"Real People" is a term my wife uses. Sly and the Family Stone sang about "Everyday People". The Rolling Stones memorialized these folk in the song "Salt of the Earth", which is probably a more common expression of who I am speaking of. I like real people. People without airs or pretense are my favorite. As a second wave punk rock bass player from about 1983 forward, I have always liked the oddballs, the fat, the ugly, the broken, the grievously flawed, the human. I don't have much traction with the dull or insipid. A certain amount of self examination on the other's part is necessary for me to relate. We both have to show up on the playing field aware of our defects. You may not know the words, we are poor, lost children of Eve, strangers and pilgrims, seeking a homeland, but you feel them somewhere deep inside your soul.
Sitting out on the front steps a minute ago as the puppy chases squirrels around the front yard, my mind was travelling over the face of oceans long ago travelled. I was reminded of Clash singer, Joe Strummer's quote,
"Punk rock isn't something you grow out of, Punk rock is an attitude, and the essence of that attitude is 'give us some truth'." - Joe Strummer.
Yeah, give us some truth. Don't give us facade, don't give us wallpaper. Don't give us a perfect Tik Tok, Instagram, flat packed and sanitized for your protection view of the world. We want it; warts and all. To carry it back a little further than Joe, Keats had stated, " 'Beauty is Truth, Truth Beauty.' – that is all / Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know." Somehow the illusionists in Hollywood, the makeup artists of New York and the fashion designers of Paris and Milan have given us beauty that is not always truthful and a lie that is not always ugly. It obviously sells. People are buying. And still there are those of us who raise a glass to the hard working people, the sweaty, the bruised, the broken in body and spirit who still say, I may not have much, but I have my good name, I may not have much, but you can have from my surplus if you are truly in need. Real people. There are still some out there. I am greatly blessed to know several, maybe I can introduce them later.
Before things get out of hand and I am misunderstood, I'll clarify and express my favor of the belief that "one who is unwilling to work shall not eat." There is a distinction made here between one who is unwilling and one who is unable. Real people put their hand to the plow, hoe their own row, stay in their lane and generally mind their own business until there is a need to help others and help others they do, not out of a sense of guilt or misguided responsibility but out of their own surplus and a love for humanity. Generosity should be like Schiller's kiss for all the world in his Ode to Joy. Are you picking up what I am laying down? No? Maybe? Hard to read the room when I just sit here typing.
A last quote, because I love quotes if you haven't figured it out yet,
..for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.”
― Middlemarch
Eliot knew some real people. I hope you do too.
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