What would Keith Richards do_ - Jessica Pallington West [24]
Keith: “It was jeans and rock ’n’ roll that took that wall down in the long run.”
“If a man neglects education, he walks lame to the end of his life.”—Plato
Keith: “Nobody stops growing, otherwise there’s no point in doing the trip in the first place … You keep learning, and you never stop.”
“Bad men are full of repentance.”—Aristotle
Keith: “I don’t regret nothin’.”
Then there’s Saint Augustine (A.D. 354–430). Which may come as a surprise.
Keith and Augustine didn’t see eye to eye on everything, but on the matter of the eye itself, they did. Both had an interest in investigating the senses and how the senses can fool us. They both had a particular suspicion for visuals. In The Confessions, Augustine warned his readers to beware the lures of the senses and not give in. In Keithism, the message bends a bit: You can indulge, but be careful. To add a line from evil twin Mick: “It is okay to let yourself go, as long as you can get yourself back."
Both Keith and Augustine came to their philosopher posts by surviving lives of “sin” and excess. For Augustine, it started with stealing pears—then graduating to excessive brothel visiting. He later chose to live pear-free and celibate, but his vivid memories and experience of sin made him an expert on the subject. Just like Keith.
Augustine assured his readers that one didn’t have to worry about being “evil,” since all experience was a part of God’s plan. This acceptance of the darker side of human nature is also very Keith Richards.
Augustine converted from sinner to saint, giving up a “bad” life for a “good” one, and Keith too has, in a sense, been converted. While he has never quite given everything up, he has stepped away from one aspect of sin—he pulled himself out from spiraling into the abyss, from being sucked away for good. He’s also given up guilt. You might as well give up guilt if you’re going to sin anyway.
If you’re going to sin, then sin elegantly.
Like Augustine. He gave sin some glamour. He made it into an exotic vacation destination, a past where the wild things lived. He spoke about it as a travel reporter, as one who got out of the jungle. Both men used their lives as sinners as lessons for the examination of personal struggle, and taking on that “wild animal called life."
Keith Illuminates Saint
Augustine, and Saint
Augustine Illuminates Keith
“I admit that I still find some enjoyment in the music of hymns … I realize that when they are sung these sacred words stir my mind to greater religious fervor and kindle in me a more ardent flame of piety … I also know that there are particular modes in song and in the voice, corresponding to my various emotions … able to stimulate them because of some mysterious relationship between the two.”—Saint Augustine
Keith: “Every sound has an effect on the body … you are fighting some primeval fear that you can’t even rationalize.”
“The senses are not content to take second place.”—Saint Augustine
“I must confess how I am tempted through the eye.”—Saint Augustine
Keith: “Why can’t video find its own niche in life and get off music’s back?”
“The eye is attracted by beautiful objects, by gold and silver and all such things.”—Saint Augustine
Keith: “The eyes are the whores of the senses.”
“Love and do what you will.”—Saint Augustine
Keith: “This is who I am. I do what I do … Don’t try this at home.”
“Lord give me chastity and continency. But not yet!”—Saint Augustine
Keith: “Good. More for me.”
Leap ahead a few thousand years, and we find Keith footnoting the Enlightenment, and specifically John Locke (1632–1704), the guy who loved the line “All men are equal”—that is, the basic sentiment expressed on Keith’s skull ring.
We all have a right to life and to liberty, the right to rebel against unjust rulers and laws. (See the Keith Commandment on Authority, aka Commandment 17.) For Locke, knowledge comes through experiences and our place within the physical world, with an emphasis on the importance of life right now, rather than the afterlife. A good life is one