It's Okay to Hate Opera and Fall in Love

I can tell Spring is in the air, because the birds are chirping, the turkey vultures are circling my shuffling corpse overhead as I try to get to some unrealistic weight goal....oh, and I'm feeling viral like I'm twelve again. It's horrible that the mind is saying you can run a thousand miles, but the body is shutting down with every minor step I take. It feels like whatever I do, I am constantly being forced to press on harder. I'm really loving Spring, but I'm looking towards the summer even more. The worst thing is to be single in the summer, because its the time of year when you feel more alive than the past three seasons combined. Although I must admit, taking a date out of their costume on Halloween is always a plus, and precisely what Halloween was originally about. Yet the goal for the summer is not to find someone to spend the rest of my life with, nor a fling that passes with the Autumn foliage. I'm looking for someone that wants to be around me, and wouldn't mind a fairly loose relationship. So I am looking for a partner that will be able to handle my brand of crazy, and also be time well spent. Not that I want to be a wet noodle myself, I assuredly am not a boring guy, and I can be a proper gent in the custom fashion most would expect of a twenty-first century guy. However, I'm not some railroading guy who pressures people to change their personality, but I'm also not afraid to take someone out of their comfort zone. Before this sounds any more like a shitty dating profile, let's get into the reasons behind this week's post. Depending on the order Ive put up these last few posts, this one may come off a bit erratic, but I assure you this is far from what you'd expect of me, and the Malacast Editorial. I blog about writing, books I've read that some may never have heard if, and many that you've read months, if not years ago. I review games that already have sequels of their sequels, or no longer are on current gen systems. Yet, I happen to get hundreds of readers to my site that inherently re-read my Mortal Kombat History post. That, along with my Fallout 3 post, are two of the longest (so far) I've posted on this site. I'm extremely thankful to my audience, but even I cannot believe that post has lasted so long. Mortal Kombat is a staple in my gaming life, and just like an old friend that grows up into a completely different person, changes themselves to fit with the times, a d maybe abandon many of the core elements that me a friend so long ago, gets replaced with a new admiration that comes from accepting we all have to grow up, and we all need to face the fact we're getting old. Aside from Mario, no single franchise has withstood the test of time, and still has a relevant impact on the gaming industry like Mortal Kombat. Don't worry, I'm sure you all have your opinions on the social relevance of MK, but it got me feeling nostalgic. With the passing of Dave Brockie, a huge influence on me, although it may not always be prevalent in my work, and with the sheer passing of time, I know I'm not always going to be a viral, young guy. Sure I wasn't always hip or cool, never really was either, but that never bothered me. I look at my childhood loves, and I just realized, they never left, and that it's actually considered cool to be retro, where it once made you a dork, or a nerd. The irony is that the guys who were co, and always downplayed nerds, are starting to realize that the nerd is the one today landing the girl, because the girl is also the nerd. Here's my real concern, and what makes it come full-circle in this post: am I supposed to be man who plays with childish things, and will potential partners actually be okay with that? I know that this seems to be a confusing statement, or a misunderstood one, because if you're over thirty-five, you might be thinking I'm stating that I don't know if I'm an adult. I would clarify that I am an adult, and by the state's definition, have been one for nearly ten years. I don't feel too different then when I was a teen, maybe I'm doing dumber things today, but I'm most definitely an adult. What defines adulthood anyhow? Maturity? Mental maturity can take generations and two World Wars to come to fruition. Physical maturity can take one rerun of Baywatch to realize. So how do we redefine ourselves in the 21st century? I like the quote from Bad Teacher (the movie...I'd never thought I'd have to clarify that in my life.) where the boyfriend of Cameron Diaz's Bad Teacher character says (I'm paraphrasing) "You know what happens if an entire generation stops listening to opera? No more opera!" That is a great point, and it makes sense to think that opera has been around longer than The English language, that one generation obsessed with iPhones and Facebook will extinguish thousands of years of culture. Much of this is due to upbringing, but also much does deal with maturity. Granted, I'm not a socialite of opera myself, and I'm not suggesting maturity comes with being a socialite. (Mozart would occasionally fart compulsively at his audience to add gaff and effect to his compositions, and also because he had still such a childish personality. He was eccentric, but also very intelligent, yet you could hardly tell if be was being serious, or not.) I happen to love Mozart, he was an astounding character that has impacted the world more than any other man prior to the likes of Einstein, Heisenberg, Tesla, or Marie Curie. Many great minds have always been to estranged, and the most childish of us all. It seems many who fail to lose the essence of their lively childhoods, tend to grow up to be extraordinary people. I know, I'm all over the map today, I promise it will all make sense as to what this post is truly about. I'll sum it up: great minds cherish the Now, Then, and the Later, they do what they want in those parabolas, because despite all great knowledge, the paths to get their are highly limited, and demand time to pass until greatness is achieved. Maybe a first love must dump you before you discover the pains in your chest are aptly linked to the mind, that heartache is real, and being a hopeless romantic, causes one to become a heart surgeon to realistically mend real hearts to figuratively mend their own hearts. Perhaps you need to be in your Autumn years to rediscover a lifelong goal made in your mid-thirties, and now you have the resources, the time, and empty newt syndrome to fill that spot with a hobby. All your past mistakes will nearly be the guarantee you'll succeed with that goal you put aside. Time is what we use to dictate our actions. It gives us time to look ahead at potential options, and time to look back when those options become failed experiments, or unjustifiable mistakes. So summer is coming, and I'm looking forward to finding a steady, albeit practical relationship that's not necessarily a life-long commitment. That's what I expect to see, and the. The future holds for me many, many regrettable nights to come, because of those lofty pursuits. I may wind up playing MK with my friends for a good long while, which is probably better time well spent. I might even land a dream job, one I've been looking for years to find. You see how everything comes full circle? The potential of our time, and how we have such ridiculous amounts of it, yet we always want more, as if it will make that much more of a difference...and most times, that's true! It really would make a difference, and we learn to appreciate even that very we second we lock eyes with our first love. Or when we finally pull off that MK II fatality that turns Liu Kang into a dragon, and watch that sprite grow and bit the opponent in half. We cherish moments that matter, and shape us. Maybe it's a video game, or an opera. Maybe it's listening to Scumdogs of the Universe in its entirety for the first time on CD. Whatever it is, a d the emotional connection one has with that said moment, it doesn't mean you have to stop loving what you do because your birthday passes by and society says to pack away your childhood things. You just have to learn to separate yourself from the idea of being a child, but never losing that fundamental livelihood that made you feel young. Grow up, but never fit the mold of what is expected of an adult; just remember that you're no longer a baby. Also, if you hate opera, they'll probably do a tragical failure of an opera when Mortal Kombat: The Musical hits broadway. Thank you for reading the Malacast Editorial Twitter: twitter.com/mcasteditorial @mcasteditorial to send a message E-mail mcasteditorial@yahoo.com.