Oh Gravity/The Tao Te Ching

(originally posted on Myspace)

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Oh Gravity, the Tao te Ching Category: Religion and Philosophy Ok so I finished the Tao Te Ching about the same time I got "Oh Gravity," the newest Switchfoot CD. Oh Gravity is definitely their best album yet and even surpasses "The Beautiful Letdown." A bounceback from the nearly-pitiful "Nothing is Sound," Oh Gravity throws in a sense of classic rock, while keeping originality. The problem with artists who have released more than one or two albums is that, in many cases, every song begins to sound the same. This is far from true in this their sixth CD. Some funky rhythms mix with ethnic tones in "Dirty Second Hands," and Switchfoot returns to its upbeat optimism with my personal favorite "Burn out Bright." They even remixed a track from their previous album and added a little of the much-needed lightness that only Switchfoot can provide. Overall, I mostly compared the album with the Tao Te Ching. If you are not familiar with it, find it. Read it. Live it. While I don't agree with every ideal Lao Tsu presents, I must say that this book is a gem. There is much wisdom in just a few pages, including, "In learning of others, you gain knowledge; in learning of yourself, you gain true wisdom. In controlling others, you have strength; in controlling yourself, you have true power." How does quasi-Christian rock follow eastern philosophy? Take the song American Dream for example. "The ambition for excess wrecks us." There are a lot of other examples in the CD. Buy it. What's better than the Taoist remarks is the load of ideals that are purely American. Not corporate, 2025 American, but revolutionary, 1775 American. Listen to my profile song "Burn out Bright." The best line says "The future is a question mark with kerosene and electric sparks. There's still fire in you yet. There's still fire in you." The sixth track is a happy show of love and ignorance. "We don't know what we're doin', let's do it again!" The Switchfoot fire is rekindled and they are spreading the joy. I love life and I love the art that helps me see that love from different angles.

Random Thoughts

(originally posted on Myspace)

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Random Thoughts Thought #1: The earth. Take it for what you will, but I tell you the earth itself can teach you everything you need to know about life. It's round (eternity) and we couldn't function without gravity (opposition.) We'd just kind of float around, all directionless. Sure it makes us fall down sometimes, but it's the only way we grow. Strangely, we spend most of our lives trying to figure out how best to "fight" it, when the reality is that we are much better off if we work with it, rather than against it. Stuff happens. Grow from it. And let me tell you an interesting thing about trials. They say it gets coldest just before the sun comes up. Do you believe that? Consider this: the winter solstice marks the shortest day of the year, or, in other words, the season should start warming up. The coldest months are january and february, but the solstice is in December. What does this mean? I see it as a reminder that things may not look like it, but they actually are getting better. Thought #2: Hate Me Not Here's a fun idea: Stop it. If you hate me so much, take a second to look at yourself in the mirror and ask yourself "why?" Was it because I didn't do everything in my power to make your life better? The truth is that I did. Reconsider. Maybe I did something to you. I did some things to a lot of people, just as you did to me. I'm not proud of it, but it's a fact of life. We're human. Surely you can't hate all humans. Maybe you feel the way you do because I'm a little "atypical." So I've got personality. Is that really grounds for bitter hatred? How about this: You don't know me, just as I don't know you. This fact allows you no room for judgement on me. You're overlooking all my redeeming qualities and focusing on things you don't like, things you've never mentioned to me. Quit pretending like you weren't talking about me behind my back, and quit treating me like I'm stupid. I'm just as stupid as anyone else, including you. I have bent over backwards to be especially nice to you and I have given you the benefit of the doubt without asking anything of you. I ask something now. Stop it. Thought #3: Diet As some of you may know, I have had serious weight problems in the past. I am currently a lot heavier than I would like to be, and I'm not exactly sure how I got this way. Maybe it had something to do with a diet of cake, pizza, soda, and popcorn. Yes, that might have something to do with it. So how on earth does a person draw the line between too little, just right, and too much? Ach! This is so frustrating! Thought #4: Behavior I could spend weeks talking about it, but I'm mostly just going to tell you what I've learned in the past week or so. If you want to see something scary, make a goal to improve your behavior. Make it a good one. Watch yourself for one day. Just one day. It's kinda scary how many times you do what you were focusing on NOT doing, how easy you lose your focus, and how much you mess up. Keep watching yourself for a week. It isn't so scary anymore. It's so great that when we really try to get something right, it finally works out. Maybe after a long time, but it works. Thought # 5: Love I don't believe in Valentine's Day. I believe that it, like most other holidays, was created by corporate america as a means to get you to consume more. I do believe in love. I have been working very hard on being more loving and have discovered that it starts within. Only after you truly love yourself can you love another. If you are having problems with others, may I suggest you take a look inward? Furthermore, I believe that one cannot adequately love friends until one can demonstrate love for random strangers and/or enemies. And I believe that one is not ready to find that "special" love until one has achieved love for oneself, random strangers, friends of all sorts, family, inanimate objects, life, and, most importantly, God. Thought #6: Random WHAT HAPPENED TO WINTER!!! Maybe they just decided to skip it this time. I LOVE BORTSCH!!! I get paid in eight days. I can't believe EL PET ate half of that cake! Life is good.

