Prompt: Other people’s expectations
I can’t stress enough the influence this interview with David Bowie has had on me (and just Bowie in general!);
I’m ashamed to admit, I didn’t get in to Bowie until after he died.
He had always been ‘old people’ music – and a little bit novelty in my eyes.
I knew Starman and the Ziggy Stardust stuff but I’d come across it at a time when I was closed off to anything that wasn’t angry and loud and distorted.
I’d missed the poetry and the artistry. The androgyny and the beauty.
It wasn’t until listening to the Adam Buxton podcast on Bowie’s death that I decided to relisten, and fell in love.
I absorbed the albums, read all the biographies, watched the videos and learned as many songs as I could on guitar.
I also mourned the fact that I’d missed out on it all when he was alive.
I’d been closed off to it, and now I’d never get the chance to see in person, a man who has (no exaggeration) completely changed my life.
One of my big life regrets. How different life might have been…
But I digress.
In the interview above, Bowie says,
“It’s terribly dangerous for an artist to fulfill other people’s expectations.”
I’d say that applies, not only to artists, but to anyone.
If you live to fulfill the expectations of others, how do you find the time to fulfill your own expectations?
So, to today’s prompt:
What (or who’s) expectations are you living up to?
How would your life differ if you focussed on fulfilling your own expectations?
Happy journaling.