What Packaging, Music, and People have in Common

I was gonna venutre out to downtown today to grab a guitar strap, new strings, meet up with a FB marketplace seller for a cd. But the snow is BAD. Again. So all of that gets to wait for another day. Or maybe a couple hours depending on how brave me and my roommate feel about venturing out to Long & McQuade anyways. 

Regardless. I find myself coming back to thinking about labels. I feel like I'm always thinking about labels for one reason or the other. 

I feel like I've always come at labels with a very literal approach. Whatever labels I use are for the ease of quickly delivering information to somebody else. That ain't always simple. When you're insane about definitions like I am, then you're worried about using the one that's most right for the context. But then there's also the layer of what another person will understand when you use that label. I'm probably overthinking this, but that's what this blog is for. 

I think the intersection between information and comfort that labels reside in is really interesting. For example, I call myself a lesbian for the most part. Am I a woman? That's complicated, but to most people I look like one. Do I like only women? 90% sure on that one but there's also a little leeway. Am I about to explain all of that to someone when coming out? Stars no. And lesbian is the thing I feel most comfortable calling myself anyways, so really, it doesn't have to be as deep as I make it out to be. 

What got me thinking about all of this today is whether or not I'd call myself a Bassist. Like by all accounts, I technically am. I play bass. I like playing bass. Bass is what I'd prefer most to play in a band if given the choice. But in conversation its not "I'm a bassist", it's "I play bass". These technically mean the same things. They do not feel like they mean the same thing. Getting called a bassist, especially by someone else with more music experience, feels like being a kid wearing a sweater 3 sizes too big. Ill fitting and awkward. I know its something I'll maybe grow into at some point, but right now it just doesn't feel quite right. 

I think I'm getting there slowly. The idea of calling myself one when I was 2 months into learning was impossible, and now its almost okay. I think I conflate calling myself a bassist with calling myself a competent bassist. Because I feel far from competent. I'm just fine at bass from what I've been told, but its the whole bit about always perceiving where you're at as lower than where you actually are. Honestly I think being forced to refer to myself as one has been helping. Again, I'm not about to go on a whole spiel to explain myself and where I'm at when I call myself a bassist, and sometimes you just can't get the grammar to work, so I'm a bassist I guess.