From Half Moon Bay
Question: (So how much attention or approval do we need. How little……)
How much attention and approval do you need? Well, why don’t you give yourself what you require? You know, I figure nobody knows how wonderful I am as much as I do. I know people that disapprove of me just got poor taste and I’m goin’ about my business.
Do you know how much you would need to give yourself? You see in the ultimate end, it’s your own approval you desire, not mine. I can come along and tell you how beautiful you are; and how wonderful you are; and you’ll say to yourself “He was just doin’ this to try to make me feel good” or “He was makin’ fun of me.”
So it’s your approval, your image of yourself that counts. So can you give yourself enough approval or do you want and expect the rest of us give it. You’ll never believe the rest of us anyway, is that right? But we’ve been taught that we should always “put ourselves down”. But if you put yourself down, who’s gonna ‘put you up’, is that right? Or you wouldn’t believe ’em anyway, would you?
You’ve been told how beautiful you were ever since you was this high, is that right?
(This high.)
You’ve been told that all of your life, haven’t you?
(Well, about……….)
Well most of your life, is that right? That you’re a beautiful lady. Do you buy it or do you think you’re a ……
(I think they’re lying.)
Right. So the only approval and attention that really matters is what you give yourself. Now let’s all get that straight. Now that don’t mean you’re conceited or anything of the sort. The point is if you can’t approve of yourself, you won’t buy it if somebody else does. I’ve watched you for a long time, You give yourself the “put down”.
(Yeah.)
Yeah. And you give yourself the put down, And so’s about everybody else here. Now we all give ourselves a put down, is that right? The only attention and approval in the ultimate end that matters is what you give yourself, okay? And that doesn’t mean that you have to run and tell everybody how wonderful you are, but just so you know it, okay? You don’t have to tell anybody about it, just so you know it. Then you got plenty of attention. If you need a little more today, give yourself a little more.
[From Marsha… Once my daughter and I found a sweet little canary flying free – he obviously had escaped.
So we caught it, got a cage, food and the necessary accoutrements. My daughter being young would go to school and leave the curtains closed. I felt sad for the canary because as I understand it, we cover the cage at night so the bird will sleep; and then remove it during the day.
So after a time, I decided to take the canary with me. I told my mentor in music about the bird; and he said to take a lesson from the bird. “WHAT, I thought?” What could I possibly learn from a little canary bird.
So one day I was doing an afternoon gig singing and playing keyboard with a full house and nobody was paying any attention to me. I felt like a failure, Of course, here comes the self “put down: and I left dejected.
Upon arriving home I could see in my front window and there was the canary singing his little heart out at the top of his voice. I thought about that lesson I was challenged to learn and realized that this canary didn’t need an audience. He was singing for just the joy of it.
And so I’ve taken his lesson with me for the past many years I’ve been playing. And if people aren’t listening, I send out the joy anyway – we can never measure the effect of what we radiate.]