A Strange occurrence happens while on the road, and you just didn’t see it when you started. You just decided to trust it. To believe in it more than you believe in yourself. It also meant risking more than you originally assumed, although looking back, I still see without hesitation that it was worth it.
Every dancefloor I found was one I was meant to find, and the ones I did not make it to, are no better or worse than the ones I ended up on. There isn’t some list, or guideline telling you how to go about it.
We’ve come far enough, however, to look back, and that is the next mountain to climb. We have to turn it into something of merit, and with that a different perspective. I feel the next step is still through education, although nobody will ever agree to it. A culture of intelligent individuals who seem stuck in their own repetitions. With the people being the most creative being left on the outside. Or are they?
I don’t feel it will ever be that simple. There are creative people on the outside, but there are also creative people on the inside. It is unfair to devalue those who have accomplished something simply because we haven’t. This is where the culture now fails itself, where we fail each other.
Realizing this failure has lead me to the conclusion that our best option moving forward is trusting the next generation of Ravers, although we must hope that’s what they remain. Ravers. I feel if we remain committed to the club mentality, we will only have club kids, and that is a completely different section of nightlife, isn’t it?
To say one is a club kid nowadays, is not a reference to Michael Alig and the club kids of NYC, although perhaps it would be better considering their commitment to theme and decadence was a form of raving all on its own. In this case my reference to club kids is a bit different, though. In this case the context is that of people in their twenties who have only experienced the idea of raves in a club or organized festival.
I feel they are given a bad rap in the grand scheme of our culture because they will never be old school, and yet still, they have the commitment in a way I don’t know if we do anymore. We love it, and it helps us to endure, but we can’t be at the show every night anymore. We can’t keep saying we belong there even though we may one day realize we never did in the first place.
The raver evolved to the festival kid, and now the club kid has a new claim to the culture. But have they earned it? Did any of us? To me it’s very similar to how trance was popular when I was a teenager, and then House, and then Dubstep, and now it’s Techno. But then again when I first heard music at a rave it wasn’t any of those sounds. It was Jungle bouncing off the walls of some random place in Santa Fe.
That was for me, though, and the next step should be for someone else. Their moment should be realized while it’s happening. I don’t feel they have all the answers, but I also know something has to come of what they’ve put into it, and I don’t feel any of us know where that goes.
With all that said we try and stay away from clubs, however impossible that may be. And lately even festivals have become too outrageous a journey to take part in. As crazy as it sounds one day you do finally have enough, and just want to sleep for a bit.
As much of an old man as I’m becoming, I’m grateful for that. I’m grateful to say I’m one of the ones who can rest. Not everybody who started this journey with me can say that. Old age is the gift for making it through, although don’t bother telling that to anybody who’s old. I think mainly we’re just sick of being old.
So as an aging raver, who’s past his prime and growing greyer by the day, I’d like to say to the kids who aren’t such kids anymore, simply this.
Be Kind, and honest. And don’t be afraid to face the truth, and yourselves, and each other. It hurts at times, but I suppose that’s part of being a grown up. A lot of stuff is gonna hurt a lot of times, and you can’t do anything but learn to live with it.
Learn to know the silent truth that you don’t get over some things, you just live with the pain of them, and the realization that to the rest of the world it just doesn’t matter. And if you don’t know what that means I guess you will one day, when you’re old and grey.
Also, enjoy the silence. Some of the realest moments in your life will happen in silence. Don’t be afraid of that. We surround ourselves with such consistent noise, that we forget the sound of our own thoughts sometimes. Experience that again every now and then.
And finally, you’ll see as you get older, it will be harder to stay true, and honest and filled with a good heart. I’ve learned perhaps that is the real test of aging.
Not just health, but also a good heart. Can you age and still keep that strong and honest intent? Can you be what you claimed you’d remain all those years ago, or will you let this life change you into something else? Will you grow or will you mutate? In the end is it possible they are both the same?
I don’t feel I am meant to have the answers to these. I think you are. So, protect your heart, stay true, and I’ll see you when your journey has lead you back to me. Whenever that may be.
– A.❤️
Ourdancefloor.net 