letter to my uncle lee

0
12:35 AM

hey man. 
im sitting here listening to music and it always comes back to me that i owe a lot of good taste to you. you made me a music fan, not just a music listener. you taught me to listen to the details and the songwriting and the harmonies. this is shit that im still using to this day. i barely use a damn thing i learned in school!
it was vital for me and i can't thank you enough for it. i know you're kinda like me, you're not good with compliments so its ok if you don't have much to say back. i just want to make sure that you are aware of what you did for me when i was younger. my life has been full of many great things because of simple tools that you gave to me. you should sleep easier at night knowing that. for all your flaws that you may have, or any sort of thing that weighs on you and makes you feel bad about yourself, this is one thing that you should feel good about cause im alive and well and its your doing.
you saw yourself in me and you acted on it, and because of that i have helped other people the way you did. i have counseled friends. i have a friend whos family basically adopted me when the things went down with my mom. her youngest daughter, justine, calls me her brother and i am close with her like you were with me. we do everything together. we've been through everything together. she tells me her darkest secrets. my thoughts always somehow end up going back to you. you may have had some angry times, and volatile times, but you were real with me and i respected you for it, and it allowed me to find the courage to come out of my shell.
you developed the artist in me.
and the world didn't get to me in time, it failed to crush my dreams and now I am still here living them out and living my life of art and music. i am immersed in it and its my life and i couldn't think of a better life for myself. thanks for kicking my ass into shape and picking me up and dusting me off where my mother failed. 
i love you, pal. i recall those memories of when i was a kid a lot. they are fond memories and when i go through my comics it all comes back to me. you saved a good life, and i've done amazing things with it, and the best is yet to come.
take care man.
------------------
this man saved my life and is the sole person responsible for me being who i am. I would have never had the courage to become who I am if not for this man who stood against the oppression of his family, who stood against the ridicule of his sisters for years to nurture the artist in me. all i can do is try to make him understand what he did for me. what NO ONE could do for me. many have tried, many have failed. this man did it with grace and style. the coolest man i ever met is my uncle lee. loud booming voice, big smile, and a joke to make you laugh. never afraid to make a fool of himself to make someone else laugh while everyone else at the party is looking at him like he's an asshole cause thats how my family is. he always stood up against the bullshit and he was a shield for my protection. i haven't had many in my life but this one was enough. we don't see each other as often as we should. he is now married and living a county over and just trying to stay afloat in life while I am busy with my rich life of playing music and touring the country. 

i feel like theres a sacrifice somewhere in there that he made for me, and i'll be damned if i let this depression thing burn me out because he gave me fire in life and taught me how to live it. i forget sometimes, but i'm still picking myself up because of him, because of my niece, because of shaun luu. i have to ride this thing out to the end. no matter how many times i want to quit or i feel like im getting in over my head. i just have to ride this thing out cause they did this for me.

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time and emptiness

0
4:20 PM


the body falls apart, and hurts the whole way down
call it a life and then you have to live it
through
i've seen history repeat so many times
and time 
will have its
way
with you

i envy you, who can distract yourself from this
the years are really dragging on
we never talk about it, the truth just makes us sad
and time
will have its
say
in the end

the conversation's are all dull and pointless
no one has anything to say
i don't know much but i know this is just not right
so why
should i
stay
with you

i guess i don't relate and thats just how it is
you cannot change someones ways
sometimes i wish that i could get it over with
and that
is only 
sad
to you


i will not apologize
for what i feel
and i will not be condemned
for what you fear
as ugly as i want it to be
and as real as it gets
there isn't that much hope for me

and I'm known for making empty threats

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day of anxiety

0
3:34 PM
I always know its coming. I always have the worst anxiety on my birthday because its the one day of the year where everyone steps out of bounds under some hair brained idea of tradition that I never agreed to in the first place. I never got a say in it, but for some reason people think that its the one day of the year when I will be ok with their intrusion in my life.

Its twenty four hours of phone calls, texts messages, and facebook messages that I have to dodge from people who mean well but don't realize that what they are doing is on par with cutting a piece of skin off of me. This is who I am. This is the person I am. I cannot help it. It's reinforced by 32 years of living and it's not going to ever change. I do not like people sending me well wishes. It is a useless, trivial thing for me and it's just a reason for someone to get in my face. I do not feel these bonds and these traditions that everyone else shares. I'm just different. As pretentious, and vomit inspiring it is to just even type that, the truth is what the truth is. I have been this way since I was a kid. 

My mother would find me in my room playing with my toys alone while all my cousins and friends and family were out in the other room celebrating. I wanted to be alone, it just makes sense to me. I enjoy my toys and my trinkets and my things as a solitary thing. If other people are around I don't feel that I can involve myself as deep as I want to and it feels unsatisfying. My mother would scold me and make me feel like a piece of shit for hiding away from all these people that came to see me. She would call me selfish, which is a nice abusive way to treat a kid. Thanks mom, great parenting you miserable cunt. I will give her the fact that no one understood introversion in her days, so no, she didn't understand, but she punished me for being the way I am and I just cannot ever get over that. It has done permanent damage to me that I still feel as an adult so I don't feel that I have anything to forgive. She refuses to admit that she made mistakes and looked me right in my eyes and told me that she never hit me when I clearly recall every single instance of violence from my mother during my childhood. She made me a violent, volatile person because she couldn't understand who I was. She wanted to break me like a horse, but I have always had a strong will and I never let her get away with it. I stood my ground and I raised myself, so I don't owe that horrible woman even a second of my time.

