The Power of Music

When you think of powerful things, music is probably not the first thing that comes to mind. If you take a step back and look at how much influence music can have on your life, you will realize how powerful it really is.

Let's take a step back and boil down music. Music is a sequence of sounds and words. That's it. How can something so basic be such a powerful thing? If you played football growing up, think of how some of those songs influenced you while you were getting ready for a big game. A song can come on the radio and immediately induce a rush of adrenaline. MUSIC! Music can do that. That's absolutely amazing.

Music can bring back memories, change your mood, and can come to represent something in your life. If I were to ask you what songs bring you right back to your senior year of high school, you may not be able to name one off. The second one of those songs comes on your radio, it takes you right back to the good ole days.

Sometimes those memories aren't so good. A song that is associated with something tragic in your life can change your great day into a moment of sadness in the blink of an eye. The fact that a sequence of sounds can change your attitude is pretty powerful.

Recently in my life, there have been songs on the radio that have had no meaning or significance to me. The day I met my girlfriend, all of the sudden some of those songs about girls became some of my favorite songs. Any time one of those songs comes on, I'm instantly in a great mood and feel on top of the world.

In a world filled with negativity, I hope your life is filled with music that keeps you upbeat and ready to conquer each and every day.

Religion

Let's start this first blog topic with one of the untouchables...religion. Here's my beef with religion. I absolutely hate it when people try to cram the bible down my throat. My view on religion and the bible is that it's more of a guide on how to do the right thing and be a good person in general. It drives me nuts when people quote scripture. If you're going to quote it, then you better be abiding by every one of the quotes. You can't pick and choose which ones apply to you. This is why I look at it as more of a book of life lessons and a tool for you to learn from. Now I would consider myself as agnostic, which just means I don't know what I believe in. As an engineer, I deal a lot with numbers and probability. Out of all the billions of stars out there, odds are there's other life in the universe. That's where my issues are. For this to be true, religious ideas are either untrue or they have to change. You don't have to agree with me, but don't tell me you're religious view is right and mine is wrong. You can't prove you're right and I can't prove you're wrong.

My struggles with the bible are that it was written by man. 2000+ years ago, there were no cameras or cell phones or any other technology to capture any kind of proof of anything. Before you get on your high horse and start talking about Jesus, hear me out. Who can prove anybody involved with writing scripture wasn't drunk, high on drugs, lying, or just didn't understand things that were happening. You're placing your faith on a 2000 year old book that could be a complete sham. For this reason, I choose to think the bible is an ancient guide on how to be a decent person.

To you bible thumpers, stop. Your life isn't perfect. Queue the sin forgiveness. Well that's horseshit. In my opinion, you can't do bad things and just ask for forgiveness. Just do the right thing in the first place and you don't have to worry about it. Every child of a pastor I've ever met, has smoked weed and drank but portrayed the innocent image. I've never tried to hide my sins like these kind of  people. I've always been honest and upfront about everything, hence the unfiltered blog.

My best friend had a girlfriend that didn't like him hanging out with me because I was a bad influence. Sorry if drinking in college is that bad of an offense. Yet this same girl used to party in high school, had sex out of wedlock, and had 2 kids out of wedlock. I'm sorry that you felt the need to judge me, but don't cast stones when you live in a glass house. I never claimed to be perfect, but I never portrayed that image either. Guess who rarely drinks now and who's stuck with 2 kids living in your parents basement. If what I did was bad and what you did is good, I don't want good. Keep your religion, I'll keep my decency.

Since I have bad ADD and can't organize a complete thought, I'm going to totally switch gears now. How many people have been killed over religious reasons or religious wars. Don't you think its time to just be human and not try to be a god.

And so it begins...

Well here we go. The first blog post. I'm new to this whole blogging thing, so please go easy on me if I can't figure something out. I started this blog to convey thoughts on any topic out there. Topics ranging from ordinary everyday things to far out thoughts to things people are afraid to talk about. This blog will be unfiltered and unapologetic. Also, I'm an engineer not an English major, so please don't critique my punctuation. Not my strong point. 

One thing I would really like to do right off the bat, is to encourage you to think outside of the norm. Don't just take everybody at their word. Think critically and analytically about everything you hear and see throughout your day.

I'll leave you with a little food for thought. Next time you think you have a crazy thought or somebody calls you crazy, think about this. If everybody in the world is crazy and you're the only normal one...technically would you be considered the crazy one because you're outside of the norm? Be crazy. Think for yourself. Be fearless.