It’s up there with those other ugly childhood taunts, like “I know you are, but what am I?” and “Kindergarten baby, stick your head in gravy…"
It’s said with a sneer, emphasis on you. “What do you know?”
The implication being that whatever you could possibly share (right now, whenever, forever) has no value. “Just shut up. No one cares.”
Read MoreWhat do you want?
It’s a question we don’t always want to answer, for fear of being perceived as greedy or having our desires mocked.
Sometimes, we unconsciously recalibrate our answer to something realistic or reachable.
We may not even want to acknowledge the answer to ourselves — if we expect nothing, we can’t be disappointed.
Read MoreWhen I first tried to write songs as a teen, I was stuck. I had a few ideas, but nothing seemed complex or interesting enough.
As I built my repertoire of other people’s songs, I had a breakthrough. I realized that most of the songs were built out of simple and familiar patterns. I decided to try writing a song that consisted of only four chords, with two of them repeated extensively to comprise the verses. I finished my first song and was on my way to writing several others.
Was my work notable or groundbreaking? No way! They are cute songs, but they will never make me famous. That’s fine. They showed promise, but they were just like any songs you might expect from a teenage beginner.
Read MoreWhen I was running operations at my music school, I would often get a panicked calls from one of the many teachers.
“Did you change the key?” they would ask. “I can’t get my key to work. I’ve been trying for like ten minutes — I’ve tried every key I have.”
After I reassured them that I hadn’t changed the locks without telling them, they would usually make their key work within a minute. The seemingly impenetrable mechanism would now suddenly give way. The only thing that had changed was that now they knew that they had the right key. That gave them the fortitude necessary to succeed in unlocking the door.
Read MoreI’ve heard a few different versions of the same story now:
“You get written up at my daughter’s school if you’re not wearing a belt! You get in trouble if you walk too close to the wall in the hallway. We’re frustrated with these rules and we’ve talked to them about finding ways that she can have more creative expression at school, but nothing seems to change.”
No, nothing will change. This is exactly what happens when there’s a mismatch of values between you and the private school you’ve chosen for your child.
Read MoreA friend of mine used to babysit for a six-year-old girl. Lacking a better plan, he plunked her in front of the TV.
Whenever a commercial for a toy would come on, she would say mournfully, “Wish I could have that…”
The tone of her voice went beyond a child’s eager materialism to a deeper, existential sorrow. The implication was, “I can never have that.” Simultaneously hilarious and tragic.
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