Dreams

Life is really too short. We had a fantastic end of the year Tour and Cd release for the school and while words are far too inadequate to express the goodness that transpired I will try my best to explain the title of this blizzog.

I have seen (or "We Have Seen") people come together with the hope that they could do this thing. By "this thing" I guess I mean people pursuing their dreams. Graduation is a sad but beautiful thing. Everybody is leaving (more or less) and while you wish it could last forever or you just beat yourself up for the multitude of things you could have done differently it really is the beginning of Hope. The Hope that whatever love or desires that God has put in you could be real. Parents likely (and sometimes accurately) dismiss idealistic views that "maybe I could be a musician or artist of sorts and be successful". Somewhere in the middle of pursuing "happiness" and "success" or even "responsibility" lies an actual "life" sometimes without any apparent or tangible achievement. That's probably hard to understand since I have like a 4th grade South Carolina public school way of writing but the pressure we feel to succeed is real. Unfortunately that pressure is to most often be something nowhere close to what we really want to be.

Maybe we aren't capable. Maybe its just too hard to "make it". Maybe its just a ridiculous dream and we should grow up. I have a great job. I have had great jobs before this one. I have also worked at freaking McDonalds and Shoney's and one thing is becoming more and more apparent. You can do anything you want to and perhaps even more accurately you are already doing what you want to do. Read into that as far as you like. It is more work to go and get a job busing tables than it is to get a gig playing music at a coffee house or bar or wherever. Granted you need more than one gig every 3 months to make ends meet (or even just a free meal) but it is a lot easier than putting on some smelly uniform everyday or wearing some starched shirt with little more than "security" in sight.

As a Christian I think I bought in to "Waiting on the Lord" or some other lame way of just letting time pass by. I don't wait on the Lord to eat or to sleep or meet any other needs that are commonplace so should I wait on him to pursue being the very person he has made me? I realize not everyone really wants to pursue a lofty dream but I doubt they want to pursue a data entry job either. I could tell myself all day long (and I do) that I am too old and bald and bashful to be what I really want to be but the reality is I am who I want to be I am just doing a piss poor job at it.

Unless you want to be a train hopping hobo you will have to get a job. And then you will need to move up in that job to make more loot and whatnot so why not put that kind of effort into putting on a robot outfit and rapping about social injustice or if you have nigh a creative bone in your body but still love singing and playing music then just seriously learn the iTunes top 100 downloads and go play covers? Somebody will be rocking out tomorrow night at a concert venue and someone else will be delivering pizzas or sitting at home watching some lame show like "Lost". More realistically that is probably the same person trying to pay rent while doing what they love but nonetheless you will wake up tomorrow and decide to waste the day or write the next summer love anthem.

If you are/were a student please look at graduation as a release of sorts to pursue your dreams. It absolutely does not have to end now. Regardless of what anyone tells you fun time is not over and now you should put on a tie or pantsuit and get a real job. And if you do, unplug your TV (unless movies are a source of inspiration rather than escape) when you come home and get some gigs lined up and make a record. Nothing is harder than looking in the mirror and seeing someone who you don't want to be.

I love you more than I regretfully have shown and I hope that you would please for the Love of God really surrender to who he has made you. You could have written a song or painted a picture in the time it took to read this crappy blog. I could have done the same.
-Jonathan