I've been working with my friend on his music group. It's turning into a pretty fun project. Check out his music... that's my cover art. Enjoy!
I'm The Man By Most Official
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Sunday, January 2, 2011
The Starting Line...
2011. Never before have I thought of the beginning of the new year as more than a reason to get together with friends and celebrate...wildly, until this one. There was something in the cold Minneapolis air this year that filled me with hope, change, growth, excitement and a slight resentfulness of the past 10 or so years. What have we become? How did we get here? Both these questions seem to be asked a lot in recent days if not years. I don't care. At this point, the overanalyzation of it is killing me. It's time we think about the present and it's possibilities. I started this year jobless, broke, stacks of student loan bills, 3 days of the glaring gas light on in my car and a solo, glorious pimple smack dab in the middle of my cheek. So how long should I sit and think "How did this happen?", "How did I get here?". Let me answer. Not at all. In the grand scheme of things, those are barely issues. Of course, to me, they are frustrating, exhausting and embarrassing, but it does nothing for my current state and even less for my future to dwell on HOW they happened. The fact is they are here and they are real. I can merely look forward on how to fix them. And they will be fixed.
So what does this crap have to do with you. Well it doesn't. But on a much larger scale, we all are facing problems within our country. At no other point in my life have I been more disappointed in our country. Somehow we've become a country that is all about me rather than about us. How we got to this is of no concern to me. How we get out of it and become the nation that I know in my heart we can become is of the utmost importance to me. Besides, it's not a question of if we can, because for all of us failure is not an option. As I sat in bed this morning drinking coffee and flipping through morning TV, I caught a group of senators from both sides debating on the state of our country. It made my blood boil. I felt like I could have seen a better debate at the elementary school down my street. "Your side did this!" "Well YOUR side did that!" UGH!!!!! While they are on TV pointing fingers, we are here waiting for a miracle. It's time to stop with the finger pointing and own this country as ours. Things are broken. We can fix them together. And that's the only way we should fix them. I don't know why this is such a difficult problem for us. We all basically want the same things. Food, shelter, security, health, a sense of belonging and prosperity. These are things that everyone from every walk of life can agree on and everyone should be able to have. We cannot boast to be this magical land of owning the American dream and then prevent someone from being able to get it because of their current financial status or the color of their skin or the person they choose to go to sleep with at night. We are all Americans. Our diversity should be our strength, not our weakness; our knowledge, not our ignorance; our pride, not our shame.
Where is our empathy? Recently I was having lunch with a great friend of mine discussing her new business venture. She was saying how she wants to really promote the idea of collaboration rather than competition. She's right. That's where we are failing. The overwhelming attitude in this country, I feel, is "If I want to do well, then others that want the same, must do poorly". That is just simply wrong. There is enough for everyone if we do it right and drop the jealousy and fear that paralyze our nation. Throughout time mankind has prided itself on our amazing ability to compromise and problem solve. It seems like we've forgot how to do that in this country. Instead we argue about who is right. That misses the point completely. There is always more than one solution to every problem. We must start finding them because the problems are just piling up as we point fingers.
I'm not innocent. I've pointed my fair share of fingers and even raised one or two, but that is the purpose of this. Every year, every day, every minute is an opportunity to change that. It must happen within ourselves. When alcoholics know they have a problem, one of the biggest issues they have is that the problem seems so gigantic and completely uncontrollable as they look at the span of their life, but when they break it down to a day by day process ( I will not drink today) the problem becomes much more manageable. The same can be done with us. Yes our problems are huge when looked at as a collaboration of chaos, but if you are able to see those problems on an individual scale they are much easier to deal with. What I mean is, by changing ourselves bit by bit we can change these problems. Being angry fixes nothing. We must realize that. Instead we all need to step back, breathe, think and consider all these problems and what I can do as an individual to aid in fixing them. Remember that we're all in this together. I feel it's very safe to say that if you are reading this, you are not a millionaire ( and even if you are ), so we don't have an exotic 2nd or 3rd home on the coast of wherever to run to should things go belly up here. No, we're here for the long haul. This is our home. This is our family. We are all a family, though sometimes a little dysfunctional, a family nonetheless. We must be good to one another. We must learn to help one another. And we must understand the great importance and nobility in doing that. Compromise is not weakness. Anger is not strength.
