Music and Lyrics

Dear Reader, Have you ever heard the song "Letter to Me" by Brad Paisley? It elaborates on an interesting idea of writing to a younger version of himself. What would you write to yourself at a younger age? I have often thought about time travel and changing the past and have discovered a few things. First of all, if something in the past is changed, the entire future is altered. For example, if you write a letter to yourself at the age of 18 with instructions to not participate in a certain activity, your memory of that activity is erased and the opportunities and lessons learned from the experience are lost, perhaps never to be returned. That means that if it were possible to change the past, you could only change one thing about it. If you want to know more about this concept, I suggest that you watch the Back to the Future trilogy (1985). However, if we ignore this first discovery, it is fun to think about what might have been if we did things differently. How would ...

Dear Reader, An interesting thought that has been on my mind this week has to do with loving interactions. Funny preface to this thought: yes, it is mostly provoked by watching a couple episodes of the The Walking Dead . A common theme in this television series to lose loved ones. After all, it is about a post-apocalyptic world full of zombies that try to eat every living thing they can get their hands on. There has been a countless number of dead people on the show and almost as many loved ones that mourn the loss of those people. However, I want to focus on something that has also happened several times on the show. Many people have watched their loved ones turn into zombies, which is almost more difficult than losing them to death. Imagine this scenario: your father turns into a mindless corpse that you can still see, touch and smell (probably a really bad smell, depending on how long he has been a zombie). However, it is not your father. It is your father's body, but his mi...

Dear Reader, To be clear right up front, this blog post is not a response to any one experience or publication. The ideas I want to express have bounced around in my head for a while. Today they have suddenly become clearer, although they are still not perfectly coming out here. I hope you can understand the meaning of these declarations, as they are very significant in my life and the life of those around me. It is highly likely that they are significant in your life as well. There are a couple of things I want to clarify about sexuality. Many times I have deeply discussed topics of homosexuality, same-sex attraction, infidelity, pornography, etc. Today I want to clarify the difference between a few of these terms. Apparently some of them have come to be synonyms to a lot of people. They are not the same thing. Homosexuality : Did you notice the word 'sex' in that word? Homosexuality is the sexual side of being attracted to another member of the same gender. Same-sex A...

Dear Reader, Happy Birthday to one of my best friends! Ok, it was his birthday yesterday and I was incredibly busy all day, but he is very important so he still needs recognition. Tyler, my roommate for over a year now, is one of my best friends and we will be friends for life. It is pretty incredible how similar our opinions are on different topics of life. Let me tell you a little about how marvelous Tyler is. We have lived together for over a year and have never had a serious fight. Obviously we have had disagreements, but Tyler is so relaxed and easy-going that we have never even come close to being mad at each other. That takes talent when living with me. Tyler is also one of the smartest people I have ever met, both in books smarts and street smarts. He graduated from Brigham Young University with a degree in Neuroscience. He is amazing with numbers. For heaven's sake, we discuss GMAT math questions together. Pretty cool, right? He is also very wise when it comes to ...

Dear Reader, I apologize for not writing in awhile. I can give a million excuses, but there is a great explanation of excuses. Someone once said that excuses are like armpits; everyone has at least a couple and they all stink. In other words, you don't really want to share them. However, there will be at least one reason for being so busy mentioned here. Her name is Lauren. Isn't she gorgeous? Today we celebrate Lauren. It is her birthday! We won't disclose how old she is today...just another year older and wiser. That phrase is not just a cliche this time. I happen to know that she has become another year older and wiser. As one of my best friends, we have learned a lot about one another and even more about ourselves.  For your information as a reader, I will share a little about why Lauren is amazing. Lauren can make anyone smile. I'm not joking. Every person I have ever seen her talk to has smiled at one point or another during their time together. Alway...