U2'S INFLUENCE ON ME
by Mols

You're so fucking special.
I wish I was special.
- Radiohead ("Creep")

During my junior year in high school - just a year and a half ago actually - I rediscovered U2, and however clichéd it sounds, they have since changed my life. All you die-hard fans know what I'm talking about. The way the rhythms reverberate and rip through your flesh like a bullet wound to the brain, the way Edge plucks his guitar as if he was tugging at each and everyone of your heartstrings, and the way Bono's burning vocals like to sex your soul up - it's a surreal experience that only U2 could bestow upon its audience. And I'm sure all of you have encountered that moment when you first felt their melodies seep into your skin and their lyrics resonate through your skull, urging you to understand that whatever the hell it is you're feeling, you're not alone in feeling it. It's that wanting to escape from all the restrictions of your earthly existence when listening to "Where The Streets Have No Name," that elation you have from belting out the sweet soul music of "Desire," and the charge you get as "Acrobat" forces you to face your inner demons that we all now live for.

But U2's personal impact on me goes far beyond letting the music conquer my mind and my emotions.

The fact is that U2, more as activists than as musicians, has made me give a damn. Once upon a time, I closed myself off to all sentiments to prove that I could be steadfast and strong. I hardly had any dreams to live for and for those few that I did, I didn't care enough to work at realizing them. Along with the influence of Robert Kennedy, U2 has forced me to feel and shake my complacency, finally awakening those idle desires within me and truly strengthening my identity. After their music tamed the violent spirit in me that was so used to cursing its fate, the musicians themselves showed me that it was my duty to try and change it, and then they instilled me with enough optimism to know that I can.

Once U2 helped me fondle my fears and confront my insecurities, the burden I now bear is to fulfill my commitment to those causes that I believe in, most of which U2 already support. At this point, I'm just trying to do what Bono explained in his Harvard speech: "I'm rebelling against my own indifference. I am rebelling against the idea that the world is the way the world is and there's not a damned thing I can do about it. So I'm trying to do some damned thing." Fuck me if I just sit on my fat arse all my life as millions of people die from disease and from their differences when we're all in positions of power to prevent it. U2 and RFK forced me to give a shit. Now, it's a shit that I can't ignore.

It's not about being noble. I'm just one of those people "strung out on their own self-importance" that Bono spoke about, one that can't stand crying anymore to see all this suffering. When I chose the topic of developing countries to teach to my economics class, it was all I could do to keep from busting out into a diatribe against those people on top who refuse to do anything about the debt, and this is all I can do to ward off that nagging guilt that I'm not doing anything to heal the hurt. But hopefully, I've taken that first step toward fulfilling those utopian ambitions: Inspired by Bono's work with Drop the Debt, I've decided that when I start attending Brown next fall, I'll major in Developmental Studies, which focuses on the sociological, economic, and diplomatic perspectives of dealing with third world countries.

Now does this little 17-year-old, wet behind the ears and kind of liking it that way, actually think that she will change the world? U2's given me confidence and forced me to believe that I can, because they are - and even more, that as long as I'm doing something, however far we still have to go, I will already have made a difference.

Thanks.

-- one more thing...Larry turned me on to Elvis. Now, I'm hopelessly devoted to the King!!

I was shook up
Intoxicated
Drank the juices
Of the possibilities.
I'm so alive...
- Michael Hutchence ("Possibilities")