some extraordinary wisdom courtesy Jacob over at Television Without Pity (which if you don’t read and you claim to love television (i know unHEARD of in this day and age) then you should Go right NOW.) This is perhaps something that some people need to print out and paste up on their bathroom mirror so they can see EVERYDAY that it’s not all about you. Except for my friend T who knows that yes, it IS all about you!

“Nobody’s listening to your imaginary voice-over, nobody has a magic mirror that can see your entire life and history and soul and judge accordingly, nobody cares where your parents are from, nobody cares about any of your bullshit. As Buffy said, courtesy Jane Espenson, in the controversial episode “Earshot” — stay with me, if you will, because it’s good stuff, I know I’m an irritating Of course, Buffy! person but that doesn’t mean I can’t lay some fucking wisdom on you now and then — “My life happens to — on occasion — suck beyond the telling of it. Sometimes more than I can handle. And it’s not just mine: Every single person down there is ignoring your pain because they’re too busy with their own. The beautiful ones, the popular ones, the guys that pick on you, everyone. If you could hear what they were feeling: the loneliness, the confusion. It looks quiet [out] there: It’s not. It’s deafening.”

If I got that wrong here or there, it’s only because I’m reciting it from memory, because it’s pretty much what I’ve been trying to say all along. You, me, best-selling novelist guy over there, lonely photographer lady, God grant we could all hear those words once a day: We’re not actors in your passion play, we’re not assigned to bring you heartache, we’re not actively taking part in the drama of what it’s like to be you. We’re dealing with our own self-obsessed bullshit, and to be honest, we want to like you, but we probably only notice you when you fuck with us. So stop fucking with us and weed your own garden first, please — it’s why we don’t like you. Yet. “

So cut the drama already.