I've been a big fan of Matthew Good ever since I got my hands on my first copy of "Underdogs" nearly ten years ago. An artist with talent and insight which goes well beyond almost everything that's put out there these days, I'm nothing short of in awe every time I hear a song written by him played. Far more concerned with being open than being popular, the musician has created some of the most powerful and eerily beautful pieces available in our lifetime, without any desire for the recognition that he so rightfully deserves.
Beyond musical talents, Matt Good has also been an avid blogger for years, using the forum to communicate with his audience for much longer than many of the people who are glorified as "pioneers." I've been reading his blog for quite some time and am never dissapointed with what he has to say. This week, he posted one of the most profound and ultimately inspiring postings I've ever read, which I can't help but share, in part, with you.
" I am, rather wooden-headedly, routinely drawn back to blogging because I receive a lot of correspondence from people that site my website as the place where their own interest in social awareness began. That’s a rather massive compliment and, as far as I am concerned, responsibility. Over the years I have been implored to abandon my blog by family members and friends on occasion, but that one aspect has always drawn me back to it, even after I have attempted to turn it off and walk away.
But that isn’t to say that, as a blank canvas, this blog hasn’t been home to a lot of my personal thoughts as well, especially over the last three to four months. I did my best to not talk about events in my personal life for quite some time, between late February and late July, but this summer the gross realities of things I was completely in the dark about really got to me and I suppose I just cracked. There is no question that some might look at the content that I have posted with regards to my personal life as ‘self pitying’. They also say that betrayal is worse than rape, so it’s coin toss I suppose. I also agree that, from the viewpoint of a daily reader, it might get tiring as well. Hell, I’ll even concede that, from time to time, some of it might even come across as downright vindictive. I say all of this as someone who, in a million years, never thought what I have learned this year possible. Perhaps conveying my frustrations, my disbeliefs, my discoveries, my sadness, my disappointments, my disparity, and my hopelessness might have been a bad career move. It may, in the end, even make you, a complete stranger, think less of me as a man or a person. But the truth is that for every person that looks upon it negatively there are scores besides that have endured the same thing or have also fallen on hard times that find comfort, similarity, and empowerment in my willingness to be so open. If that openness ultimately means the loss of record sales then what am I to say? That being human is less important than public perception? Perhaps that, and not my openness, is the real problem. "
Blogging, in all its glory, is a forum for social commentary. I'd comment on Matt's words, but my words would be mere fodder. Sometimes the most meaningful commentary is that which, rightfully, goes beyond all comment.
