, shrieking and causing a clatter. We just want to have a good time, I keep telling myself. Is that so wrong? That’s what those trombones are for, yeah, that’s right, they’re stimulating!
I know a guy who hates the color yellow-green. It’s a visceral response. I told him, Look at it this way. It’s just a color. It can’t hurt you. And besides, it’s better than beautiful, it’s useful. You know how they started making orange construction signs fluorescent yellow-green a few years ago? There are even yellow-green school buses now. It’s not the job of every crayon in the box to be beautiful to us. It’s the job of some crayons to warn us, and if they have to use our sense of disgust to do it, so be it. Lives are at stake!