Sunday U2 Sermons: The toolishness that is Bono

It inevitably happens when you're a U2 fan. The day you have to defend your love of the band to someone who sums up their annoyance in the following phrase:

"No offense, but I think that Bono's a tool."

Some days, it's fucking hard to defend him -- Bono talks to much, puts on grand gestures and his idealism is so pie-in-the-sky that it seems like all talk and no action.

But after reading Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas, I gotta say that my desire to meet the man and pick apart his mind over a couple of drinks has grown immensely.

I've always been fascinated by people with fucked-up pasts. Bono's no exception -- he lost his mother at 14 and the relationship with his father and family wasn't the greatest. The weird thing is that while the guy admits to having a lot of rage since childhood, he's managed to hold onto his idealism and desire to try and do better.

I like people like that. I'm willing to humor people like that. It's the folks that are all "My childhood was shit and this is why I'm such a prat," that I can't tolerate. To make the world better -- or even your life better -- it's almost an act of will. If you're not getting the love at home that you need, you get it from your friends (and in this case, a band).

I also like the fact that Bono is willing to admit all of his faults -- insecurity and a need to have 20,000 people screaming his name each night? Check. Messiah complex? Check. Massive ego? Check. The funny thing is that I think he earns the reputation simply because he's just willing to take a risk -- be it leaping into the audience and dancing with a girl for Live Aid, being seen with Shrub Jr. and Jessie Helms (Bono's a bigger man that me. I couldn't meet with Helms for a cause I believed in without wanting to kick him in the goolies.) or nearly bankrupting the band with Zoo TV -- because it seems like a good idea at the time.

That bravery mixed with insanity appeals to me greatly and admittedly, I've been trying to push myself out of safe boundaries just to learn more, taste more and experience more. The thing is that to push yourself out of safe boundaries is to take the risk that it'll all blow up in your face. "A life unquestioned is not one you should envy," is the closing line of the Bono book, and in a weird way, I kind of agree with the man.