{"id":18361,"date":"2022-01-15T17:26:46","date_gmt":"2022-01-15T22:26:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/?p=18361"},"modified":"2022-01-15T17:26:55","modified_gmt":"2022-01-15T22:26:55","slug":"owning-the-pain-and-other-childhood-scars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/2022\/01\/owning-the-pain-and-other-childhood-scars\/","title":{"rendered":"Owning the Pain (and other childhood scars)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I grew up with a bunch of religious taboos and social rules to follow. My parents were consumed with appearances and fitting in. By the time I got to high school, I was pretty messed up. Confused. Ignorant. A normal teen, growing up, without Internet, back in the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apparently, I’m one of the last boomers. My parents were part of the Silent Generation. I guess the silent part was for realz because I never even heard of the Silent Generation until I looked up the folks to see where they fit in. Silence is golden I guess.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I miss my parents. Maybe they helped mess me up in the head. They caused some pain, but they didn’t do it on purpose. By and large, they did a pretty good job for their day. I mean, people didn’t really have a clue back then about parenting. You just did what your parents did. Funny how once you become a parent, you can see it from your parent’s perspective, and it suddenly makes a lot more sense. You know, all that shit that didn’t make sense back then, it’s pretty clearly stupid as fuck now.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I tried really hard to blame mom and dad for a lot of pain that was clearly my own fault. It took time to grow up and own the responsibility. It’s fine to acknowledge the damage that others cause us. But ultimately it’s up to us what we do with that pain. We do best when we own it and choose not to be defined by it, but rather defined by how we overcame it. Own the pain by owning the triumph.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pain just keeps coming, and as you get older, each day gets a bit more full of pain. But also more full of joy. I find more joy in everything I do. Peeling through the skin of bitter pain to savor the joyous fruits, makes the fruit all the more sweet. ~jg<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Jamie Gray <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Authors Note: All opinions expressed here are just that: opinions. If you don’t like mine, I probably won’t like yours either. Let’s just nod, and walk away. Maybe come back with solutions instead of opinions. Because of the two, only solutions actually matter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I grew up with a bunch of religious taboos and social rules to follow. My parents were consumed with appearances and fitting in. By the time I got to high school, I was pretty messed up. Confused. Ignorant. A normal teen, growing up, without Internet, back in the day. Apparently, I’m one of the last […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[582,565,561,587,549,680],"tags":[96,562,607,594,595,684,491,523],"class_list":["post-18361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","hentry","category-blog-2","category-jamiegray","category-jfs","category-moregray","category-randomthunk","category-rant","tag-jamiegray","tag-jfs","tag-justthinking","tag-moregray","tag-myopinion","tag-rant","tag-shareme","tag-blog","post_format-post-format-image"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":18336,"url":"https:\/\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/2021\/12\/today-is-the-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":18361,"position":0},"title":"Today is The Day…","date":"December 27, 2021","format":"image","excerpt":"Today is the day, they say That you worried about yesterday, they say I say, Yesterday would have been Better without all that fretting That worry that counted for nothing But clouding the state of your mind From the happiness and joy You could've created Instead of the stress All\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "#blog"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/painnt_1908112033022926978875995505195.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":18434,"url":"https:\/\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/2022\/04\/thinking-about-thinking\/","url_meta":{"origin":18361,"position":1},"title":"Thinking About Thinking","date":"April 26, 2022","format":"image","excerpt":"I would never want to tell you what to think, any more than try to tell you what to do. What to eat. What to buy. Who to Fuck. These are your decisions, not mine. You don\u2019t even have to think at all, for fuck\u2019s sake. Living your best life\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "#Animals"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/20220426_144002.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":18450,"url":"https:\/\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/2022\/07\/happy-independence-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":18361,"position":2},"title":"Happy Independence Day.","date":"July 4, 2022","format":"image","excerpt":"Is everyone properly horrified yet?Or will some folks continue to sit silent while even MORE of our liberty is sold to the highest corporate bidder?Because THIS America we have now is complacency's reward. We MUST demand a BETTER America. Better for ALL, not just a privileged few. E Pluribus Unum.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "#blog"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Painnt_201115222328.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":18247,"url":"https:\/\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/2021\/08\/can-we-save-our-planet-is-it-too-late\/","url_meta":{"origin":18361,"position":3},"title":"Can we save our planet? Is it too late?","date":"August 10, 2021","format":"image","excerpt":"Several nations are threatened with extinction due to climate change. Maybe the climate deniers were wrong.Maybe the scientists were wrong, too, and it's MUCH WORSE than they thought.Maybe it IS too late.But maybe it's not.Even if the experts were sure it's too late.Maybe they're wrong. ~jg Jamie Gray | Musician.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "#blog"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/16286161291615513703738425347297.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":18542,"url":"https:\/\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/2023\/03\/thinking-about-thinking-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":18361,"position":4},"title":"Thinking About Thinking","date":"March 15, 2023","format":"image","excerpt":"I wouldn\u2019t want to tell you what to think any more than try to tell you what to do. What to eat. What to buy. Who to Fuck. These are your decisions, not mine. You don\u2019t even have to think at all, for fuck\u2019s sake. Living your best life without\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "#blog"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/16284496871162667057778462641297.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":18487,"url":"https:\/\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/2022\/10\/two-kinds-of-people\/","url_meta":{"origin":18361,"position":5},"title":"Two Kinds of People…","date":"October 8, 2022","format":"image","excerpt":"There are only two kinds of people in this world: People who want to live their lives by their own rules People who want to tell others how to live If you're in the second group, kindly go fuck yourselves with a fire hose. ~jg Authors Note: All opinions expressed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "#blog"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/20220413_174433.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18361"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18361"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18362,"href":"https:\/\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18361\/revisions\/18362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}