Memento Mori

I’ll start today quoting The Cranberries, as I think it fits - “Unhappiness, Where’s when I was young and we didn’t give a damn.”  I’ve recently leaned quite hard into 90’s alt rock, but there’s a catalyst to that.  Part of it that I’m getting old and things change.  Music, most of all.  I’m not going to go on a harangue about Pop music today, because I understand that it’s not intended for me, just like the music I listen to isn’t for my parents, nor do I expect Kiddo to like all of it.  I am damned proud that she does like The Red Hot Chili Peppers and J and I have caught her a number of times humming something of ours- Chvrches (yes, I spelled that right), Jack Johnson, Geographer, the Cure, etc.  She’s got taste, I’ll give her that.

A large part of it is that I am 45 this year and just the other day, my favorite band, Depeche Mode, announced a new album and tour.  Their last.  So, I’ve been reminiscent.  30+ years of listening and 51 times that I’ve seen them live.  

Through a former friend, who knew the sound engineer at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, CA (San Jose, CA on your tour schedules) who got me some bootleg recordings he made during their shows there, I’ve got some unreleased and pretty rare stuff as well.  Through his connections, I’ve also got some sets from Las Vegas, Berlin, and Oslo.  “When we were young and we didn’t give a damn.”

Now, however, I find it apropos the the finale album will be titled Memento Miro.  Remember you must die.

We all do.  That’s the cost of life.  That’s the cost of love, happiness, joy, laughs, cries, pain, and all the rest.  The price is death.  At least, in my belief system it is.  

Depeche Mode has been a constant for me since I’ve first heard them.  My sister, Jelly Beans, first started listening, but I quickly found that the sound spoke to me.  Carried my spirits, be those times light or dark, to places that let me endure or enjoy.  

It looks like the band won’t be in Asia on the tour, so I’ll not get to see the farewell tour (Unless someone wants to give me $100k so J and I can get to Europe and pay scalper fees for tix), but I’ve seen 51 times and have the bootlegs.  Plus, I have my memories.  And the music will live even if the band is gone.  

Because I will die, I just try to have some smiles and fun in everyday.  Like today.  Kiddo wanted to help me pick my outfit.  Great.  It’ll be goofy looking, but who cares.  Shoes too.  And she did.  We walked to school and as I was leaving, the guard that I fist bump with (and wrote about in the Bumping the Guard post) pulled me aside as I was leaving to chat.  We do this, sometimes, and its friendly school worker/parent chit chat and banter.  Today, he waved me over and we bumped and then he asked why I was dressed so colorfully.  “And we didn’t give a damn.”  

Kiddo wanted me dressed like this and complimented me the whole way to school on how she wished she could dress like me because that would be so cool.  One day, when she has “tie up shoes” she’s gonna “mix match” them and “make the tie ups a lot of fun colors.”  You got it Kiddo!  Besides, when you can write the entire Thai alphabet at the age of 5, well, you can tie up your shoes mix matched however you please.

Let’s go, Kiddo… Memento Mori, but until then, make sure you get the most out of it.  Be it colorful clothes, learning Thai, making friends, sleeping with the curtains open, or just laughing with Dada, Mumma, and friends.  Because you are young now, so don’t give a damn.  Leave the worrying to the us.