In recent weeks in my house, music has become a regular topic of conversation. I’m going to go on a music tangent for a few posts. So what better place to start than my “favorite” song. I use the quotations because much like a teenage girl having five different “best” friends, I am unable to etch the title in stone with complete certainty in all situations. Despite my uncertainty, I will take this opportunity to speak on its behalf.
“Quality or Quantity” by Bad Religion is a one minute and thirty four second barrage of aggressive guitars and drums only to be paralleled by the thought provoking lyrics that are sung over them. As a young man, I was drawn to the group and their songs because their rebellious nature matched my own. Songs like “Do what you want” were irreverent enough to align with the feelings of a teenage boy searching for his place. The surprising thing is not that Q or Q became my favorite song but that it has stayed in that position for so long.
The reason for its longevity is the fact that it sparks a new thought in my present situation each time that I hear it. As it has been said by many others, “you can never step in the same river twice because each time, the water is different and you are different.” In the 1990’s Q or Q was an angry rally against the materialism of the world. It made me think long and hard about the perception of the US to the rest of the world. At the time I also thought there was an answer. Obviously quality was the more desirable of the two in all situations. Leave it to a young man to think he knows everything.
Now as an older and hopefully wiser man, the song hits me in very different ways. The answer is not so simple and I’m not as angry. There truly is a choice to be made between quality and quantity in each day. Circumstances are rarely such that we can choose highest quality in every single moment. The choices that we make on a moment to moment basis add up to a sum total of our life experience. The choices are almost infinite and that particular quantity puts a huge responsibility on each individual. We must be filters of our own experience. Being deliberate in the way that we spend our time and emotion is essential to finding balance.
I’m not sure how it fits but I am now less concerned about finding the answers. Now I revel more in finding myself in the search.
Enjoy the search today.
Pete
Huryk Unlimited 