To My Fellow Passenger on the A Train: You are Not the Only One!

Hey kid,

NYC A Train

NYC A Train on its Route

You don’t remember me.  I was the guy sitting next to you on the A train who gritted his teeth and shook his head.  I didn’t say anything to you. I figured, why bother? But maybe I should have. Someone should have told you that what you were doing wasn’t cool. In fact, it was down-right rude.

Maybe, you didn’t know. Maybe you didn’t realize that the subway is a public space.

Once you inhabit that public space, your responsibility is to be considerate of the others who are around you.

You see we’re all in it together.

Once a rider pays his/her fare, he/she has the exact same rights as everyone else. However, that does not mean that you can do whatever you want on the train.

Now, as a person who has used the NYC subways for years, I have learned that anything can and does happen. It really is a free for all.

So, maybe you have seen others do as they please and therefore think it’s okay.

Well, it’s not.

Let me explain specifically what you were doing.

You were listening to music – loudly. And without headphones.

So, in other words, you were listening to music but subjecting everyone around you to your music.

I don’t know the name of the song, though I know I didn’t like it. However, my liking it is not even the point. Remember, you are responsible to every other rider.

Anyway, the music you happened to be listening to was foul. F you, N this, B that.  Yeah, like I said, foul.

Unfortunately, language like this in music is no longer shocking. However, I am not trying to be Tipper Gore here. Let me get off that soapbox. If your parents are okay with you listening to that kind of music, then it’s not really my business. Yet, I definitely have an opinion, and it ain’t positive.

Anyway, did you even consider that there might be little kids on the train? Did you look around to see who else shared the train with you that weekday afternoon?

Is it right to subject little kids to that music?

What about elderly people? Do you play that music for your grandparents?  I’m guessing no. Did you look around to see if there were any elderly people on the train?

Then, there are people like me. I was the guy next to you who fell asleep after a day of work and another night of a child crawling into my bed.  My ride home on the subway always includes a catnap.  And I look forward to it each day.

Did you look around to see if other people were clearly enjoying the quietish, regular hum of a typical packed subway car?

Look kid, the point is this. You might think the world is yours and you can do whatever you want with it. Many teens act as if the world is their’s for the taking. However, you went too far.  See, the world isn’t yours. Nearly 7 billion of us on the planet – no one exists in a vacuum.

Consideration and decency might not sound cool to you. Or something you have to worry about.  But you do. Cause you are just like the rest of us. Besides, consideration and decency might just take you somewhere that you didn’t know you could go. The world might really be yours, then.

And I don’t mean the next stop on the train.

I appreciate you listening to this advice. No need for thanks.

Take care,

The rider next to you on the A train.

Picture is courtesy of: Google

 

Some Things Are Timeless

Great Art is TImeless

The Beatles are timeless.

All nostalgia. All the time. Yes, the last few days have been about The Beatles and the 50th Anniversary of their first live US television performance.

We’ve all seen the clips of Ed Sullivan introducing them. He stiffly waves his arm and these neatly groomed Rock n’ Roll rebels in suits and ties break into “All My Loving.”  According to an article from Time, “60% of American TVs were tuned to CBS” to watch The Beatles that February 9th.  In addition, “The crowd outside stretched over eight blocks, giving the place the revved-up energy of a Broadway opening.”

So, the Beatles were a phenomenon before their first performance.  And that performance and their catalogue of work have solidified what people sensed before hand.

They clearly remain a phenomenon so based on the 312,000,000 results (0.26 seconds) from Google when typing in The Beatles.

Last night I was talking to BR – my 9-year-old about The Beatles. By the way, for the record, I like The Beatles but am not a fanatic.

Anyway, after confirming that he had heard of The Beatles, we had a discussion about the band.

“How old are The Beatles now?”

“Well, there were four of them but only two of them are alive now.”

“What happened to the other two?”

“One of them was shot. It was very tragic.”

“When?”

“December 9th, 1980. I kind of remember it, but it didn’t mean that much to me at the time.”

“Why did someone shoot him?”

“I don’t know. He was a crazed fan.”

“What about the other one who died?”

“What about him?”

“Well, was he killed?”

“No, he just died of old age.”

“How old was he?”

“I don’t know but think about it. If The Beatles first played in America 50 years ago and they were a group for a few years before that.  They have to be at least in their 70’s now and he died a few years back. So, he was like 60. ”

“Wow, they’re almost as old as bubbie (Yiddish word meaning grandmother).”

Yes, these men who made teenage girls scream, captured the attention of the world, affected the destiny of music are now either deceased or old men.

Do you realize The Beatles were only together for 10 years?  The band officially broke up in 1970 or 6 years after the famed Ed Sullivan show performance (and the year of my birth).

Yet, they remain a force today.

The Beatles are Shakespeare, Beethoven, Robert Frost, etc. They are artists, creators whose work is bigger than themselves.

So, while people are happy and feel nostalgic to see Paul and Ringo together, the music goes way beyond their physical presence.  It’s the Beatles music which lives on to future generations and continues to affect others.

That’s truly the power of art.

 

http://entertainment.time.com/2014/02/09/the-beatles-invasion-50-years-ago-sunday-feb-9-1964/

Pic is courtesy of gOOGLE Images

 

A Love Song For His Children

Sometimes things touch us, move us, affect us.

