I believe....

I believe in family. I believe that music is one of the most potent, powerful drugs. I believe that real, meaningful music has no genre. I believe in relaxing. I believe in Barton Springs, and chillin' out at the green belt with my bros jumping off cliffs into water rather than staying inside. I believe in regimented daily physical exertion of the body. I believe there is nothing more beautiful than natural bouldering over open water while the sun is rising, or any distinct change between light and dark involving our visibility of the sun against water. I believe the mind can do many things, if the conscious will let it. I believe in jamming out and the abilities of myself and my friends. I believe in porch swings and hobbit holes. I believe in descriptive adjectives and the fun in watching the sun come up, to fall asleep while the working world is waking up. I believe in jamming out, and rooms at the Music Lab. I believe in Led Zeppelin, and loving every aspect of my life. I believe kindness has no physical identity, and should be applied to all identities. I believe if SRV were alive today he would be playing shows every Friday and Saturday in my ATX. I believe in the 787 four nine. I believe in participating in pick up games of Ultimate Frisbee, winning, and then jumping in Barton Springs on hot summer months. I believe in playing the guitar until your fingers hurt, and singing until your voice become scratchy and then continuing anyways. I believe in the Earth, Charles Darwin, and intuition. I believe in perseverance, discipline, and diligence, and that camping teaches you much about yourself. I believe in putting two spaces after every sentence. I believe places hold memories, and function over form. I believe in cooking one's own food and making one's own wine. I believe if politicians had to fight in their own wars, alongside their countrymen, there would be less war. I believe the Chicago Cubs will win the World Series next year, Walter Payton will come back to life, and that life would be different if John Lennon were still alive. I believe I can't list all of my beliefs, because some are solitarily personal. I believe that if you wait until the last minute it only takes a minute.

Protest, and what not

What is protest? Protest is a human beings innate desire to attempt to enact a desired change in the world. Protest can come in many forms and fashions; surely everyone has seen or encountered some device of protest, whether viewing it on the television, reading it in the newspaper, or perhaps "live and in person" as the protest is occurring. Most of the more famous protests, however cumbersome, are connoted with some form of violence- whether initiated from the opposition or from the protesters. It seems that once words have lost their effect, the final resort to impose will upon others is with physical force.
But where does protest come from? At its most basic level, it is a motive within an individual who believes that his/her interpretation of some policy, entity, law, rule, or any other captivating agent is better than that of those currently with the jurisdiction to create. It is spawned from an idea to improve a condition facilitated by change.
My favorite example of protest is that of Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhist monk Hòa thượng Thích Quảng Ðức, as I had mention in class but couldn't remember his name. Honestly, though, that's a hard name to remember, and it's nothing close to looking like English. The fact that he could believe in an idea-something completely intangible- enough to willfully give his life for it is humbling.