Hello, all, and What’s Up!
DISCLAIMER: I just came home from a cool experience working with some MCs and artists for a show I’m going to do here in Sacramento in June. I’m only saying this because I got a bit of that creative buzz on me as I write. I hope this post makes sense and does the subject matter justice, and that I don’t appear in some way like a douchy idiot. I don’t know why I would, but the fact is, I have a reputation to maintain at this point… my blog is one day old and has readers (well, a few at least so far… thanks friends and family). So I gotta make sure this post is up to par! Okay, sorry, I just slapped myself. Enough about me rambling about nonsense…
I want to take a bit of time right now to honor the man who taught me who I am, and a huge creative inspiration of mine: My Dad. It’s his birthday today, and as he is currently on a meditation retreat, I am unable to say Happy Birthday to him directly, so I thought I would do it here (or maybe it’s just the perfect pretext to write a new blog post about relationships with parents, which I definitely think is a big factor in one’s personal happiness).
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD! I LOVE YOU
There was a time when I would have said those words but… begrudgingly… as in, “holding a grudge”-ingly. Because for a long time, I think I did hold a grudge against my dad. It’s been awhile now since I let go of childish blaming of my dad, and the turning point when I finally did let it go was pivotal in my growth as a man. I recall the freedom I felt once I finally buried the hatchet. Suddenly I no longer blamed him for anything.* It was awesome. From then on, my life was on my own shoulders.
So tonight as I write I would like to acknowledge my dad. Dad, thanks for being in my life, thanks for teaching me that it’s okay to be solitary, thanks for teaching me that it’s okay to be rough around the edges… and by the way, thanks for inspiring me to want to play piano, and showing me that it’s okay to be a creative artist on that thing, and basically, thanks for teaching me that I don’t have to give a fuck what the world thinks… I can just be me. Because that’s what I have seen you do all my life. Thanks for being my friend. Thanks for taking me to see Return of the Jedi when I was three years old. And thanks for honoring me by being my music student as well for the past several years, it is a privilege to work with you.
Thank you Dad!** Happy birthday!
*I have to take a moment to acknowledge a program that I participated in that really gave me help in getting over my own shit with my dad. It is called the Sterling Men’s Weekend, a program I was involved with for several years awhile back and learned of valuable lessons about life, leadership, and being a man.
** I wrote a song about the process I went through around my dad, also called “Thank You Dad”… which I think is a pretty bad ass song (in full disclosure, and at the risk of sounding like a total douche bag, I haven’t released the song yet, probably due to my aforementioned perfectionism problem… maybe writing this blog will help me get over that.)