🇬🇧 About references

I was listening to Nightwish’s song “The phantom of the opera” tonight and I was reminded of why I moved from the city I was born: to enrich my cultural level. To live experiences that city couldn’t offer me.

Nightwish was among the first bands I discovered in this wonderful world called internet. It was through a “place” called Napster, that time, many years ago.

In the city I was born my musical universe was limited to pop rock, axé, forró, pagode, sertanejo (brazilian country music), and the soundtrack of brazilian soap operas. I also discovered Iron Maiden, Metallica and Helloween (metal bands) and Soul Asylum still living there, but it wasn’t through mass media. Only my cousin knew these bands and nobody else in my network. 

That same epoch that I discovered Nightwish (1999/2000) I used to enter chats to talk to other people. Usually I asked about what kind of music they used to listen to. It’s curious that all people who told me they were “eclectic” had a musical universe as limited as mine was in the city I was born. They had a very poor musical universe and talked as if it was enormous. They were ignorant about their own ignorance.

I have a few friends who chose to live in a very limited universe. I prefer to develop friendships and other relationships - professional ones more than all - with people who choose continuous improvement, to expand their inner universe the more they can. People like myself, who are never ashamed to ask for help, nor to ask questions or to express their opinions. I made this choice because most of the accommodated people usually feel offended by any comments outside their universe. And I have zero patience with mediocre people who chose mediocrity, the “easiest” path, and feel offended by anything someone with a wider and deeper inner universe mentions.

I prefer to admire beauty people who appreciate their own beauty, develop a unique style (with my professional advice), loves to travel, cultivate critical sense and learn something from each experience. Even listening to a song like “The Phantom of the Opera”. Maybe I prefer Nightwish to many popular artists because their lyrics are meaningful. Many artists are too shallow. Musical choices have a meaning.
To ask for qualified help is not a sign of stupidity. Not to know about something is not a shame if you want to learn about that and values really the resources to find the knowledge you want. To embrace ignorance or try to follow the “easier” or “cheaper” path is a shame. To embrace ignorance and feel oppressed is a shame. Each richness have a price. Are you ready to pay the price to get what you want?

Nycka, the nomad