A Holy Pilgrimage, and Reminiscing about Music

This past weekend I went to Seattle, the birthplace of two of my greatest loves - grunge and Starbucks. My friend and I actually went to the Pike Place Starbucks, the first Starbucks coffeehouse to be opened, long after the Starbucks roasting company was bought out. Of course there was a plethora of Pike Place exclusive merchandise thingies to buy, and I did indeed succumb to the siren call of the exclusive Starbucks card.

While we are on the subject of siren calls...

"Music is what I always turn to when I’m feeling a certain way. It’s my reason for everything."

-- Josh Groban Musician.

I love the versatility of music. I have my happy-yay music, and my I-hate-the-world-and-want-to-die music. Sometimes, but not too often, one song can fill each of those places in my heart. Two perfect examples being "Blessed Be the Name of the Lord" (I don't care if I've just alienated my entire audience with my churchiness. My blog, my rules!), and oddly enough, "Coming Undone" by Korn. There is also a grey area, filled by songs like "Maxwell's Silver Hammer". It has a very happy sound to it until one hears the lyrics and discovers it's about a mass murdering psycho. I'm innocent! The Beatles made me do it!

Music, much like the sense of smell, has the ability to bring me back to an important moment that I heard a certain song. It's not always the first time I'd heard it, but songs seem to be attached to feelings. Darren Hayes's "Random Blinking Light" always makes me think of snow, because I was listening to it when I was walking home from my shift at Starbucks and it had just started to snow. The street lights lit everything up with an artificial orange glow, and I was sipping at my Venti peppermint green tea. It really was a beautiful moment. Another such song is the remixed version of "Come What May" from the Moulin Rouge soundtrack. That one always takes me back to dawn, and walking down the hill from my parents' house to my ex's work which was just at the bottom of the hill, on my way to school. We were more or less together then, and either way I was so utterly in love. I also relate Michael W Smith's entire album Live the Life to my ex. We were going to elope (not a word of a lie!), and he called me from just up the street and said that he couldn't. My heart shattered. I don't think I have ever cried so hard as I did in those few hours. It's not very fun being told by the man you would die for that he won't marry you, and then have Michael W Smith tell you that you've never been unloved. I don't think I'll ever know which made me cry more.

Smooth, With a Capital "Smoo"

I must appologize for being late with today's post. I had the option of going home and doing homework after a bunch of friends went out for dinner or I could have watched 6 episodes of Red Dwarf at a friend's. Sorry guys, the BBC wins every time.

This quote is brought to you by my homemade almond misto and treasured ceramic Starbucks mug that looks like the paper ones they have in the stores. It's killing me that the eggnog shipments are in and I have not yet had a chai-eggnog latte.

"You can see deeply into a tangled forest if you peer closely."

Mike Kershnar Artist and cofounder of Elemental Awareness, a charitable organization that works with youth.

If taken literally, this is a bold lie. If you peer deeply into a tangled forest, you are more likely to get poked in the eye by a tree branch than to see deeply into said forest. If the forest is taken as a metaphor for life and tricky situations, it's possibly useful advice.

I have a habit of panicking when confronted with something new or stressful, and I can only focus on my inability to complete the task before me. This only exacerbates my anxiety, until I am reduced to a quivering blob of insecurity whimpering in the fetal position on the floor. This of course could be avoided if I were to calmly take a closer look at my situation and figure out how to deal with whatever is causing me stress. If I were to look closely at the situation, I'd probably see some obvious answer that I'd have missed because I was busy trying not to explode.

Life and Death

In the end we’re all the same.

-- Ben Kweller, rock musician

Well, I guess this depends on your views about the afterlife if indeed there is one. Heaven, Nirvana, worm food, somebody's gonna be right and if the truth is that there is nothing then nobody is going to know. Weird, eh?

While equality in death is debatable, it shouldn't be that way in life. We're all people, and it doesn't make sense that we've divided the world into "Us" and "Them" (Pink Floyd, anyone?). We all have the same basic drives. We want food, shelter, clothing, companionship, and freedom. It all comes down to these things, no matter who you are.


We don't need to wait until we die to be the same. Even with the wide array of personalities out there, at the heart of it, we're all the same now.

"In three decades of polling, I’ve found that while individuals make mistakes in judgment, America as a whole rarely does. A collective wisdom emerges from a poll or vote that is far greater than the sum of its parts."

-- John Zogby Pollster, president and CEO of Zogby International.

This guy is kidding, right?

Well, I suppose one one level it's true. "America" doesn't make mistakes. It's a country, a benign entity incapable of conscious thought. And when someone says something such as, "America doesn't make mistakes" I'd assume one was referring to those at the head of the American government, representing the American populace. And yes, America has made some pretty damn stupid mistakes in judgement. Just mention Iraq and weapons of mass destruction in the same sentence and see who doesn't snicker.

Dinner is Served!

"With all the food leaving our kitchens each night, I’m still astonished that this country has a hunger problem. There are hungry people in every community who cannot afford food. While I can’t help every family, I can start by helping one."
-- Tom Douglas Chef and author.

I try not to carry cash with me when I go downtown. Too many people ask me to give it to them, and then the next person comes along and I have to say, "Sorry, I gave all my money to that guy." That, and I do not feel comfortable supporting someone's drug habit. Now I know not all street people are on drugs, but many are. This is a different issue. Instead, I carry my debit card. Provided my account balance is somewhere in the realm of ten bucks, I have no problem buying someone some dinner.

But that's not enough. You can teach a man to fish to feed himself, but who owns the pond? Poverty goes deeper than a single meal can solve.

I don't propose that I have the answers. I have no idea how we're supposed to fix the hunger problem. And I know that I cannot fix it with one Big Mac.

But hey, it's a start!

Have you noticed that dogs are the new kids? You take a walk with your kid and your dog, but nobody says, “What a cute kid!” Instead they say, “What a cute dog! What’s his name? Is he a rescue?” Maybe if I put a collar and leash on my kid someone will notice her.
-- Judy Gruen Humorist and author of The Women’s Daily Irony Supplement.

Perhaps in this age of pedophiles running rampant, not mentioning the cuteness of someone's child is more of a personal safety mechanism than sheer rudeness. Of course the likes of Paris Hilton have made "small yappy-type" dogs that fit in handbags all the rage. Also, nobody cares if you name your dog something ridiculous like Apple or Moon Unit.

Twinkle, Twinkle Under a Bushel

"All the darkness of the world cannot extinguish the light of a small candle."
-- Reza Deghati Photographer, humanitarian and National Geographic Fellow.

Poetic, isn't it? If anything, darkness encourages the light. We don't usually use candles in rooms with electric lights switched on. They're reserved for quieter, darker, more intimate moments. Nobody goes on a candle-lit lunch date.

I can't help but hum to myself that old Sunday school song, "This Little Light of Mine". That's the spirit Deghati touches on. Nothing can stop the light that shines out of you, whatever that light may be. A light will shine in the darkness, if it's not hidden under a bushel. Well, even then light's probably going to sneak out through the cracks, but the general idea is that light shines strongest unimpeded by things that would block it. It does little good if it's too dim to allow one to see anything.

And for today's depressing thought:

While darkness cannot defeat light, space and time can. Sure we see stars burning billions of miles (or kilometres - whatever!) away, but these are massive orbs of flaming gas - not your commonplace dollar store votives. Even then, there is so much that we cannot see; the vastness of our universe is simply too great.