So as we ring in this new year, I implore you to take a fresh look all the problems we face as a nation. Are these problems really only red or blue, black or white, right or wrong or are they opportunities. Opportunities to reunite us and allow for growth. Growing is painful, but necessary. I think that if we can face these problems as opportunities in our own humble little lives together, we can change the world. It won't come overnight, but I do know this about us Americans, we don't give up. That is our power.
P.S.
DEAR 24 HOUR NEWS STATIONS,
YOU'RE NOT HELPING!
SINCERELY,
REAL PROBLEMS
So what does this crap have to do with you. Well it doesn't. But on a much larger scale, we all are facing problems within our country. At no other point in my life have I been more disappointed in our country. Somehow we've become a country that is all about me rather than about us. How we got to this is of no concern to me. How we get out of it and become the nation that I know in my heart we can become is of the utmost importance to me. Besides, it's not a question of if we can, because for all of us failure is not an option. As I sat in bed this morning drinking coffee and flipping through morning TV, I caught a group of senators from both sides debating on the state of our country. It made my blood boil. I felt like I could have seen a better debate at the elementary school down my street. "Your side did this!" "Well YOUR side did that!" UGH!!!!! While they are on TV pointing fingers, we are here waiting for a miracle. It's time to stop with the finger pointing and own this country as ours. Things are broken. We can fix them together. And that's the only way we should fix them. I don't know why this is such a difficult problem for us. We all basically want the same things. Food, shelter, security, health, a sense of belonging and prosperity. These are things that everyone from every walk of life can agree on and everyone should be able to have. We cannot boast to be this magical land of owning the American dream and then prevent someone from being able to get it because of their current financial status or the color of their skin or the person they choose to go to sleep with at night. We are all Americans. Our diversity should be our strength, not our weakness; our knowledge, not our ignorance; our pride, not our shame.
Where is our empathy? Recently I was having lunch with a great friend of mine discussing her new business venture. She was saying how she wants to really promote the idea of collaboration rather than competition. She's right. That's where we are failing. The overwhelming attitude in this country, I feel, is "If I want to do well, then others that want the same, must do poorly". That is just simply wrong. There is enough for everyone if we do it right and drop the jealousy and fear that paralyze our nation. Throughout time mankind has prided itself on our amazing ability to compromise and problem solve. It seems like we've forgot how to do that in this country. Instead we argue about who is right. That misses the point completely. There is always more than one solution to every problem. We must start finding them because the problems are just piling up as we point fingers.
I'm not innocent. I've pointed my fair share of fingers and even raised one or two, but that is the purpose of this. Every year, every day, every minute is an opportunity to change that. It must happen within ourselves. When alcoholics know they have a problem, one of the biggest issues they have is that the problem seems so gigantic and completely uncontrollable as they look at the span of their life, but when they break it down to a day by day process ( I will not drink today) the problem becomes much more manageable. The same can be done with us. Yes our problems are huge when looked at as a collaboration of chaos, but if you are able to see those problems on an individual scale they are much easier to deal with. What I mean is, by changing ourselves bit by bit we can change these problems. Being angry fixes nothing. We must realize that. Instead we all need to step back, breathe, think and consider all these problems and what I can do as an individual to aid in fixing them. Remember that we're all in this together. I feel it's very safe to say that if you are reading this, you are not a millionaire ( and even if you are ), so we don't have an exotic 2nd or 3rd home on the coast of wherever to run to should things go belly up here. No, we're here for the long haul. This is our home. This is our family. We are all a family, though sometimes a little dysfunctional, a family nonetheless. We must be good to one another. We must learn to help one another. And we must understand the great importance and nobility in doing that. Compromise is not weakness. Anger is not strength.
So as we ring in this new year, I implore you to take a fresh look all the problems we face as a nation. Are these problems really only red or blue, black or white, right or wrong or are they opportunities. Opportunities to reunite us and allow for growth. Growing is painful, but necessary. I think that if we can face these problems as opportunities in our own humble little lives together, we can change the world. It won't come overnight, but I do know this about us Americans, we don't give up. That is our power.
P.S.
DEAR 24 HOUR NEWS STATIONS,
YOU'RE NOT HELPING!
SINCERELY,
REAL PROBLEMS
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