Can you remember?

The other day I went back to listening to one of my all time favorite bands, Rise Against. Besides the nostalgia, there are parts of songs that I understand differently now than I did 15 years ago. The old memory mixes with the new one, creating yet another memory.

Do you remember what it’s like to care?

“Injection” always called to me. Not only the punky music and the great vocals by Timothy McIlrath, but the whole spirit of the song. Listening to it yesterday, that phrase caught me. It made me think about all the things that I had to stop caring about in order to keep functioning. Or to pretend to stop caring, trying to convince myself. The walls I had built, seemingly to protect myself from a world whose cruelty I never understood. Not a world. A humanity.

I count the times that I’ve been sorry
Now my compassion slowly drowns.
If there's a time these walls could guard you
Then let that time be right now

Disengaging seems cruel sometimes. The apathy towards the suffering of other beings, as if it didn’t concern me. It’s not the same. And no, it’s not an excuse to stay inactive, to not to anything against all cruelty. I chose my battles. Hopefully the right ones, that will benefit the most beings possible.

I give it all
Now there's a reason
There's a reason to give it all

I face criticism a lot. For not breaking into tears every time I see a street dog in bad shape, to exaggerate. Which is fine, to be honest. I learned to nod and smile. Sometimes, when it’s a person important to me, interesting enough (and smart enough) to engage on a deeper level, I explain my thoughts and we can have a good exchange about it. But mostly I just nod and smile. I need my energy for so many other projects, and I’ve learned that my views are seen as radical here, so most people only engage to justify themselves, not to listen to my arguments.

For what it’s worth – I keep giving it all for what I consider to be important. It doesn’t matter too much to me how others judge my priorities. In the end, I'm responsible for what I do, not them. I have to be fine with it, and face the consequences.

So I give it all.

Post written for the #saturdayselections by Galenkp inviting us to share music in the Weekend Experiences community on Saturdays.

Please feel free to engage in any original way, including dropping links to your posts on similar topics. I'm happy to read (and curate) any quality content that is not created by LLM/AI.