The fact that I am even alive and well today is a miracle in my eyes. I was sure I was going to die in my twenties. I had made my peace with it, and it never happens, so now that I have surpassed the cut off point that I allowed myself, I'm just kinda floating around unsure of what to do next. 

I live for myself now. I'm sure there is some selfishness in there, but for the most part I am very giving and compassionate to people. I think most of the people who know me can attest to that. I like to help people. I have counseled countless friends and acquaintances, been trusted with things that I have never told a soul. Things that most people wouldn't even believe, I have been involved in and done. No one ever had my best interest in mind when I was a kid, it was always there, so now that I am an adult and its on my terms, well, I'm taking the reigns and doing whatever the fuck I want. I went through hell to get here. I have seen horrors that you could only imagine and I fucking earned this right to be even a tiny bit selfish. You'll have to forgive me. 

The best thing I have ever done for myself is to become brutally honest with myself and be extremely self aware. Through this process I have really truly learned what makes me tick and I have come to accept myself in all my flaws and eccentricities. This is all a part of the puzzle that is 'me'. 

Now it sounds like I think very highly of myself, but the truth is I don't. If I'm being honest I really don't consider myself most times which is a bad habit I got into in childhood. A lot of times I don't really like myself or how I feel inside. I've struggled with depression since childhood and the abuse I was subjected to has left me with a very broken sense of self but I am still here and I am still picking up the pieces and working on it so it shaped me into this person who doesn't fully like himself but accepts himself and will give himself credit where credit is due.

I may be a psycho, but most people know that I would give them the shirt off my back if they truly needed it, and I am confident enough to know that I've proven that to people that are close to me. I also am realistic to the world and I realize that there are mostly predators and leeches out there who will take whatever they can get from me, so I am cautious and hold people at a distance, cause most of the time they don't even know that they are leeches and predators. They have no idea that they are awful, blood sucking monsters, and I have to keep my distance and sift through them for my own personal health and safety. 

And honestly, I don't even consider myself a psycho. That's just a word I use to break it down into simpler terms and relate to people. Most would just rather write me off as a weirdo and if thats what it takes for them to leave me the fuck alone then its a badge I wear with pride. I truly believe that for all my flaws and history, the problem isn't me, its you. People tend to go unchecked in their privileged little lives cause they've never had cause to check themselves or even look into themselves. Most people think the whole world revolves mostly around them so they take things personal and can't stand when someone truly has no use for them or their company as if its the biggest insult someone could ever lay on you. 

This is especially tricky for girls. The typical woman nowadays is used to being able to string a man along and work him. They don't have to pay for drinks at the bar, they get gifts, they are showered with the good life. Thats a usual american scenario. I have no interest or use for anything of this sort in my life. I will not buy a woman a drink. I don't drink and I will not put my money down for a drink. I will not be strung along. If you want to be with me then we will have full disclosure right away or I walk. I do not need you.

The weird thing that happens is that these girls will see me ignoring them and being uninterested and suddenly I'm the one they want. It's flattering but I am not trying to run a game on you. I'm not paying attention to you because I do not want to know you. Again, its nothing personal, I am just very selective about who I let into my little world. I don't know why it happens but girls love the challenge and they think they can win me over. The few times it has happened it always ends bad. They cannot grasp the concept that I do not want to have sex with them and that there is truly nothing in here for them. For me, its bizarre. I don't really feel like I am something that would ever be good for them. I'm trying to do them a favor by staying away. No one should be subjected to someone like me. I will wear you down, but they keep coming if I don't keep my head down, which I do so it's not so much a problem anymore. It's just a really weird observation. Is it really all that easy? Most men I've met would love to have cracked some sort of code like that. It's never been an interest of mine. Girls are nice, i appreciate them and respect them very much. I've been around women my whole life. My mother removed my father from my life so I've known a woman's world more than I have ever known a man's world. I just have no interest in being with lots of women. I really don't and never have. Most men want to fuck anything that moves, hormones raging. Maybe I have some sort of hormone imbalance or something, who knows, I just couldn't give less of a fuck about sex as conquest. I have better shit to do.


So anyway, I just like being left alone. I don't think I am asking much of people. I can't stand that bombardment of harassment just because it happens to be the day I was born. I reject these traditions. I have removed the essentials from my life because they were taking up space and I needed the room for things that suit me better. Yet, every year, even though I have already spelled it out a thousand times for people they still just don't get it. What they see as a harmless gesture is quite harmful and jarring to an introvert. Leave me the fuck alone. I'm trying to make you understand which is more than I should even have to do. I don't have to explain myself. I do it for your benefit. It saves a lot more head aches, but please, for the love of nothing, leave me the fuck alone. Right me off as a miserable grump. I'm fine with that. Hell, be mad at me! That's great. Whatever you gotta do to put it in your head to avoid me. This is my choice. This is what I would like from you. The path of least existence.

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