Blue Like Jazz Chapter 3 – Magic: The Problem with Romeo
For some reason this chapter did not do it for me like most of the other chapters. I mean it only got three places with notes in the margins, meaning it really only had three pointers that I really liked enough to mark. And two of the points really kind of go together. So here are my pointers from chapter three…
Everybody wants to be somebody fancy. Even if they’re shy. I have one friend who is so shy she wets her pants if you look at her. She doesn’t really wet her pants, but she practically does.
That last part really is not what I want to point out, but I couldn’t help but put that part in here too because it literally made me laugh out loud when I read the first time I read this book. Classic! That’s just funny!
The real point I liked was how he mentioned that “everybody wants to be somebody fancy.” I think that is so true. We all want to have something special or “fancy” about us. I mean we can get to the point were we realize we are unique and that there is no one like us, but that is different from being “fancy.” I would even go as far as to say we all want to be known. If we get that “fancy”-factor, we could be known.
I want to be known. It has always kind of been a secret of mine, but I’d love to be one of those people that people say, “I went to school with Kim Smith.” You know…like I’m known. Known by others. My name is known. I’d be “fancy” then.
I mean, I do it. I was just telling people the other day that I went to the school that Max Lucado went too. That’s cool you know. He is known. He’s for sure “fancy.”
I don’t want to be famous. I think it is different to be known and be famous. Famous is more glitz and glamour and money and cameras. You need bodyguards, you lose privacy, everybody wants to know everything about you. All eyes are always on you.
Nah, that’s not for me. I just want to be known. I think I can be known by many and not end up famous.
But “fancy” does not have to be known either. “Fancy” is really left up to each his own. What one might want to be “fancy”—to be known, might not be what is “fancy” to another.
…but I agree… “everybody wants to be somebody fancy.”…even if it is just deep down and not something they think about much.
----------------------------------------------------
This one kind of goes with it…
Everybody wants to be fancy and new. Nobody wants to be themselves. I mean, maybe people want to be themselves, but they want to be different, with different clothes or shorter hair or less fat. It’s a fact. If there was a guy who just liked being himself and didn’t want to be anybody else, that guy would be the most different guy in the world and everybody would want to be him.
I think that third sentence is very true.
I mean I love who I am. I am perfectly content being me. I have a healthy level of self-esteem. I’m satisfied with my state of being. I am happy being myself. Or as he would put it, I want to be myself. But I also want to be different…
I think what he means by different is how the second part of that sentence goes into changing some characteristics or small features about one’s self. I could go for that…
I hate my hair. If the only way I could change my hair was to be a different person totally, I probably wouldn’t do it, in that I want to be myself, but if I could just be different AS myself—that being change my hair—I’d do it!
There are other things I’d change about myself, like to make me different, but overall, I want to be me. I’m happy with me as a being.
I suppose in a sense it seems to come down to internal appreciation and external appreciation. I have much appreciation for my internal being, but if I could, I would work on some of the external aspects for better appreciation. But as Mr. Miller says, we all pretty much would…
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I couldn’t give myself to Christianity because it was a religion for the intellectually naïve.
This point is truly taken out of context when I just throw it on here like this and leave it to stand alone, but that’s the point I liked—just that line.
So…
…there’s no doubt that that thought has crossed my mind on several occasions…
…but then I’m quickly reminded that ideas and values truly do come down to one’s perception, priorities, and needs…
[Note: All the above text in smaller italic print has been quoted directly from Donald Miller’s “Blue Like Jazz”]
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2 comments:
First of all, Hello!!! It has been a long time! Also, I can't believe you were at that hockey game! It was great! There was actually a better one played in Dallas on Saturday, but seeing how you are more of a Blues fan, you probably liked that game just fine. Good entry. It got me singing "Fancy" by Reba Macintire in my head. Random thought...did you move in my old apartment at UP? 825? Good times were had in that apartment and I miss those girls dearly. Hope it was good for you too!
I totally agree that people want to be themselves, only better. Like "new and improved" themselves. But then, they necessarily wouldn't be themselves. Some of the things that I dislike most about myself are the things that other people say give me "personality" or "uniqueness." Case in point: You said you hate your hair, but without your hair, you wouldn't be Kim Smith to me. It sounds goofy, but seriously, it's one of the things that I identify as unique to you. It gives you a "personality" that is all your own. I think that the things that people hate about themselves often are what make them the most different people in the world, and what makes other people want to be like them. So don't change your hair! :)
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