A Brave New World: The Realization of the Weight of Choices

Right off the bat, I think it's important to aknowledge the wonderful people at No Name Foods. Without their moderately priced quality food products I don't think I'd be able to do my groceries on the budget I have set out for myself (Currently it's "DON"T SPEND ANYTHING"). Today on my grocery run I only spent 19 dollars, but came home with around 9 assorted cans with food inside them, bread, milk, eggs, and knock off Timbits, which made me feel particularly smart and mature for some reason. Well, if I'm more honest it made me feel like the Boba Fett of groceries.

It's been a while since my last post and I want to apologize for that, I know many of you have been waiting with bated breath (but I also feel like at least half of you have been consumed by the insanity that is GTAV and have forgotten about this blog altogether) and I hate to disappoint you like that, so I'll try to make them come in more quickly. The reason for the delay results largely in the work load I've taken on. Yes, I have finally started flipping burgers at the local McDonald's, and that is time consuming, but the workload from Flow Productions has been surprisingly demanding. Recently we've put a new logo and title card together, shot a local Halifax band live concert, continued ongoing lobster industry research, recorded a podcast, and I'm even writing a new short film that we're hoping to make in the coming months (more on that as it materializes).

You'd think with all this work I'm doing more money'd be coming in...

But that's the weird animal that is video production, often your paydays don't come at the time most convenient to you. That's what McDonald's is for in this whole equation. I can at least count on that money coming in.

Money.

Such a weird idea.

Money holds so much power in our lives. Something I don't think I've really realized until very very recently. When you live at home, or you're in college I don't think most people really grasp the full value of money. It's just something that you sometimes have and sometimes don't. But now that I'm relying on just my money to get me through everyday I've begun to see why money and the love of it drive so much of the wrong that is in the world. It's a powerful force. More so than it should be. I think too often we value money more than the life of our fellow man, we turn a blind eye to those in need and rationalize our own "need" of that money over someone who's living on the street. And for those of us who, like me, follow a particular Jewish Rabbi as our mentor in this life, I think we put that money in front of our desire to follow him as well. Not something we should be doing.

This has definitely been a time in my life when I've valued my money above everything else. Not consciously, but it was motivating every decision I've made since I got out here, and I wasn't aware of it until yesterday.

Yesterday I met a guy named Jesse.

There I was standing at the bus stop, listening to an episode of Harmontown (probably my new favourite podcast) when this guy walks up to me and holds out his hand for me to shake. He looked like he was around my age standing at around 5 foot 10, with blonde hair, wired glasses and an unassuming plain grey hoodie. He told me his name and perhaps something else, I'm not sure Dan Harmon's dulced tones were still partially reverberating through my ears as I was very much caught off guard.

"Jesse ______ nice to meet you."

"Uh, hi" I responded, uncomfortable at meeting someone I wasn't prepared for. (See: crippling social awkwardness)

"I'm Matt"

"Hey matt how's it going, just hanging around outside today."

"Yeah man, we are definitely outside."

Why am I always such a passive aggressive misanthrope? Must be the British in me.

"Yep. It's a beautiful day. Don't you think it's a beautiful day?" Jesse asked bouncing on the balls of his feel, hands now in his pockets, looking like he was perfectly pleased with the actual rain that was falling all around us.

"Yeah I guess man, I mean If you like rain. I personally don't mind it but I guess if you weren't into that, it's probably not preferable"

I hate small talk. I'm not good at it. I'm also still very confused at why this guy is talking to me.

"Nah. Everyday is beautiful my friend. Every new day you see."

I honestly didn't have much of a reply to that other than a generic nodding of my head. Jesse went on to ask me what I was planning to do today. A question that threw me off. I was really starting to feel weary of this dude I mean, why does he want to know? Is he gonna stab me? or worse, try to sell me something?

I don't know why, but I told him that I was going to get shoes for work and then I was heading home. He seemed enthralled, commenting on how the shoes I had on looked like they were really nice (Vans, yo #swag). We talked about how I'd moved out here to start a production company as it became clear to me that Jesse at the very least was not dangerous. That's when he hit me with this.

"That's awesome man I have a buddy doing that same thing. It's good to have work."

"Yeah man, you working now?"

"No, I actually don't even have money to eat with right now."

"Dude. That sucks."

"Yeah. I'm actually wondering if you've got any change."

I gave him what I had, it really was not much maybe like 70 cents. I had no bills or anything on me, but he seemed just happy to get what I gave him. He kept smiling serenely, and told me that it might just be enough to convince the nice lady at the Tim's to give him a coffee as well.

"Hey man I'm sorry"

It was all I could think to say. What do you say? What do you say to a seemingly perfectly normal person who can't afford a sandwich?

"Don't be man. Just remember. Everyday is beautiful."

That's when he walked away. Leaving me to catch the bus alone.




Now I realize that the story I just told you is long for what it is and that I could have just said I gave money to a nice homeless guy I met. But I felt I had to write it down. Jesse showed me something this week I think I'd forgotten. That people matter so much more than money.

That's why we have to look out for each other. So that we can all be as happy about every new day as Jesse is, but also so that none of us end up starving in a gutter. Because if someone is sleeping on the street the blame for that comes back to us. To society. Sure that person may have made a few mistakes in life, but they may not have. Regardless, if we as a society see those people, those fellow human beings lying out begging for change and refuse to give them neither the physical change, or the societal change to lift them up and bring them back....

Then how can we look at them in distain?

At that point we're far more disgusting than they ever can be.


Look out for each other.

-Matt


P.S. If you clicked on the GloryHound Youtube video and thought "Wow that looks awesome Matt, well done with the video stuff" you should know I did not shoot that video, that's just a music video they already had, what we shot for that band was a live performance that will be edited together soon and released at the band's discretion. I just linked it so you'd get an idea of the awesome music I got to be on stage for (yes, on stage, it was awesome).