What Do You Actually Care About?

Do you spend every day

doing something you care about? Or at least, do you do something you care about every day? And if not, why? When did you stop caring? And I don’t mean not caring in that way where you don’t give a fuck and it’s cool. I mean hiding from judgement and honest feedback behind an avatar. One that’s not really you. One that’s kind of anyone. One that’s kind of everyone. I mean not trying honestly to do things you care about; spending your time doing the good shit. The important stuff.

I think that people are too busy talking about living their best lives to actually just live them. Too caught up in the machine to realise that they’re the one driving it. Have people forgotten to care about thinking, or have they just forgotten to think about caring? Are thinking and caring mutually exclusive? They both require time, which everyone claims they don’t have.

You keep saying that this online world isn’t real. But this is your reality. You are the Internet.

Life is long, if you know how to use it. Which is why I think people should care about not settling. Most of us are given enough time to do a lot of things, and yet so many of us choose to do what we’re told to do. We take that path that everyone else is traveling. And what’s worse: now we do it while complaining about how stupid people are for taking the exact paths we’re on. We used to be able to claim ignorance. What’s our excuse now?

I think we’re all sleep ‘woke’-ing.

Do you know who you are? Do you know how you’re different to everyone else? Do you even care?

People should care about doing different differently. Putting something out there into the world without knowing what they’ll get back. Whether that’s praise, ridicule, silence or conversation. People should take the risk more often.

If you know what you’re doing, you’re definitely not doing anything new.

People should spend more time figuring things out for themselves. Which means not taking to social media to post their feelings when they already know that their answer don’t lie in a like, a retweet or a reply. We know we have to figure this shit out for ourselves, that the answer is within us (with love, Gandhi). So why is it OK that we never do?

I just want you to try to be you. Whoever that is. (With love, Bob.)

This is what I think you should care about. From me to you. These are my (current) opinions on how to go about your days. They’re subject to change. I’m not standing on a pedestal. I don’t want you to agree. I don’t want you to do as I do. I want you to make it up for yourself, too. This is a promise: if you keep thinking, you’ll figure it out for yourself.

You should care about hearing people.

And knowing the difference between listening and hearing what someone is trying to say; not just waiting for your turn to speak. (With love, Fight Club.)

You should care about not caring what other people think.

This doesn’t mean acting without awareness of consequence. This means sitting comfortably with yourself. Finding your truth, lol.

You should care about what you look like sometimes.

It’s superficial, yes. But that’s ok. So long as it’s only a sometimes thing.

You should care about taking photos that you’ll want to show your kids one day. Photos where they can see where you were and what you were doing at their age. Not what your face was doing, other than getting older. Not of you doing a little jump in front of the SOLD sign of your first house. Who’s that photo for, anyway? Not your engagement ring, either. The same ring every guy gets every girl.

You should think about why some days you hate the world, and other days it’s awesome. You’re so privileged, your life sucks. Yes, it’s confusing. Yes, you’re emotional. But if you ask the right questions, you’ll find more things to be grateful for, and spend more of your days doing more of those things.

You should remember you’re floating in space for fuck’s sake. Whatever it is, you can probably get over it.

You should care about this reality, not the stories that may never unfold.

You should care about your family. They won’t be around in a while. In a while could be tomorrow.

You should care about the condition of the world you are leaving behind. Even if you’ll never see or know if the people left behind care.

You should care about feelings. You should have heaps of them. 

You should care about writing. For the sake of writing.

You should care about reading. Even if you don’t have the time. 

Even though you don’t have time for most of the stuff you care about. 

You gotta take the time before you make it work for you.

You gotta think about caring. Care about thinking.

Paint a picture. Act pretty. Say something nice.