They Love to Tell You, Stay Inside the Lines

Alright, so check it out right, I’ve tried every approach to living. I’ve tried it all. I haven’t tried everything, but I’ve tried every approach. Sometimes you have to try everything to get the approach the same, but whatever. I’ve tried it all. I’ve bought a buncha stuff. I went “nehh, I don’t like that.” I kinda came in and out of that a couple of times.

I thought I would shut myself off, I thought maybe that’s cool. Maybe that’s what you have to do to be a genius is you have to be mad. So if you can get mad before the word genius, then maybe you can make genius appear. Right? That doesn’t work either.

And I’m in a good place. I’ve paced myself pretty well. I’m 30, I’ve seen some cool stuff. I made a lot of stuff happen for myself. I made a lot of stuff happen for myself, right? That’s a really cool sentence when you’re in your 20s, right? “I made it happen for myself.” But all that means is that I’ve just somehow or another found a way to synthesize love, or synthesize soothing. You can’t get that, and what I’m saying is I’ve messed with all the approaches except for one, and it’s gonna sound really corny, but that’s just love. That’s just love.

I’ve done everything in my life that I’ve wanted to do except just give and feel love for my living. And I don’t mean like, uh, Roman candle, fireworks, Hollywood hot pink love. I mean, like, “I got your back”-love. I don’t need to hear “I love ya.” You guys love me. I love you. We got that down. But some of the people who would tell you they love ya were the last people to just have your back. So I’m gonna experiment with this love thing. Giving love. Feeling love. I know it sounds really corny but it’s the last thing I’ve got to check out before I check out. Take me to the solo one more time, make it loud, thank you!

—

John Mayer

(I’m sure we can all recite this by heart, but it just never gets old)