Your Mother Should Know

A cute twit by a young lawyer crossed my path and struck a chord. As I’m wont to do, I contributed my reminiscence to the mix.

I expected nothing more than a smile, but what I got was surprising.

It’s not that she didn’t care for the lyrics. That’s a personal choice. It’s that she assumed I wrote them. The skull was a nice touch. Rather than take umbrage, I replied with a link to a video, which also evoked a curious response.

Really, Scott? 1964? Anyway, I’ll check it out.

Well, yes. “We had music in 1964. Really we did.” Upon hearing the song, it all clicked.

My profound apologies. I know that song. My mom played it all the time growing up. Awwww.

That was very kind, although no apology was necessary. I wasn’t offended in the least, but a bit saddened by the assumption that anything beyond the immediate knowledge of a young person would be assumptively worthy of a skull and derision. Life existed before 1981.

But was somewhat more disturbing was this:

This was the reaction to the bit of snark about lawyers writing love lyrics. Was it about lawyers? Maybe old men? Regardless, the leap to idiocy struck me as far different than Keiko’s mistaken assumption, as it reflected the need to pile on, while simultaneously proving Dr. Taylor Burrowes to be wrong, dumb and a blithering idiot. There’s no own like a self-own.

Therapist & Online Coach | Hire me to develop your Ideal Self, attract your Ideal Partner, Create your Ideal Life | Likes

Who better to turn to for online mental health therapy and relationship coaching? The phenomenon of people whose finest attribute is manifest ignorance doing the LMAO [some sort of emoji] in order to conclusively prove their viciousness is unfortunate. Had she merely “liked” the twit, as others did, that would have been understandable. After all, it was pretty funny had it not been the product of youthful hubris. But she had to go a step farther, to go through the effort of initiating a twit of her own.

It’s understandable that people on the twitters are unfamiliar with such things as songs that were popular long before they were a twinkle in their father’s eye. Even when their mother played the song all the time. No one can remember everything, right?

But before one leaps on top of the snark, especially someone who feels herself entitled to offer advice to anyone else on the planet, it would seem that a bit more than vapid snark should be known lest one beclown herself in ignorance.

There is big old world out there, kids, with lots of stuff that happened before you existed and about which you either know nothing or not enough. Take a breath before you leap to assumptions. Take a moment to ponder whether the universe is bigger than stuff you know. And if you want to hold yourself out as someone capable of helping others, try not to conclusively prove you’re a moron, not because you were unfamiliar with an old song, but because you had to, just had to, jump on the pile.

26 thoughts on “Your Mother Should Know”

    2. B. McLeod

      Even before 1964 (as hard as that may be to imagine).

      Note to self: Never try to play anything from Orpheus Caledonius for Keiko.

  2. Drop-Inski

    Maybe the esteemed Therapist & Online Coach was laughing AT the ignorance of the young, for thinking an old white guy wrote the lyrics?

    That’s the problem with emojis & twits: ambiguity reigns.

    You read into it the reflection you expected to see.

    Disclaimer: I don’t know any of these people personally.

      1. DaveL

        Even so, in today’s atmosphere of perpetual hair-trigger outrage, there are good reasons for interpreting such things in the most charitable light we can reasonably justify.

  3. Turk

    Good thing you didn’t pull a quote from Love Me I’m a Liberal.

    The Millennials might have blown up Twitter over it.

      2. Keith

        Imagine what antifa could have won with a saber and a gun.

        He sure wouldn’t march with his pussy hat anymore.

        1. B. McLeod

          He’d probably be marching with the nudist crowd in this day and age. It seems that there are no more thongs.

  4. Richard Kopf

    SHG,

    It is 1959. There is a live audience at the Village Gate nightclub in New York City. The Dave Brubeck Quartet plays “Take Five.” When released on plastic, it became the biggest-selling jazz single ever.

    While recently undergoing a medical procedure, I asked that “Take Five” be played for me while the magic machine silently whirled. As I was helped off the table after the treatment, a young medical technician remarked about being blown away by “that music.” He said, “I’ve never heard it before.” How could that be, he wondered aloud.

    The older tech, probably in his early 60s, looked at me knowingly and rolled his eyes. All the best.

    RGK

    1. SHG Post author

      So much culture lost to the arrogance of youth.

      If only they would take five before blindly leaping.

      2. Fubar

        Quintuple meter is rare, and quite moving to many moods. Before Desmond’s masterpiece there was Holst (both Mars and Neptune), and Chopin Sonata No.1 Op.4 III. Larghetto.

        1. B. McLeod

          Ah, an artist for the ages. YouTube has preserved for posterity the Polonaise in A Flat, as performed by Dr. Teeth & The Electric Mayhem Orchestra.

      3. Joe

        Coincidentally, I happened to be listening to Blue Rondo a la Turk as I clicked to read this post. Our tastes in music have significant overlap.

        We won’t talk about cars, though. I happen to think Lambos are cool.

      4. L. Phillips

        Simply a little slice of heaven.

        Made me feel young again – but without the stupid angst.

        Thank you.

  6. rojas

    Mom used to play those shorthand dictation records when I was a kid.
    Fast forward ~30 yrs. …
    Every time I heard Al Gore speak I’d have a flash back.

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