A Simple Request: Occupy Your Self-Expression. Gizmo Occupies Too. So Can You.

Plenty 'o things to occupy besides Wall St.
Last year's model.

Missing: Appropriate Means for Self Expression.  If found: please return to rightful owner at your earliest convenience.  

Gizmo Occupies Too. So Can You.

A Simple Request: Occupy Your-Self Expression

An update on the Occupy my Blog Movement On The Move.  After reaching the shores of sanity and reason last week, the Occupy My Blog movement has reached new heights, frolicking on the shores of rational thought and logic for quite some time now.  We’ve been occupying our minds with creative thoughts and ideas and are well on our way to changing the political, social, emotional, technological and psychological landscape of our time.  Congratulations are in order for an occupation well done.  We couldn’t do it without your support and appreciate the time and effort each and every one of you has shown Occupying my Blog to the best of your abilities.

The next iteration in this ongoing Occupy Movement on the move is to kick it up a notch.  Into full gear.  Which brings me to my next simple request to: Occupy Your-Self Expression.  The now trending #hoodiesrus movement in full swing should serve as a reminder to all of us to occupy our self-expression and develop meaningful and creative means of sharing our thoughts and feelings.  Developing creative outlets for our ideas and emotions. 

How many times have you bit your tongue, held back because you were afraid to speak up for yourself or someone else?  Maybe you were afraid of offending someone with your liberal views on the benefits of cabbage.  Or maybe you couldn’t be bothered to speak up in the face of disagreement over the pronunciation of tomato vs. tomaato (not to mention the potato vs potaato argument that will shortly ensue), hoping someone else would take the lead on rescuing your long lost sense of self-respect and expression.   Your sense of entitlement to an opinion abandoning you for greener pastures.  Your sense of self-worth gone AWOL, leaving you high and dry.  With only your lazy-good-for-nothing non-confrontational instincts that fail you pretty much every single time they are left to their own devices.

The Occupy Your Self-Expression Movement will prove to revolutionize how we are seen and heard from here on out.  In developing the courage and strength to express, either vocally or though the written word, we will make major headway in the soon to be trending #creativeselfexpressionthroughanymeanshumanlypossibleincludingsmokesignalsifneccessary Occupy movement.  So the next time your sense of self-worth starts to sneak sideways glances towards the exit, I’m asking simply that you give it a hard look and make the finger sign that you’ve got your eye on it.  That you’re watching it like a hawk.  That fleeing is no longer an option.  Nope, the next time your means of self-expression start to tiptoe out the door, give it a rap on the knuckles and say in a stern voice “No.  Bad Self-Expression.  Sit.  Stay.”  Then, be sure to offer positive reinforcement when it doesn’t make for the hills at the first sign of conflict.  When it sticks around to actually assist in expressing your viewpoints, thoughts and feelings, offer up a carrot, bone or other appropriate reward for good behavior.  Saying things like “Good self- respect, good boy, what a good self-worth you are, yes” in a nice sing song voice should help do the trick.

When Occupying our means of self-expression, rather than crafting illegible signage that fails to accurately reflect our new ideas of how to change whatever-it-is-we’re-current-protesting, try writing a letter.  Penning a speech.  Using your whiteboard to express the highlights of your recently occupied mind to chart a course towards resolution.  Go ahead and get creative with it!   

Don’t like your girlfriend’s use of lipstick as war paint during your frequent knock-down-drag-out fights over which John Cusack movie is better: Gross Point Blank or High Fidelity, try dropping subtle hints like sitting cross-legged in the front yard with an anti-lipstick sign containing photos of said lipstick crossed out with a big X in the middle (drawn in lipstick, of course).  Find it offensive when your significant other insists on launching into Axl Rose impressions at your every attempt to seriously discuss the price of tea in China?  Then why not try writing a discourse on your feelings and ideas about this extremely relevant topic?  Then, slip your manifesto in their briefcase, to read at their own convenience.  I don’t care if you have to break out into song to fully express the extent of your feelings about whether merely looking a member of the opposite sex directly in the eye can now be considered a form of abortion and should be treated as such.  (Honey badger don’t care either, but that’s besides the point.)  Maybe trying a different mode of communication will make them take notice of our strong feelings about important topics of the day, such as whether the Hunger Games movie lived up to our entirely too high levels of expectation.

It’s time we occupy our means of self-expression to get on a similar frequency, on the same page.  To pick up what each other is throwing down.  Not that we will agree to agree at every juncture, but we will have productive, constructive conversations, where our feelings on dogs wearing hoodies will be heard, acknowledged, and understood.  Without having to cause an all-out war over the relevancy of Neil Diamond’s music in today’s day and age of sophistication.  If we engage in reasonable, calm and clear self-expression, we can all avoid the inevitable embarrassment from overreaction, misunderstanding, or other breakdowns in communication over your heated public discourse on the merits of eating tapioca pudding for breakfast.  No, my occupying friends, the time is now to keep calm, carry on, and express our ideas in a rational, easy to follow way, so that others may get on board with our worldview.   Or at least understand it, however warped it might be. Imagine what could be accomplished if people finally got your passion for brazil nuts and their fit within your overall plan for world domination.  Imagine what could be changed in this world, one brazil nut at a time.

So let’s collectively toss out our fears, our apprehension, our misguided passive-aggressive attempts to make our voices heard over the noise and chatter over the next episode of Thrones.  Let’s get on the same page to clearly and calmly express our mind’s ideas, thoughts, opinions, feelings and emotions.  On anything we feel passionately about, be it the politically correct way to dye an Easter egg, to whether it is inevitable at this point that #hoodiesRUS will eventually catch on with parrots and chickens too, it’s time to express our voices and make them heard.  In a reasonable way, to be reasonably debated by reasonable people. 

I mean, why not give our collective self-esteem and expression a boost, a little shot in the arm, slap on the back?  A little bit encouragement?  The time has come to overcome our fear of what everyone will think about our conservative views on pigeon cooping and express them.  Make our case.  At last be understood. Because after all, “The only thing to fear is fear itself”.   

I, for one, plan to kick off my birthday in style, by Occupying My Soapbox to discuss the credibility of Cee Lo Green as the world’s next Anti-Christ and what we can do about this seemingly all-too-likely scenario in response.  Not forgetting to reward my self-expression’s good behavior with a nice bowl of tapioca pudding, topped with Brazil nuts.  Of course, only after deeply pondering the price of tea in China.  Because, even though Honey badger doesn’t care (he never cares, FYI), hope springs eternal that someday, someone, somewhere, just might.  Like, maybe your mom.  She might care.  One way to find out. 

I mean, at this point, what have we got to lose?  Clearly not our self respect.

Happy Occupying!  Over and out for now.  Further updates to follow. 

Gizmo Occupies Too.  So Can You.