Logical
I love listening to Talk Radio 702 on a Saturday when they do their Solid Gold shows (with loads of music and not much talk radio) – they really play great music. On the way to drop of the Clio to get fixed (finally!), I tuned into 702 and listened to the tracks they had on offer.
One song really stuck with me immensely. I’ve heard it before, of course, but don’t think I actually ever LISTENED to it, you know. Maybe I’ve just never needed to. It was as if the song was written for me, for the realization that I came to in the last while. It just rang so clarion with my experiences. I’ve made it my theme song for the day.
The song I’m talking about is Supertramp’s Logical song and just so we all get on the same page, here are the lyrics:
———————————–
When I was young, it seemed that life was so wonderful,
a miracle, oh it was beautiful, magical.
And all the birds in the trees, well they’d be singing so happily,
joyfully, playfully watching me.
But then they send me away to teach me how to be sensible,
logical, responsible, practical.
And they showed me a world where I could be so dependable,
clinical, intellectual, cynical.
There are times when all the world’s asleep,
the questions run too deep
for such a simple man.
Won’t you please, please tell me what we’ve learned
I know it sounds absurd
but please tell me who I am.
Now watch what you say or they’ll be calling you a radical,
liberal, fanatical, criminal.
Won’t you sign up your name, we’d like to feel you’re
acceptable, respectable, presentable, a vegetable!
At night, when all the world’s asleep,
the questions run so deep
for such a simple man.
Won’t you please, please tell me what we’ve learned
I know it sounds absurd
but please tell me who I am.
———————————–
Why does this get to me so much? Because I think that I have unlocked the THING in my past that has created in me all these things I’m trying to get past – like being a perfectionist, not allowing myself to fail (in order to learn), believing you have to have a qualification (formal) to be able to do anything worth it and the feelings (yes, I still have them) of not being worth anything because I don’t have a “prestigious” title to my name, something like lawyer, doctor, computer programmer… I’ve realised that most of my flaws, most of the things that keep me from releasing my full potential, from delving completely into my creativity, are the things I learned in school. Not the facts, those (mostly) I’ve forgotten long ago, can look things up on the wonder of the internet if I don’t know something… plus libraries are still awesome for getting info… but i digress… I learned in school that you must listen to those that have been put above you, whether they EARNED your respect or not (mostly they didn’t), that getting GOOD GRADES were the only way to survive in the “big world” as an adult, that things like PAINTING, DANCING, WRITING were hobbies and not a way to make a living, that FAILING is bad, that QUESTIONING is bad… and all sorts of other things.
This is also why, and I’ll use the lyrics in particular the next time I get asked the question, why I decided to homeschool my children.
I’ve actually written something (a oneword exercise), I think around 2003/2004 where I touched on exactly this:
[instruct]
go to school
get good grades
further your studies
get a good job
work hard
be a success
- BUT
society destructed my beautiful spirit with these instructions
[...] schooling system, I leave you with the words from Supertramps song “Logical”, a song my wife like’s to quote when people (inevitably) ask: “why do you home school?”: When I was young, it seemed [...]