Many Fight To Be The King...

Many fight to be the king but...





Just a little song I mixed up when I was bored a couple years ago.

I Am Not A Writer

"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up."
Pablo Picasso

I really like to write. Whether I'm sitting down with my guitar and writing out some thought or feeling and putting it to music or just writing down random stories that come to my head, I really like to write. But I am not a writer. I mean, I just started a sentence with "but" so I think you can tell that I am not a writer. I used to write lots of stories when I was younger. I'd write stories of mysteries and murder. I'd write stories of angels and demons. I'd write write stories of dragons and knights. Somewhere down the road all that went away for awhile. I was like almost every kid in this world. You see, every kid is an artist, a writer, a dancer until they are told they're not good enough. Sometimes the kid puts the pressure of perfection on themselves due to something they saw on television or something they read perhaps. Other times that pressure of perfection is put on the child by their parents. But kids need space to be imperfect because true art will never be perfect.

Perfection is not a goal we should strive for. After all, perfection is in the eye of the beholder so in some way everything will be imperfect. I'm sure some could look at the paintings of Picasso and say it's not good or perfect but does that make it true? No, of course not. There will always be someone out there to point out why something is bad or wrong or point out mistakes. Sometimes the mistakes are turn out to be what we like the most. Some of the greatest lines in movies were actually bloopers of the actor messing up what was written. While we should never shy away from CONSTRUCTIVE criticism, we absolutely should cut out people who are constantly negative. When did it become cool or good to tell someone that thing that they enjoy doing so much is garbage? When did it become the right thing to tell someone that they aren't good enough? When did we get the right to say something isn't perfect in the first place? Why not find enjoyment in what others enjoy? If someone likes to write but it's not perfect when it comes to the grammar, who cares? Find the beauty in it! If someone likes to sing but they're off key here or there, who cares? Find the beauty in that person and enjoy! If someone likes to paint... I think you get my point.

I really like to write and many could  read what I write and rightly say to me, "you are not a writer." When it comes down to it, I enjoy what I do and that's more important than someone else's definition of perfection. It's more important than your definition of perfection. And while I don't shy away from constructive criticism, I also don't freely open myself to everyone's opinions. When you put something online for the world to see, almost EVERYONE will be a critic. But their criticism and opinions, no matter how "right" they may sound to themselves, have no value or weight to me. There are people in my life that I trust will give great constructive criticism when I need it. But if you're not in that closed circle, you can save your comments of how to make something better. You can choose to enjoy with me or simply move along. There's that old saying, "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all." I think I prefer, "If you don't have anything nice to say, say something nice anyway."

This world is tough enough without us going around stomping on each others dreams and pleasures. So I'm going to say this: if you like to write, you're a writer. If you like to paint, you're an artist. If you like to sing, you're a singer. If you like to dance, you're a dancer. Whatever you like to do, you are that! Enjoy life because it's so short. Enjoy others lives because theirs are short too. Dream, believe, be.

PEACE.

Welcome To The Thin Skinned Era

Have we really gotten to the point where people are so thin skinned that they can't take a joke about who they're voting for? Yes... Yes we have. I truly don't understand how someone can pay for a ticket to go see a comedian and then take all the jokes so personally that they end up leaving. When it comes to cracking jokes at the expense of politicians, WHO CARES?! It's just a joke! It's comedy! To me it's no big deal at all and I think people need to lighten up a little bit.

This presidential election has divided so many and to be honest I'm not going to say that's a completely negative thing. Sure, you now know that you were friends with borderline racists but that's a good thing, right? Now you can distance yourself from them. Sure, your Christian friends are disgusted with the "immoral gays" but now you know they're ok with a guy bragging how he sexually assaults women. Hooray for Christian morals! And sure your other friends are absolutely fed up with government corruption but now you know they're ok with voting for more of it! Yay USA!

I think no matter who gets elected (it's going to be Hillary) WE ARE GOING TO BE FINE. Yes, it sucks that it looks like for the next four years we're getting more of the same but we will be okay. So learn to take a joke. Make fun of your own candidate (I'm voting for Gary Johnson so I have plenty of material too). And don't be so thin skinned. Oh and don't vote for Trump lol...

