"Pfft, You Just Want Attention!"

"Polka dots with stripes? What a desperate plea for attention."

The dumbest thing anybody ever said to a musician, much less another human being, was "Pfft, you just want attention".

What, you don't think John Lennon wanted attention? You don't think Kurt Cobain wanted attention? You don't think Courtney Love wanted attention? Okay, maybe that last one is a bad example, but to criticize ANYBODY for wanting attention is, well, a desperate cry for attention.

Do these same people wake up each morning and chide the sunlight that brightens their room as nothing more than the sun's desperate ploy for attention?

Do these same people go to the zoo and lambaste the peacock for spreading its tail feathers?

Of course not.

"Wait, is that bubble wrap?! Tsk, tsk, such a need for attention."

\We are humans on this earth for a short time. During that time, we are programmed to procreate. Try doing that without "wanting attention". I imagine everyone reading this went to school so you probably have some idea what its like to sit in a classroom with the object of our teenage desire sitting mere feet from you, yet being completely oblivious to your existence.

Of course, to change that, all it takes is a smile and a friendly greeting, but anybody can do that.

Show up with a guitar, amp, and a song, though, and you have set yourself apart from the pack, making the pack very jealous.

So jealous, in fact, that the pack might accuse you of spending countless dollars on good equipment, and countless hours in solitude perfecting your craft, and then countless more days and weeks putting words to music in hopes of creating something that might one day get the attention of someone who changes your life for the better.

It could be a romantic interest, it could be a manager, it could be the owner of a record label who started their label in hopes of meeting an artist just like you at just the right time in both your lives that the stars align and that sweet, sweet music can be made.

A little something for the haterz.

Our one job as human beings isn't just to crave attention, but to reach out and grab it if necessary for no other reason than we as a species cannot survive without it. In that sense, attention is as essential to human life as water and oxygen and EVERYTHING, yes, EVERYTHING we do is, at its root, based on our desire to be noticed and accepted.

Just once, I'd like to see a self-appointed member of the Attention Police get shipwrecked on a deserted island - not because it would get them out of our hair, although that would be a plus, but because, as the rest of their party crafts a plan, begins cutting down trees, fashioning them into a makeshift "S.O.S', then hunting for rocks and kindling with which to start a fire to signal a passing plane or boat, I want to see that person refuse to take any role in their own rescue and say to the others "Pfft, you just want attention."

Most of all, I want to be there when the rest of the group collectively rolls their eyes at the moron in their midst and tells them to go find some dry leaves or don't bother coming back.