If this isn't what you see
It doesn't make you blind
If this doesn't make you feel
It doesn't mean you've died
Where the river's high
Where the river's high

If you don't want to be seen
You don't have to hide
If you don't want to believe
You don't have to try
To feel alive

Alive in the superunknown

Superunknown // Soundgarden

A vivid memory from high school for me is picking up my friend Dennis in the little ‘90 maroon Ford Ranger, grabbing a ferry to Bainbridge, and getting to the Kitsap County Fairgrounds to watch Soundgarden live.

Two teens traveling to the big rock show. I recall Chris Cornell smashing a guitar during an encore, and a moving mosh pit formed around the bits that were thrown into the crowd. Fellow youth wanting to have a physical piece of that rock and roll legend.

Two kids from suburbia Bellevue, doing shenanigans in that mini truck trying to exit the parking lot. What a memory. But how poetic was it, two kids heading into the unknown to go hear superunknown.

Pretty curious though that during that phase of life, perhaps purely fueled by teenage angst and/or ignorance – that version of me was attracted to the unknown, like a moth to the light.

Somewhere between here and there, it seems adulting has led me no longer look at that unknown as a light that attracts, rather the unknown often seems more ominous. Or is it simply our brain’s desire patterns, and we crave the safety of routine?

🤔

Today I was fortunate enough to watch a younger version of me, alive in the unknown. I thought I was a pretty rad teenager going to rock concerts. But I see my daughter and her volleyball teammates coming out of a year plus of the unknown uprooting “normal” life as we knew it – out there having fun, cheering after another ace, enjoying their first game of the season. Talk about living in the unknown.

What a gift to have a reminder to embrace that beginner’s mindset, and don’t be afraid of the unknown – but be curious about it. At least that is one of the things I will kindly remind myself when my teen does things that make me think the location of their brain is unknown.

😊