So, you think they are dead?

Tupac and Biggie are smoking the finest dried hemp leaves from pipes constructed of cork and bamboo while Hendrix and Hitler form a poetically volatile psychedelic groove juice that ironically pulls an equilibrium within Morison's mind of his not quite intoxicated but not entirely liberated solidarity. Fuck it, everyone ripped those bamboo cork bongs and is tripped out to the point where cyanide can't even enforce euthanasia. Dip sticks and wristwatches, this island is in the fucking sky!

What Makes Us Who We Are?

            Martin Luther King Jr. once had a dream, Muhammad Ali floated like a butterfly and stung like a bee, Einstein developed the theory of relativity, Benjamin Franklin found the key with static electricity. Gandhi once said, “A nation’s culture resides in the hearts and in the souls of it’s people” (2002). Who we are is what we characterize to ourselves and through our self-expression is how we can provide benefit to our society. Flying down the highway on a two-wheeled representation of freedom constructed from grease and chrome. Nothing on my mind but nothing is never what it seems. The notes of a guitar are screaming from my fingertips through the amplifiers designed by the gods of rock and roll. The melodies echo from my garage through the empty streets of suburbia, I am the canvas and these are the brush strokes that construct my interpersonal being. I live for the moments that make me feel alive, the moments symbolized by the wings inked on my arm.  We are all independent beings capable of thinking for ourselves and designing who we are and one of the most important factors to this is how we express ourselves. Whether being written, drawn, or spoken, self-expression is an essential aspect to humanity because it defines independence and helps establish the society that we thrive in daily.
            The question that is being positioned isn’t if we should incorporate self-expression into our lives. It isn’t about uplifting our limitations and influencing the possibility of absolution through the ways we live. The real question is what our limitations are, where are we positioned today in our influential factors and what borders us from our achievements. We have a message playing to our imagination of individuality and self-justification. The military influences the motto of “an army of one” yet we all shave our heads and are force to react like a slave towards this fictional Uncle Sam. The mixed messages we get from the world are that we are all independently one unit. We work together for the common good, preordain for a cycle of life no different than what our fore fathers have intended us to have. Through school, work, the government, and the military we are trained to all have a common ground, to be the same in unity with each other. We are told that without this conformity we influence anti-unity within our social group. In direct opposition, I place one thought on our minds about this scheme, a proposal that can in fact defy this old lie incorporated into our brainwashed minds. Through our self-expression we induce a uniformed harmony within society that increases glee and proactive sovereignty that benefits the world around us.  
            Neal Krause did a survey on self-expression and how it directly affects our depression (Krause). In this nationwide survey he was able to determine that by utilizing our talents and expressing ourselves throughout our lifetime we can reduce depression. Knowing that forms of expressing ourselves to each other and even our self helps us reduce depression shows that there is a necessity for this. From my personal experience of creativity I have notice that I am more productive and proactive with everything else I do. One extremity that has been sought since the beginning of external thought is finding a meaning to life. There are many interpretations on the final answer to this but it can be generalized into one subject, our internal purpose for belonging. Although we have many different and unique things that keep us focused on this mental survival, like family, friends, religion, and society, we can all find a presence of meaning within ourselves. Through actions of self-expression we can help guide ourselves towards this purpose we all have within us, this purpose that keeps us focused on all the tomorrows that are to come in our life ahead.
            Another reason a form of creativity is important to us is because it influences learning and output better chance for success. Larry Livingston wrote an article called “Teaching Creativity in Higher Education” and within the article it explains that creativity is important in unifying knowledge and self-esteem (Livingston). Through these actions of using your own talents and abilities to learn is essential because it gives us the confidence in ourselves that how we piece together ideas is proactive in increasing our knowledge of things we are yet to understand. Incorporating creativity in our learning helps provide what people need to become future leaders of our world that we govern and it also provides benefit to our predecessors by helping us become better teachers in the future.
            In the military, school, and work there are roles in which we must play. The military has us all cut our hair the same, dress the same, and act the same to form this united group of protectors for our nation. Schools influence conformity through codes of verbal conduct, dress code, and in more drastic measures uniformed clothing undifferentiated from each other’s. Work integrates a little of both on a common ground to influence unity and teamwork. The biggest problems we face in society are the things that tear us from one another. Self-expression can influence anti-unity through how we interact with appearance and vocalization. The one quote that has rang though the heads of American citizens for hundreds of years is “united we stand, divided we fall” (Furtwangler) Without this conformity in our society we struggle in providing protection towards the future of our nation.
            The problem with conformity is that it actually does not contribute to unity. No one in the world is exactly the same as another person; we all have an essence of individuality within us. Compliant to the methods imposed on us to act, talk, and react the same just causes barriers in acceptance and compatibility with the unique talents we all have to share. In the song ‘Sound of Silence’ by Simon and Garfunkel it explains that our silence is destructive towards building a social structure. We all have a voice and an opinion and should be expressing it to help influence unity rather than forcing ourselves to a mundane lifestyle of servitude to the forces we have let take control of us.
            Variety of self-expression in the ways we talk, walk, and how we compose ourselves does not divide our unity at all; it enhances our unity.  We don’t need to all act the same and dress the same to keep us inline with each other, the more we express ourselves the more we understand each others views and opinions in the world we live in. We boost our overall happiness with our internal and external thought and apply benefit to the ones around us. We improve our leadership skills and apply stronger learning abilities with our creativity; it’s a necessity of life, a prerequisite for living. The questions I leave here today with are what will help us continue to grow as humans with the exertion of life’s disadvantages. What makes you who you truly are? What do you have to offer for yourself and the world? Who are you?

