But we're not them.
I don't recall implying that you were.
And yes, the other members are taking all this with an extraordinary calm.
Yes, because they are optimistic about what is going to happen. It's easy to be calm when you still have your band, have got back to your routine and don't have any uncertainty. The two situations are not comparable.
An analogy if I may...
If everyone in a company wants to work except one employee who wants them all to take an indefinite vacation so he could work for other company's for awhile till he feels like joining the other employees, is that company wrong for not accepting that?
I understand Mike was burned out on Dream Theater at this time and wants to do other things, but you have to realize in life you can't always have your cake and eat it too. Life is full of tough choices. You make them and you have to live with your decisions.
It seems his angst comes from the fact that 4 out of 5 people saw things another way.
I get the sense Mike feels that after 20+ years working in a band he co founded and worked his ass off for, for all of those years, he was entitled to have his request granted. A valid feeling indeed. He has a right to feel slighted. He has done the lions share of work in this band and is a big reason they got where they are today. I wholeheartedly believe that.
If it were me I would be pissed off as well, and might say the same types of things he is out of the hurt and a frustration that after all my hard work I had earned my request.
I think that another source of anger, could be feeling under appreciated by the fans for all your hard work and all you have given of yourself for them.
but the reality is the clock ticking on all there careers, and taking a year off after the failure and disappointment of Prog nation 09 and the subsequent canceling of the Black Clouds tour, I could understand the other guys feeling its vital for them to rebound from it in 2011.
A year off for a band like Dream Theater could do a lot of damage in a career that has steadily picked up more and more steam every year recently.