INK (It's Not Kool)

I was watching Nightline this evening and I heard yet another tragic story about a youngster taking their own life because of being bullied.
As I listened, I was reminded that death has hit home for me in this way as well. My wife took her life two years ago. I listened and I cried and I sobbed, it just does not make sense to me why the practice of bullying seems to be cool thing to so many people.
Like many, I've had my share of being pushed around when I was young, but I learned to fight back, and as I got older I learned to do this with my words rather than my fists. Today I feel like I can handle most situations where I feel intimadated. A firm hold of my faith has been one way to deal with this.
The problem is that for many of our young people, they don't have these coping mechanisms. So I'm proposing a possible solution: I am asking every musician young, old, famous, not famous to help me to start a campaign to put and end to this practice.So many youngsters look up to us in the music world, and I feel as though we have the power to help this come about.
I will be petitioning all musicians to write songs about it or when we do our shows to address this issue.
We have seen how music has helped in all times of strife, and this time is no different. In fact it is epidemic.
We must stand together with our young people and show them that we take their cries seriously. When they take their lives it hurts us too.If you follow Twiter the hashtag will be #INK (It's Not Kool). If you follow Facebook or any other media, please pass the word to to all musicians.
It is beyond time to end this war against our children, Stand up for them. Life has enough challenges on its own without people pushing each other around. You may think it's fun but believe me, it's not kool.

First Comes Love

When I was a kid, if you wanted to embarass a fella (especially if he was trying hard to be macho and cool...), you would kill him with the following lines: "Charlie and so and so sittin' in tree, k i s s i n g, first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes Charlie with a baby carriage."
That line would completely destroy your cool; not that I was per se' but I was trying to appear that way.
Now, as an adult, I've come to realize that being cool is not all that it's cracked up to be, but that line "first comes love,' really has a deeper meaning.
What I've learned from that venerable line is that in order to really truly become good or great at what you want in life, you must learn to have a deep seeded love for it.
You can take pretty much any example and see the point of what I'm saying...let's look at Derek Jeter of the Yankees. You know that when he shows up at the ballpark he is ready for business. The team may lose, he may even be a contributor to that loss, but you will know that he is in it to win it.
Another example is cellist, Yo Yo Ma; there has never been a time when Ive seen him perform that I didn't want to go home and throw away my instrument; he just sets the bar so high, that you know as a musician, you'd better get your game face on, or give up (luckily, I'm not giving up...)
There are so many ways for you to see the point here.
It is imperative that if you strive to be in the music biz, in whatever capacity, that you give it your all, practice hard day in and day out, utilize your memory to the best of your ability, which will aid in helping you to become great. Have some humility, which goes a long way to aid your cause. Do not get embarrassed because you love something, as it may be just the uniqueness that you need to set you apart from the pack.
Cast you fate to the wind, plow forward throught the storm and find your rainbow.
Life is hard enough without your realizing that you are worthy enough to find your happiness, to achieve your dreams or to find fulfilment, but just remember that in order to get there, first comes love.

I'm really sorry that I've been away for so long, I've been a little depressed the last few months (it's a combination of many things), but I still want to share my thoughts with you because I do care...and I always will. Thank you all for all the love that you send, it does reach me.

Support Live music today tomorrow and always.
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