Great songs.  We all know some.   Ones that you can come back to again and again knowing that they not only make you feel good, but they touch something inside you.  Sometimes it happens in a specific a part of the song when and usually when they sing a certain verse or reach a bridge or crescendo.   Some songs hang with you forever, through-out your life.  Others you forget and after a long time apart you hear that song again and you get that "wow" factor when you feel it again.

Overall, great songs on a whole are more than great music.  The music is undeniable, but the words give you cause to feel happiness or pain.  You associate those words with what has gone on in your life.  You feel that you wrote those lyrics and that they belong to you.  You imagine yourself saying those words to someone you know or someone in your past and that they are finally hearing you and understanding you like they never did before.  Lyrics in a great son make you believe that in that instant you are finally getting your way. You are finally being understood or cared for.  You are finally being heard and you are motivating that person to act on your words. 

All from a song.  A great song.

Great songs with great lyrics sometimes paint an image in your mind that takes you to a safe place in your mind.  Imagine words like this..

"Watching the city lights... stretch out into the night... I think of you.  I think of you."  Without the music, you are there in that instant.  And from those few words you get such a story. 

I have so many great songs in my life that coupled with great lyrics I feel like ...   more »

Have you ever watched the news and wondered what makes it news?  Who decides it is worth talking about?  It should be you and I.   Why else does famine and dictatorship take a backseat to a Hollywood starlet driving drunk.

I've seen that in all our lives things get distorted or used against us when we didn't mean it that way at all.  Look at me.  I keep this blog and although I vocalize a past sentiment about my past marriage, you'd think from attorney's sending letters saying if I don't pull articles and photos, I'll be sued.  You'd think all I ever talked about here is my past marriage.  But don't you think I should have the right as a writer to meander through discussion without being limited to leaving my years of marriage as a blank void to be skipped over?  Heck, not all of it was bad.  Not all of it was negative.  My point is that we get hit with "pull quote" moments by everyone around us.  The news does it, and people do it.  You know what a pull quote is right?  It's the one quote in length of discussion that is meant to spawn controversy.  It's often taken out of context, thus creating a need to discuss it from many different angles.  You can be dead on innocent folks and get vilified if someone is determined enough.  The media does this based on editors and reporters own personal beliefs that drive the position of the story. 

Then you get a news cycle. The news cycle is the timeline that news is discussed.   The beginning to the end.  A topic comes about, from hurricane devastating a city to bank bandit on the loose.  From the time the storm hits to when it is gone... that is ...   more »

What a horrible custom!  Let's stop this horror! 

Once a year most large offices where folks don't hardly know each other or know enough to resent each other participate in a  Chinese Pollyanna.

Before I blast this horrible horrible thing rightously, here are the details if you have never been a part of one of these tortourous affairs.

Here is how it works:

1. Participants contribute a gift.  Ideally you bring something anyone would enjoy. You all gather for the exchange.

2. Prepare slips of paper equal to the number of gifts with clearly written numbers.  Write out six and nine as 6 and 9 look the same on a scratch paper. 1 from 7. Everyone draws a number.

3. Whoever draws number one goes first.  They pick from the pile of wrapped gifts. Heaven forbid you really like your gift.

4. Whoever drew number two goes next. But... they also get the option of "stealing" a gift opened by any predecessor in this case, it is the only person that opened a gift.  In short... person number one.  The person whom gift had theirs stolen, now opens yet another gift in hopes that no one else will take their gift.  

5. The person who drew number three is our next victim. They pick a gift, pray they don't like it (joke) and wait for the next person to victimize them by taking their gift. . If all goes well, they avoid you and pick an opened gift someone else is in love with.

Here are the other details in case you actually want to torture yourself at Christmas.

1. This party's gift theme is X.
2. The gift theme also follows a price range.
3. The gift should be something someone would actually want or use. It should be in new or good condition. However gag ...   more »

I'd like to examine the word "shallow" today.  Why is not so important. Let's just say I get a lot of e-mail about a lot of subject matter.  Some of which I find disturbing, some of which I find great for writing material.   I'd rather just discuss the word and how shallow behavior or shallow people affect us in our daily lives.

If you look up the word shallow using sites like Wikipedia you'll find that shallow is a tough word.  It reaches beyond genders; it can exist in young or old.  Although you would expect younger people to grow out of  being shallow.  Yet if you think about it, perhaps it is the people that have been around the world that become shallow. 

You've seen me write a lot about people lacking a moral compass.  A shallow person may have that trait but what shallow ultimately is in a person that knowingly disregards the need for emotional depth and intellect.   A person that doesn't have these qualities without purposely disregarding it may be considered dim or mentally retarded.  There are other words you can use, but the point is the person ultimately is not conscious of their behavior.

In short a shallow person is not merely unconcerned what others may think of them, a shallow person aims to not care.   Again there is an element of lacking an moral foundation in that person, but it is conjoined with the lack of depth that makes a person shallow.

If you think about it a person lacking a moral compass as I've discussed in past articles is someone that really can care less what you think and is intellectually on par with you.  I suppose they don't have to be.  There are rapist and killers and thieves out there that ...   more »