Trying

(originally posted on Myspace)

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Trying Current mood: tired Today in a psychology class, half awake, I looked around. Not just wandering eyes, but truly examining the situation for perhaps the first time since I moved to Logan last July. What I saw was both sad and inspirational. I saw a teacher trying her best to explain at a pace to get through the material while answering as many questions as possible. I saw two or three students who were absorbing everything, commenting, and challenging the teacher. Then there were those, maybe fifty, who were truly trying, desperately scribbling notes, all about ready to pull their hair out over the complexity of the material. "Applied Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences." A difficult task for anyone. Then there was the third and final category: about ten people trying not to be disrespectful. Seventy-five minutes is a lot to ask of these people. I drifted back and forth between the last two categories, listening, sleeping, trying to listen. I noticed something else about the third group. They were all nodding off, granted, and trying to even recognise that the professor was, in fact, speaking English, but there was one more thing they had in common. They were all quite thin. All at once, it hit me. These are the full-time college students. College must be like a concentration camp, and I guess, in a literal sense, it really is. We move here to "concentrate" on our studies while starving to death, depriving our bodies of sleep, working our hands to the bones just to afford tuition, and let's not forget all the time we spend studying. We also need to participate in service, clubs, and research; it's the only way to get into grad school. Somewhere in there, we're expected to make lifelong friends and find ourselves. Yet professors wonder why we can't always make the grade. I wonder if they have any idea how hard we really are trying.

Robert Frost: Misconceptions

(originally posted on Myspace)

Thursday, June 29, 2006

Robert Frost: Misconceptions We all know Frost's most famous poem, and many of you have it memorised. In case you don't, here is "The Road Not Taken" "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I- I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. " This poem is great, a classic. If you don't have it memorised already, I challenge you to do so. You'll see it a lot. If you're going to take the time to memorise it, you may as well take the time to get a sense of what Frost really meant by it. It seems easy enough: "Walk the road less traveled." But let me ask you this, does that seem like something Frost would really mean? Seriously, Frost is about as cynical as they come, and this happy, upbeat poem just doesn't sit well with me...I've read a lot of his work and this one doesn't seem to fit. See for yourself. http://www.ketzle.com/frost/ May I suggest "In Hardwood Groves," "Now Close the Windows," "After Apple Picking," "An Old Man's Winter Night," and my three favourites can be found at http://www.nonsequiturmusic.com/5pieces.htm. If you read nothing else, read "Come In" and "Acquainted With the Night." (If you can hear "Come In" put to music, you'll perfectly understand what I'm talking about. You can find it in a piece called "Frostianna") So now everyone is familiar with Frost. Good. Now, let me point out a little-known fact about "the road not taken." It wasn't written in sincerity. it was written as a mischievious poem about Edward Thomas. Look at it really closely. Frost admits that the roads were really about the same. The final stanza admits his choices *with a sigh.* Ages and ages hence signifies the reflection of a diety. Perhaps what made the difference is that he boldly embraced his foolish choice... That's right, foolish. The object he's trying to illustrate is not the importance of going off and "stickin it to the man" and doing what you do simply because nobody else is doing it. It's about where the road leads. He made it to a place where he was happy. He became something great, ageless, and was able to look back, with a sigh, on everything before. And *that* has made all the difference.