Growing Up

See how clever that is? It’s a Peter Gabriel song, actually, it was a whole tour.

I’ve always yearned to be older. Perhaps not now, I love the age I am and have for some time, but even when I was a youth, I recognised that after just a bit of life-experience, tastes can be savoured more, experiences treasured as more precious, and emotions can be much deeper. As such, things have more dramatic effects on us, or at least on me, and I’m proud to be experiencing it.

The first time I heard Downside Up by Peter Gabriel, it was on the Growing Up tour where Peter performed it with his daughter Melanie. I actually haven’t heard that version since as I haven’t re-watched the concert just yet, but I do have the Ovo soundtrack in my car, and after a few listens-through, I’ve attached myself to Downside Up as sung by Elizabeth Fraser and Paul Buchanan. Now Elizabeth Fraser I first heard in Teardrop by Massive Attack, and the emotional sum total of that song plus Downside Up has made me bring myself almost to tears whenever I hear her voice. Her voice is, quite simply, truly beautiful, and Downside Up is an awesome song and piece of music, one of Peter Gabriel’s best. Both her voice and the song reach me in ways that were impossible in my youth, and to a scale that I simply would not have understoond.

I’m playing games less, actually for the moment I’m not playing games at all. The only time I actually do play games is when I take the xbox over to friends’ places for Halo 3, Burnout Paradise or Crackdown. I’m not playing my Wii at all. I don’t think gaming is an immature past-time, but perhaps the games themselves just don’t offer me the kind of emotional engagement that I’m looking for these days in what I spend my spare time doing.
I’m enjoying films more, writing more, and finding myself engaged in some of the most awe-inspiring music I’ve ever heard in my life. I’m loving spending time with my best friend Chibi-R as we explore our niche films and shows, and I’m loving spending time with my baby niece who will be one year old next month. I practice my drumming daily when I can and I’m absolutely enjoing getting sharper and better as I progress.

Growing up, truly has been one of the best things I’ve ever done. I loved my youth and all its frustrations… or perhaps I’m just better at appreciating it now that I’m a little more mature, but being a young adult with responsibilities, accountability and a strong sense of emotion is I think the achivement of which I’m most proud. Of-course it seems like a natural thing, but nevertheless, I brought myself here on this journey and fought my fair share of demons and afflictions, some of which will stay with me forever.

As Kate Bush sings on the album, and Paula Cole in the concert;
We’re proud of who you are
and I really, truly am.