The Nick and Zack Song by my fellow Dad Blogger, Bill, did this for me. Bill and I belong to the same Dad Bloggers Facebook Group. Everyone in our group knows him as the wise and sensitive sage and the best compliment giver.

Anyway, I’ve been reading his blog, I Hope I Win a Toaster, for some time now. I quickly learned that Bill is a loving father and a sensitive soul.

Besides blogging, Bill is a Stay-at-home-Dad, husband, guitar player, trained actor, and reader of books on spirituality.  Bill prides himself on being a “meat whisperer” meaning that he can take any meat and any source of heat and make it good. He swears it’s a gift, God-given and very handy.

Prior to becoming a Stay-at-home-Dad to his twin 9-year old boys, Bill spent nearly thirty five years in the restaurant business. He says it prepared him for life as a Stay-at-home-Dad.  Besides the food prep and safety and all the obvious stuff, he learned about prioritizing and triage.

Check out Bill’s post below for the back story about the song and then make sure to give the Nick and Zack song a listen. I promise it will make you smile. Once again, you can check out his blog here: Bill’s Blog.

When our twin sons were born in the Spring of 2005, I was 44 years old. Six weeks later my wife, a youth minister at the time, went back to work, and I stayed at home to look after the boys. I hadn’t had much experience with newborns – as in, I think I’d held one once. But, I didn’t have much time to learn things.

I think you can guess what happened: I fell in love with them. So, what does a guy raised up in the sixties and seventies do when he is in love? Right, I wrote a song about it. I had penned dozens of love songs up to that point but never for a couple of infants.

Listen, when a guy writes a love song for a girl he is doing it for a reason… I’ll leave it at that. In fact, I wrote a song for my wife asking her to marry me. It worked. I didn’t know the reason I was writing this song. That came much later. One summer my family and I were camping. I was playing a few tunes around a fire, and I asked Nick what he’d like to hear.

“How about that song you wrote for us?”

“Yeah,” Zack chimed in, “I love that song.”

And, we all sang it together

I love this song too, and, it seems to have done what I had hoped – it cherishes them. And, they understand that.

A while back I began to worry that there wasn’t a recording of it, so, I sat down in front of the computer, faced the camera, and sang it for them. I’m glad I did.

Nick and Zack Song

Have You Ever Heard of Facebook?

Social Media Logos

Social Media Logos courtesy of Flickr.com

 

I’m pretty sure you’ve heard of Facebook. Shoot unless you just washed up out of the sea like the Madison the Mermaid Darryl Hannah character from Splash, you heard of Facebook.

There’s only about 2 billion people who have Facebook accounts.  Remember how McDonalds says over a billion served. Well, that wouldn’t be enough to serve all the people with Facebook accounts.

I’m just trying to help you get your arms around those numbers.

Anyway, there is big news here on MMK. MMK now officially has a Facebook account. I know that doesn’t quite make it up there on the news with the moon landing, or Who Shot JR, or the latest Kanye video.

However, around these parts, it’s big news. I’ve debated doing this for a while. In fact to be honest, I have had a Facebook page for a few months. I just didn’t publicize the page.

It’s time to change all of that.

Let me come clean. I have issues with social media. I am not even sure how to articulate them.

“What’s on your mind?” is perpetually located on the Facebook site. But I rarely feel a need to share. The thought often goes through my mind – who cares? In reality, I’m kind of a private person. There are times when I would like my own island.

Let me guess what you’re thinking. “Uhh, MMK you’ve been blogging for nearly 2.5 years and have nearly 300 posts (holy crap!). You’ve shared some very personal stuff that now is floating around in cyberspace.” That’s all true.

Yet, when it comes to my blog, I take snapshots of my life, thoughts, etc. and choose very carefully before pushing publish. And even then, I consult Ms. MMK to see if I have gone too far. Sometimes, we disagree about what is okay to be made public. Anyway, the point is that the blog is highly controlled and limited. Know what I mean?

On top of my wacky inconsistent privacy rules, I am incredibly conscious of time.

I’m sure we all know people who are actively engaged in Twitter, Pinterest (know anyone like that Ms. Fox) Instagram, etc. Of course that doesn’t include Facebook and LinkedIn.  One question – how the hell do people find time to make the moments that they are always sharing?

Maybe, it’s me. Somehow the world is passing me by. Shit, I’m over 40. Am I dinosaur? I hope not.

Let me back up here. I do have a personal Facebook account and actually go on it occasionally (mostly for my dad bloggers group – thanks Oren Miller). I have a LinkedIn account. And oh yeah, there’s that blog thing that I have posted to twice daily for nearly two and a half years.

I don’t have a big point here. However, I am issuing a call to action. Click here to check out my new Facebook page: www.facebook.com/Writings.of.Larry.Bernstein.  Check out the new cover page – thanks R.L.

So, I am joining 2 billion people who also have Facebook pages. I may not change the world, but I will be active and have some fun. So, make sure to like me (like me, really like me), join the conversation and let me know what you’re thinking. Thanks for coming along for the ride.

Who knows – maybe Twitter is next?