The Day My Music Died

It’s easy to be melodramatic about life, especially during the nights when Malinda is at work, Sophia is asleep, and I’m left alone with nothing by my thoughts. Problems are bigger, solutions are harder to come by, and hope seems to fade into the black. Mostly, I jot down a paragraph or two about what’s affecting me, followed by a largely failed attempt at sleep. But I still manage to wake up ready to take on the world again. I fight the good fight keep chasing after that dangling carrot.

Tonight, however, was different. As I sat on my living room floor watching a movie (with the mute on), I noticed how lonely my guitar looked. I grabbed it, nestled into the corner and started playing some of my favorite songs I had written over the years. But a funny thing happened. Words escaped me, phrases were lost. I had forgotten.

Music has always been my solace. It allows me an outlet to express my emotions and be in a different place while I play. My songs tell the stories of my life; past relationships, heartbreaks, and true loves. I felt so strongly about these moments, I created a rhythm for their timelines. They were my stories to share, and some, to keep. And today I realized that I have let some important pieces of me get lost in the shuffle, blending in with the clutter of bills, pressures to succeed, and disappointments of bounced paychecks. Lies and ignorance were followed by blind trust, and now I’m starring up from the bottom of a dark hole.

It’s easy to see the problem, hard to accept it, and even harder to start over again when you’re already two steps back. I think my first priority will be finding my music again. Hopefully it’s lost and not dead. Perhaps, if the song remembers when, then I can to. Regardless, I’m ignoring the dangling carrot, but I will continue to fight the good fight.

Touché

Why is it that actions speak louder than words, but the pen is still mightier than the sword?

The Fate of Man!

Apparently we can’t enjoy anything anymore. A recent study shows that artificial sweeteners in diet sodas actually interfere with your body’s ability to know how many calories it has ingested throughout the day. The lab animals that were tested consumed more calories and gained more weight when eating the fake sugar. Yikes!

Now we’re going to have to find an alternative for the alternative. What’s next? Are they going to find out that O’Douls actually can get you drunk, and that there’s a good chance you may like the Incredible Hulk even when he’s angry? My world is turned upside down once again. I guess we’ll all just have to stick to fruit juices and water. On second thought, we better test the natural sugars in fruit to make sure their juices don’t cause cancer. While we’re at it, I want to see the numbers on water as well. I’m pretty sure it’s the culprit for my recent rash of adult acne.

In fact, it might be safer to avoid food and drinks all together. That way we know that we’re not ingesting anything bad for us, and no one will ever be fat again. It will also help with the earth’s overpopulation; reducing the average human life span to 4-10 days. Brilliant!

Green = Death

In our never ending battle to be greener, we may be doing more harm than good. Studies are now showing that those amazing little coiled light bulbs may be more dangerous for the environment than previously thought.

The compact Fluorescent bulbs have been touted as using up to 50% less energy as regular bulbs while lasting several times longer (10,000 hours as compared to 1,500 hours of a normal bulb). As it turns out, the waste industry is now speaking up about the difficulties their having disposing of the miracle bulbs. The poisonous innards of one bulb contain enough mercury to contaminate 6,000 gallons of water, which can cause kidney and brain damage. Awesome!

It’s no surprise environmental agencies are torn by this information. The efficient bulbs have, in California alone, prevented 1.5 billion pounds of carbon dioxide from being release into the air since their inception, but that leaves a lot of mercury floating around as well. Oh what an entangled web we weave when at first we do try to be greener and end up killing everyone from mercury poisoning. Yeah, I know it doesn’t rhyme, but just ask Will Smith how this is going to turn out. I’ll give you a hint; zombies, cannibalism, and doing pull-ups alone with your shirt off; scary stuff!