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Happy Father’s Day, Paying for the Experience, Being nice is not the same as being Kind

Hello my lovely people!!!! It’s that time again. Thank you all for being part of the Lizard Lounge with me. I appreciate every single one of you always and am enjoying connecting with at least some of you. So, it’s the middle of June somehow. Time is a strange concept and gets weirder as you get older. Today is Father’s Day in the United States, so I got to spend some time with the fam for the dad stuff. Shout out to all the dads who are actually dads and show up for their kids and do all the important dad stuff. I hope each dad out there has had an excellent day!

Since it’s Spring/Summer now, this is the time of year where a lot more events happen. Here in Milwaukee, we have festivals pretty much every weekend. We have a big variety of cultural festivals, the well known church festivals (aka drinking for Jesus 😂) and coming up shortly, the world’s largest music festival, Summerfest (it really is the world’s largest musical festival. I didn’t just make that up 😂). It’s also a big time of year for concerts and you know how much I love music and live music is truly the most amazing experience! So this had me thinking about the idea of paying for the experience. This is very much a thing that I do and I think it’s wonderful! Rather than drive a fancy car or be a picture out of a fashion magazine or have a lot of fancy shit it my house, I pay for the experience of going to see live music and I wouldn’t change that for anything. No, it’s not something tangible, but I get to feel it. I’m one of those people who feels music and often gets goosebumps from hearing music, so I mean it when I say I feel the experience. There is nothing like being in a concert setting with a bunch of random strangers and everyone is enjoying the same songs at the same time. Make it a big sing along and it’s even better! This is where I am free and happy and feel very alive. It doesn’t matter that tickets cost money. The experience lasts me a lifetime. What experiences do you value in life? Do prefer things over experiences? It’s totally OK if you do, I’m just very curious as to who prefers what and what does it bring you? I saw The Kooks this past week for the first time and wow what a treat that was! It’s so awesome to see this indie band that’s been around for over 20 years come through and sound just like they always have and not miss a beat. They were really interested in making sure the crowd had a blast, too, which is always a bonus at shows! The performers who show they actually care about the audience are the best!

I’ve been thinking a lot of the difference being kind and being nice. Nice is like a social mask where we behave politely and pleasantly. Kind is more of an active presence where we genuinely take the time to pour positivity into someone else because we want to help them. I think those are very important distinctions. Many people can seem nice, but are they also kind? Often not. We all know the people we’ve come across in life that act nice, but we learn underneath that mask, they are not kind, not even actually nice either. So that being said, it is so much more important to be kind. Nice is like someone saying, OK, Liz, you have to be a nice girl and go hug creepy uncle Earl because that’s what nice girls do. No, fuck that. I’m not hugging creepy uncle Earl or anyone else I don’t actually want to hug because that is uncomfortable and fake. So, no, I will not be a nice girl. I will, however, strive to be a kind human. I will do what I can to help others and to build others up in the most positive ways. This is not fake. It is not forced. It is not expected, like being nice. I can be a kind asshole if I want to 😂 Do what do you all think about this? Let me know your thoughts in the comments or send me a message 😊

In book world for your Lizard this week, I am currently reading Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid who is one of my very favorite authors. I’m about half way through. I got a little distracted spending time with friends and family this weekend and not being more of hermit 😂 So sorry 😂 I doubt I will not like this book because I have truly enjoyed every book she has written and I have read all of them. I will give you a better update once I finish, soon. If you haven’t read Taylor Jenkins Reid, I highly recommend checking her out. I would say start with Daisy Jones and the Six.

In music world, this Lizard has been all over the place. I, of course, listened to more of The Kooks and revisited Boxer by The National. I also went to my almost 99 hour long playlist and hit shuffle which is always a fun adventure. This means my Mom now knows I like two songs by The Jonas Brothers including Sucker which she said is annoying 😂 The last song I heard on my shuffling playlist just an hour or so ago, was I’m No Heroine by one my biggest heroines, my beloved Ani Difranco. I would like to ask her how she feels about that statement now. I have a feeling she would be ever so humble and still stick to the idea that she’s just a person trying to do what she can in the world to make it better. Maybe one day she will embrace the notion that she is indeed a heroine and has blazed many trails and continues to speak out and up for women’s rights, for human rights, for the LGBTQ+ Community, for anyone and everyone who has been oppressed and mistreated. Ani’s here for that and always has been. She is a heroine and such a gift in this world.

On that note, come by and chat or leave a comment or send a message about anything here or anything else on your mind. I’m always open to feedback, suggestions, what you’re listening to, what you’re reading, how you are doing, all of the above!

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Once again, thank you all for being here! Please come and connect! I really do love that part. Until next time.

Thanks for reading,

Liz