Going back and reading parts of this blog are like reading past pages of a journal. Maybe not a good thing. I am living in a condo at McGuffy again wondering where I will be living in November. I am in a real life Ground Hog Day movie!
Below is a beautiful poem that I heard the author recite (rap really) a couple years ago at The Bridge in Belmont. I mentioned in an earlier blog but didn't have it to share. So, here it is now...
Class of 2004 I hope that you enjoyed your time in Charlottesville
We started and now we're departin from the top of Carr's Hill
Right down the street from where you eat at Starr Hill Bar and Grille
And you know I've never kicked a rhyme that's been far from ill
So I'm here to speak in a rhyme a last time before we graduate
But even as moms, dads and grads celebrate and congratulate
This rhyme is meant to comment on what I see as the saddest state
Some of us have no love for what we do like a man who's never had date
But even if the task is great, every aspect of what we do should elate and fascinate
But the problem is, people are not passion-nate
We should be pulled like we where magnet weights and gravitate
Like 9.8 m/s square
But some of us are defeated or we just don't care
So to the people who need it I'm gonna be a breath of fresh air
Because you enthusiasm is curbin, you're losin your passion, it's a burden to be workin
You used to be concerned if your work looked good, now you don't care if it does.
So when it comes to work, I'm like Black Eyed Peas askin "Where is the Love?"
And when I ask you, you just get embarrassed and shrug
"But aye, there's the rub"
Every time you feel your heart squeeze passion should pump through your arteries marrow and blood
You're supposed to love architecture
But your eyes are half way closed before they start the lecture
Even if you've got a sharp professor makin his smart conjectures
You're really not gonna care if it's not your heart's pleasure
You gotta have the same type of passion like you lookin for X marks the treasure
Mark my letters, mark my words, mark my phrase
Without passion architecture is just archaic, archives of arches and architraves
You gotta have the same type of fire like an arsonist who plays with sparks that blaze
So I've come to fan the flame and fuel the fire
So that dread and drudgery will never overrule desire
And guess what there'll be days when you'll be tired.
But with passion, at midnight you'll want to burn oil
And it won't be turmoil as soon as you learn toil is useless
Sayin I just gotta produce this, like bad produce is, that's just fruitless.
Remember the words of Confucius
If not I use my talent to, come up here and challenge you
To pick a job you love and you'll never want to take a vacation out in Malibu
Or Aspen, so the question that I'm askin is what's happened to your Passion
Why's it not lastin, why's it like a fad trend, that ends
It's yesterday's news and it's just a has been
We're all just trapped in a system where it's just about the checks gettin cashed in
And I'm not at all anti capitalist
The sole reason that I'm rappin this
Is because I want to ignite your catalyst
So I'm breakin it down like enzymes
Usin quotes within rhymes to cleanse your mind of drudgery and dingy grime
That's the sole reason that these lyrics were wrote
And as I peer into the future years of the periscope, I see that there is hope
Work doesn't have to be an uphill battle like a terraced slope
You can die with out any merits and croak, be extremely poor and perish broke
Take pay at a loss, and still not want a day off like Ferris, nope
With Pasisson I dare you to elope
Cuz you're gonna enter the work force and they're gonna force you to work
And if you had your first choice you'd probably get a divorce from your work
So now I'm here to provide marriage counsel
Before you kiss the bride and I pronounce you
My advice is to pour out passion and every ounce of you.
Because I'm down to my last lifetime, but maybe the rest of you all are only down to two
Maybe you found a few extra lifetimes just lyin around
And so you just picked them up and decided to start tryin them out
And you have eight or nine more times before you actually ly in the ground
Or maybe you're like that of a cat and you've got nine lives
So you don't mind workin mindlessly from nine to five
But you gotta start thinkin with your heart
Cuz like Linkin Park I "designed this rhyme", and I put rhymes in my designs
Because when I work I don't just want it to be about workin from nine to five
That said in mind, I don't want deadlines, I want lines that are alive
So that purpose and passion are the push and the drive that's behind my hard work
Matter of fact it shouldn't be hard work, it should be heartwork
But some of us need implants, man ask Rembrandt did he create works of art or was it just artwork.
So when you job search listen to John Ruskin, put your fee second and start first
With enjoyment in employment
You gotta have a fire a flame fuel,
Without that it's just aimless gruel, frustration like tryin to tame a mule
And if you can't get the school to change, then you've got to change your school-Of thought
And already if there aren't any bought
I'll pay a penny for your thoughts
Plus I'll put in my own two scents
It'll be nothing but prudence that won't be too dense, just some new sense
Because to a lot of us work is just a nuisance
Just a way to pay the due rent
I'll give a dime if you ask and don't want my two scents
How people just work for time and half for a few pence
But you can't just mindlessly draft, you gotta finely craft those blueprints
I'm talkin to you in this tent
Be in pursuit of pleasure purpose to be passionate
You gotta get after it "the pursuit of happiness"
Man I didn't say it Thomas Jefferson's the one who drafted it
And while you draft and sit, you gotta have a fire like the movie Backdraft was lit
So I come to make sure that a match is lit, and I'mma pour some more gas in it
So that your heart burns like you forgot to take your Tagament HB
So take it from me, HB, or should I say BH
When you go to work with your briefcase
You'll be early and you won't wanna be late
You'll work hard for a free rate with no rebates
Even if your boss is a straight up cheapskate
I'm not here to give you a few tips or quote cute quips
But I'm only up here to speak the truth from my lips
To teach you how to have Passion, you know, like the movie flick
About the one who went to the crucifix, betrayed by Judas' kiss
The reason you eat the Eucharist and drink the juice you sip
Because if you let it,love for what you do can play elusive tricks like a fugitive
So for real you're zeal's got to be effusive kid
So I took the words of a Buddhist Confucius, and the life of a man who's Jewish
The same one from the Bible
So that your heart beats with passion like a drum recital
Passion like a man has for his bride yet it's got to be unbridled.
So now I'm rhyme bustin the words of John Ruskin
About how love and work should be kin like a mom and husband
"When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece"
So now I leave you with these words that are neither last or least
Don't work because you have to, just do it because,
Love what you do, and do what you love
-Bernard Hankins
