Always Challenge The Challengers
I've met a lot of people in my life who like to push and give people
personal direction. Some of those people have been amazing spirits
in a dead world because comfortability is really a drug sometimes
and we all need to be 'challenged' from time to time - to have our
worlds shaken up.
But it's a funny thing about those pushers and challengers - often,
they are so good at expanding boundaries and pushing limits that
they cannot take the very same challenge when it is directed back
at them because they feel that they are on a higher plane. It's sort
of a 'do what I say - not what I do' motto. Often times, those very
people are incapable of personal change even though they spew
ultra-intelligent diatribes of mind-expansion to others.
When I think back to the roots of the word 'challenge', I think
back to a tradition that used to happen in the depths of old Iawah
lore. At evening campfires (at what was then called 'Indian
Council'), someone could contest another person who had a
known record in a certain activity. Those activities included
such manly pursuits as 'leg-wrestling' or 'arm-wrestling'. If you
issued a challenge to someone and won that challenge, you
could earn points for your 'tribe'. Mostly, though, I think of
younger boys (usually skinny) approaching bigger burlier kids
with fear and trepidation and issuing challenges.
I love the cover of the New Porns album because it re-visits
that image - the sort of underdog flexing for the fight. At times,
though, we must remember that those who spend their lives
flexing and approaching giants also need to be brought
back down to earth.