Seriously though.. Laugh! Because if you don't laugh you'll cry.

PEACE

Happy Tattoos Day!

Hey it's tattoos day! So I'm answering some tattoo questions!

Vote The Bible?

A lot of people say we as Christians need to "vote the Bible."  I have even said those very words in the past, though I'll admit that I was more just repeating a line that I've heard a thousand times than truly thinking it through.  So now my question is this: what parts of the Bible should we vote?  Should we vote against men having the right to shave their beards and the sides of their heads?  I have a mo-hawk so I'd be a little put off if it was made into law that I can't shave the sides of my head.  How about making a stand against wearing different types of fabrics together?  Should we vote against women braiding their hair and wearing nice outfits?  Should we vote that women should never speak over men or be leaders over men?  I think I've found a new item for the platform of those sexist candidates.  Should we vote that women should drink cursed water/poison if her husband gets jealous and THINKS she MIGHT have had an affair, causing her to miscarry/abort any child that is not her husbands?  I mean after all, each one of those things are in the Bible (some even in the New Testament).

So do we vote for those things or in our efforts to "vote the Bible" do we get to leave out those verses and pick just the ones we like?

I think somewhere along the lines of "voting the Bible" it truly became 100% political and party partisan.  It became us picking one or two political issues and finding one or two Bible verses to back up our opinion.  Even if those verses were out of context we simply fell back on the words of "I'm just trying to vote the Bible like all Christians should do."  We took those verses and heard the (9 times out of 10) Republican candidate quote them and thought "See! They're voting the Bible just like me," and then fully embraced (though rarely admitted) our partisan bias because they were on the "right" side of the issue.

I don't know much about him nor do I know if he was the first to say this but last week Rev. William Barber spoke at the DNC.  Some of you will immediately write off his words because of where he spoke.  Again that partisan bias coming in.  In that speech he said, "I'm so concerned about those that say so much about what God says so little, while saying so little about what God says so much."

But it's so true isn't it?  You see God is love.  The Bible is packed full with a message of love.  Most Christians call the Bible a "love letter."  And yet so often Christians both politically and religiously use this "love letter" to create walls of prejudice, judgment, and hate.  Instead of not judging unless we ourselves want to be judged, we "vote the Bible."  Instead of taking the plank out of our own eye before worrying about the tiny speck in someone else's, we "vote the Bible."  Instead of loving our neighbor as we love ourselves, we fight them on every issue all the while hiding behind the words "Vote the Bible." 

Are we really voting the Bible? Or are we hiding behind a certain political party that has decided to pick one or two issues using one or two Bible verses to spread their political parties agenda? 

At the RNC Senator Ted Cruz said we should vote our conscience in this presidential election.  I would both jokingly and seriously say that if you're voting your conscience you are going to find something wrong with every single person running for president and you might not be able to vote for anybody.  As of today I'm not decided on who to vote for.  I'm considering voting for Jill Stein (Green Party) or Gary Johnson (Libertarian Party).  My Republican friends tell me if I do that I'm basically voting for Hillary Clinton while my Democrat friends tell me I'm basically voting for Donald Trump.  Meanwhile I am rolling my eyes at the friends who are so married to their political parties they couldn't possibly vote outside of them despite having real issues with their own candidate.  Come on guys lol. 

I don't really have a solid conclusion to all of this, to the words "vote the Bible," other than it's basically impossible to vote the entire Bible especially seeing as half of Americans aren't Christians in the first place.  True freedom for all will always offend someone.  I will say this: God is NOT a Republican.  God is NOT a Democrat.  God is NOT a part of the Green Party.  God is NOT a Libertarian.  God is not a part of the Transhumanist party (now that's a weird party LOL). 

You know what God IS?  GOD IS LOVE.  Everything hinges on LOVE!

So next time we get into a political argument (and believe me we will because we're all human beings) let's remember our votes don't matter anyway according to the Bible. 😜