Last night I was asked a question that I struggled to answer, the question was, ‘what are you passionate about?’ and beyond the obvious of certain sporting events/team on occasions then there was no default response. Even in that situations those moments are fleeting and few and far between these days. I get emotionally involved in some games on occasions but nowhere near the amount that I used to. I have become more placid as I’ve gained circumnavigations of the sun.
I would say I’ve become less emotional as well, which is interesting as the said person who posed this stumper informed me that I was too emotional, wonder what she would’ve thought after me years ago then? Although to be fair she also blames me personally for the fact communism doesn’t work around the world but we’ll ignore that for now and actually bury into the question at hand.
After some quick scrambling I spoke about some of my political passions. These are relatively simplistic. I believe that everyone should have the same opportunities in life, no matter their background. I am truly passionate about this. No-one knows who is going to be the scientist to makes the breakthrough on cancer, no-one knows who the scientist is whose going to make the breakthrough on HIV, no-one knows whose going to be the next great architect, no-one knows who could invent time travel, find a truly renewable energy resource etc. – some people are just talented but all talent needs to be nurtured and if those people turn out to be from backgrounds where it is hard to breakthrough, then we need to ensure that every person has the chance to grow up and be the person they want to be.
The other thing I pointed out was how we as a race treat people. We all know that there is a significant amount of people who treat others differently depending on certain circumstances, their gender, their age, their sexuality, their background, their creed and I could go on. That repulses me. When all is said and done we are all humans at the end of the day and when we come into this world, we are no better or worse than the next person.
Going on from that sometimes there are less obvious ways that we treat people differently. Those who have met me will know that I don’t own a coat. I’m 31 and I don’t own a coat. I wear a hoodie. Several years ago I went to look at this apartment I’m sitting in right now. The letting agent saw me hanging around outside and decided that I couldn’t be the person who he was there to meet so he hung around for a few minutes and no-one else came and he eventually came over to me and asked if I was Neil and I said yes.
He showed me around but was being pretty curt about it and then he told me that I’d have to pay six months rent up front, when I replied no problem, suddenly his whole demeanour changed completely. He understood I could actually afford this place despite dressing like a bum and everything changed. Would he have acted differently if I had turned up in a shirt and a tie? Polished shoes? I suspect he would have. I hate the idea of how we dress should equate to how people treat us. I know that is how society treats us and you have to play the game to some degree but I despise this so much. Guys get away with it more I know and women get judged to a ridiculous degree on what they are wearing or what they look like. The Daily Mail sidebar of shame anyone? why can’t we just get to a point where people can express their individuality without fearing how others will perceive them.
On that note I want to point out something that I noticed a while back. I was looking at my old school’s website for some reason and I saw how much more strict the uniform rules had become. Including a line on no unnatural hair colours or styles. I was apoplectic with rage. I wrote about it in this blog post entitled Why are schools trying to turn children into robots?. For those who don’t want to read it in full, I’ll paraphrase my own work. Basically no unnatural hair colours or styles, no hooded tops, heck no unnatural or crazy eyebrow styles are allowed. Are we for fucking real? I’m still mad about this what, nearly two years later.
I firmly believe that young people need to feel free to express themselves however they like. We shouldn’t stifle creativity. We all have personalities and we are all so very different. I grew my hair long as a teenager. Why? Well mostly it was laziness but also I wanted to try it to see if I liked it. I did and I didn’t. However I was free to do it. Would the school class long hair on a hair as unnatural? I don’t know but it annoys me just the notion that I couldn’t do it if I was a student there today. We need to let children be themselves and find themselves. Otherwise you’ll find a lot of young people reach their late teenage years and early 20s without knowing who they are. Life is hard enough without being unsure of who you are because you’ve been curbed in the past.
The thing is I am a good example of this. I have struggled for many years with finding out who I am. I have always had some interests and some tendencies but a couple of years ago I had an interesting experience, which I enjoyed, surprisingly, it really kinda caught me off guard. It opened up new potential horizons and my brain ran with it. Sadly for whatever reason they haven’t been explored again since. At this point mom I’d like to point out it was not a gay experience and I still don’t fancy men. I won’t go into detail into what it was because heck my mom is reading this but lets put it this way, it was surprising, it was very sexual and it wasn’t what I always thought about how vehement my sexual persuasions were, maybe I’m even more diverse than I previously thought and heck, I was always rather diverse in that department. Yes I think that’ll add spice to this blog post.
At this point I could start flowing into various things that I am passionate about on that front but I think I’ll refrain for obvious reasons. What I will say is society expects us to love in a certain way. Anyone who loves in a different way is shunned to some degree. People are afraid of what is different. I know of people who have a husband and a lover and all three parties know this and are happy, more than happy with this set up. I know of people who are madly in love yet one person is essentially kept as a slave. I know of people who are happy having lots and lots of anonymous sex in car parks. Whatever floats your boat people. Adults are adults and they have a free mind and a free will to live their lives as they please. Society shouldn’t dictate what is ‘normal’ and what is morally wrong or morally right when no-one is getting hurt and eyes are wide open.
And on that front, sluts. Why on earth does the vast majority of society treat men who sleep around differently than women who sleep around? It is such bollocks. If I had a lover who’d had one partner I wouldn’t care any differently to if they had enjoyed the pleasure of 50 or 100 men or women in their time. We have this unbelievable thing inside of our skulls called a brain and it gives us this free will. Happiness is so hard to find in this world, if we find it in a way that is different from the norm then so be it. Embrace it. Not everyone wants the white picket fence and 2.4 children.
So yeah this blog went in a vastly different way to how I perceived it when I started but thinking about what really gets my gander up, maybe more than I thought. I would love society to become more open and welcoming to those that are different. Slowly we are coming around to treating gay men and women better than we previously did. We are making good steps on that, certainly amongst the younger members of society. That is a step forward but what I’d love to see is young people being free to explore the world and their mind without fearing of disappointing others that they don’t get married and have kids or whatever. I know I’ve often worried deeply about disappointing my mom and she always says that she just wants her kids to be happy. The problem was always I never knew what would make me happy. Maybe I still don’t but recently my brain has been expanded beyond its former limits and I see things that I couldn’t see before.
So people of the world. Happiness comes from within. If you find happiness but you worry about how society may treat you then we have to change the preconceived notions on happiness. This is something I am fucking passionate about and politically speaking Lib Dems – read this and remember what we actually stand for. We want a society where everyone is free to grow up and be who they want to be. Life is all about having options and it is one hell of a fucking journey, the more options we have then the more likely it is we’ll find that happiness that most of us yearn for at some point, the problem is a lot of people (including me) don’t know what will make them happy.
So open up your hearts and explore. Explore the world, explore your mind, explore your options and once you do that you may find that what you thought you always wanted isn’t what you want at all. The problem is many of us are scared to do such a thing as we are afraid of what other people will think. We shouldn’t care what others think and that is why we have to change society to not judge people in any way for how they dress, who they love, how they choose to live their lives etc.
So yeah, maybe I am passionate about one or two things…who knew?
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