Today’s guest post comes from David, who many of us have known for half of our lives. He used to go by Dave, went to my senior prom with me, and is the reason I saw The Phantom Menace in a movie theater. I’ll let you decide which is unforgivable. (Hint: Jar Jar Binks)

I’m done with trying to convince you. Done. I don’t need you to validate what I choose to eat, to listen to, to pass my time with. I get it. You don’t agree. You don’t like the taste of that thing I’m eating, that music I’m listening to, that movie I’m watching, that game I’m playing. It’s fine. Your lack of like doesn’t lessen mine.

No, I don’t want to tell you why I didn’t like Man of Steel. No, I don’t really want to hear how disappointed you were with that salmon. I really don’t need to watch that online video of that parody of that TV show I don’t watch anyway to confirm why I wasn’t watching to begin with. I don’t need to hear your reasons why you like the thing I don’t. I don’t need to tell you the reasons I like the thing you don’t. Why is this the basis of all of our conversations? Do we really need to debate the things that give us some pleasure? Isn’t life dumb enough that we don’t need to make it dumber by defending or validating the dumb things we experience?

I can’t remember the last time we talked about something real and meaningful. Politics, the news, pop culture, all of it… it’s stupid. We’re regurgitating all the points made by other people we agree with. Or pointing out the flaws in the logic of other people we don’t. Why can’t we just fucking talk? I feel sad. I feel happy. Here’s why I feel these things. This was the last time I felt these things, and here were the reasons why, and here are the things happening that correspond with that previous time I felt this happy or this sad. Let’s express what is happening inside of us instead of covering it up with useless conversation about everything happening outside of us.

Can we just stop this? Can we not be so goddamn distracted from ourselves, our present, our doubts, our fears, our hopes, our dreams… Can we focus on the things that affect us? Can we express the nature of these feelings, these aspirations, and these desires? Can we figure ourselves out? Can we look at what we’re eating, what we’re listening to, and what passing our time with as extensions of the things we’re feeling inside and figure out why? Why does this song make me feel something? What am I getting out of this sandwich besides taste and nutrients and calories? Why does this movie make me sad? Why does this game make me happy? And why can’t we just share the deeper experience of these things without it becoming a surface debate? Why can’t we talk about this stuff without resorting to just talking about ‘stuff’?

So please, for the love god, just think a moment and tell me… really express to me…

Why does the new Jay-Z album suck so hard?