Words and Music

For as long as I can remember, English has never been my strong subject. I battled through primary school trying my hardest to be able to read as well as everyone else, to write as neatly as my old sister or be able to understand how words on a piece of paper have revolutionised a culture. Look at the works of William Shakespeare for example.
Some of my youngest memories go back to reading hour in primary school, everyone reaching in their book-bags for something inspiring whilst I normally took the time to have a nap or be a ‘pain-in-the-backside’ for the teacher. I regret this. Yet at the same time I believe finding your own way into a love for literature is more rewarding. Discovering your own interests is far more important than being pushed into something from a young age. Or any age to be honest. That’s my opinion.

Away from the reading side of things, the writing was never my strong suit either. I had extra teaching support and always struggled with grammar, verbs, nouns, sentence structure and so forth. Something I did find interesting from a young age however, was music. Being aware of how a melody without lyrics could create an emotion, how a chord progression and a rhythm could inspire. This could have been subconsciously created by my Dad. I remember every Saturday and Sunday morning he would play his music collection. Everything from Genesis to Bruce Springsteen. My dad likes to think he is open to all music but it seems to be that if there isn’t a guitar in the song, he isn’t interested. He’d definitely hate me for pointing that out.
As my interest in music developed, I developed. I grew up. The interest turned more into a passion. This passion is something I hold today, stronger than ever, the desire to expand my knowledge. As my interest into the world of music expanded, I grew an intellectual interest into literature for the first time in my life. Starting with artists such as Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen slowly led into more such as Nirvana, Foo Fighters and Machine Head. All of these being a wide range in regards to musical genre, yet they all had one thing in common, something I picked up on quickly, poetry. Not all lyrics in songs rhyme, neither do poems. Song structures and poetic structures run simultaneously. My music taste grew, my studies into lyrical structure expanded, I grew an interest into poetry.

Whilst all this was going on, I wrote my own music, my own lyrics, my own poems. These artists inspired me, they still do today, the more I learnt the better I wanted to be as a song writer. The more I looked into poetry, the more I realised that a great deal of poems and songs are based upon a story, an experience or a historical event. This eventually pushed my younger, adventurous self towards books. The imaginations of many authors that I envy, the events of history that I find hard to believe, and how they have changed society and cultures as we know them today. The more music I listened to, the more poems I read, the more stories I learnt about, the more history I took onboard. It was a dramatically encouraging roll-on effect.

To me words can change everything, one sentence can inspire a generation. Similar to the effects of one song. Look at Bob Dylan’s ‘Blowing in the Wind’, and how it affected the Civil Rights Movement. How Martin Luther King’s speech opened people’s eyes (in a metaphorical sense, not literally).
I like to think my own music can inspire others. Besides everything, they’re my own views after all, my own emotions and my own experiences being expressed. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I’m not one to talk about my feelings. Having a guitar in my hands and a notepad in front of me helps me express a great deal. Writing music keeps me sane. Yet sometimes it drives me insane when it doesn’t come together smoothly. That frustration will be contained and left unheard of for now.

No matter who you are, where you’re from, where you are now, who you know, or your occupation, don’t become detached from the power of words. The power of music. The evolution of these topics combined together. A story isn’t a story unless it’s told to the masses.

Religion, Research and Readings

As I sit here, writing yet another post towards this blog I’m taking time to focus and reflect on thoughts I’ve been presented with in the past. I’m currently sitting in a library, the strong smell of paper between book covers, both old and new. A gigantic window to my left hand side. The sun is trying its hardest to fight off the grey clouds and show it’s face. The wind is howling, it’s a strong wind today. The Union Jack flag stands high and mighty in the remembrance garden, it’s tough material face is rapidly blowing. People are walking past, oblivious of the information to be found inside this magnificent building. All these facts, imaginative stories, informative papers, inspiration, I feel like I’m inside Stephen Fry’s mind.

My reason being here is simple, it’s just up the road from my house. There is more to this decision than the obvious. It’s quiet here, even though it’s easily within walking distance from my desk at home, I feel like I transform to another dimension or world when I walk through the automatic doors and enter this paradise. The peacefulness is inspiring, not to mention the knowledge I can find here. The inspiration in here is inspiring this post. This post might hopefully inspire you.

On the way here I had a thought, as many of us do every second of every day. Walking on at a steady pace, the word’s of Bob Dylan in my head as I’d just left my record player, taking in my surroundings and trying to plan out what I wanted to do today. Making the most of life is a challenge, but somebody once told me, “Every day could be your last, make the most of it”. Why sit and home staring at a TV when I could be out expressing my mind, taking onboard more information from a wide range of books? The deeper I get into understanding my own mind and the reason behind this post, the stronger the wind is blowing outside the window. Bob Dylan carries on to serenade me through my headphones.

For many years I’ve had a strong interest in Religion, I passionately believe that a religion is an individuals personal belief and choice, not something for others to challenge or judge. I’ve spent many hours reading books on Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism. I’ve had many conversations with people from different religions about their own beliefs. I feel that you can be religious without following a religious script word-for-word. It’s the way of life that makes somebody religious, putting their faith and trust in a higher consciousness, belief in a ‘creator’ or bettering themselves by following guidelines to happiness.
I’m not a one-faith religious person myself, but it interests me, the media try to convince us that Islam is bad, most of these journalists have never even read the Qur’an or had a deep inspiring conversation with a Muslim. No religion is “bad”, there is good and bad in all aspects of our society. One persons actions shouldn’t form a preconception or judgment of everyone else.
Try not to be so shallow minded to stereotype a religion or a race under misguided opinions! The thought of people doing this angers me to my core.
Following my religious interests, Buddhism has always stood out to me. The beliefs relate to what I was once told (as mentioned above), how to better yourself, and become enlightened to fulfill life to the highest standard. This is something that I’m going to dedicate the next few weeks of my spare time into researching.

I currently have two books sitting next to me in this library, “Widening The Circle of Love” (Dalai Lama and Jeffrey Hopkins) and “The Many Ways to Nirvana” (Dalai Lama and Renuka Singh). I’m going to study these, understand the teachings of the Buddha and values I could change in myself or learn for a wider spiritual consciousness . Who knows? In a few months I could be a converted “Western-Buddhist”. I say “western” in the sense that old Buddhist values have been adopted and adapted to relate to modern societies.

If I had to put all of my ramblings into one dedicated message, or to sum up where my trail of thought has been heading, It would be hard. “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover” comes to mind, however looking deeper into this, It’s the only reason books have covers, so they catches your attention and convince you to read them. “Don’t stereotype a culture based on one or a few peoples actions” could be another way to look at things. Either way, it’s hard to narrow down. I could ramble on for days but nobody has days to read a blog post. I encourage all of you out there to look into religious beliefs and faiths and some point in your life. You don’t need to be religious, or to follow a religion, everybody takes something different from them. Maybe it could inspire you to better your life without having to become an outright Christian, Muslim or Hindu. Now for me to get on with reading my Buddhism teachings.. it’s been a pleasure as always..