Hemispheric Heart Endeavors

Right brain, left brain
Artistically articulate and logically sane
You're my canvas and I'm your calculator
Forming the north and south of Earth's equator
Together forever, this is clever
A hemispheric heart endeavor

Delicate Shades in The Shadow of a Moonlit Night

I’m just chillin’

You know, pretending like I’ve got nothing better to do other than just staying up late throwing the middle finger at the hand of time. I just need to clear my mind, write a couple words that ease my eyes into a dream. It’s crazy how dreams keep me up just as much as dreams can keep me asleep.  I truly am a daydream believe, poetic thinker. As I lose my mind to the clouds, the dreary grey gloom thickens the carbon cycle of my thoughts and aspirations. For some reason, reasons I’ve lost myself in, I can never shake the feeling that there is a place for me in this world. A feeling that there are big things for me that I can’t even imagine.  I’m a wondering star in orbit around the Earth, waiting for someone to come along and explain that the Moon shines brighter than the Sun. There are a thousand places I would much rather be right now than where I’ve found myself stuck in. I’m sure I would say that about any place I were to go but I love to lie to myself and say that this isn’t true. My biggest regret in my life is not spending more time with the people who really control the pound of my heart. The ones that motivate me without even trying. The people that I write songs about without even realizing the songs were written about them. The ones who I tell I love them without a hesitant tongue, or a second thought. The ones I consider family despite blood relations. You might be one of these people who has made such an impact on my life, some of you living and some of you dead. 

This is me chillin’

Oiling the rusty gears in my brain, reminding myself exactly what love and life really means to me. I can’t believe how fast the golden days fade and the static prevails over the course of letting go and moving on. Here I am, throwing my other middle finger at the other hand of time. Minutes then hours respectively.

Life is just a tangled game we web. 

Respectively and retrospectively,

Daniel Ward

Pharmaceutical Kings

Pharmaceutical kings

Prolific prophecies of alchemistic human beings

Divinity, psilocybin serenity

Psilocin hallucinogenic property

Propriety, everything I believe in is inside of me

Getting down. Getting ill. Getting high. Getting fly.

I'm living for love like you're living for a benji to get by

I'm a retroactive renegade, pinless hand granade

A subatomic warhead like Einstein gave, digging a hole for this bottomless grave

You send nightmares, shooting chills down my spine

I take a shot of Cola because my Coke only comes in lines

Schizophrenic, metaphoric, melatosis, self-hypnosis

Concocting plots and ploys for intellectual overdoses

Phallic middle fingers are ironic birds, rhythmatically making up words

Because definitions are meaningless,

Dy-tonal dedication dynamically dilated dis-positional bliss

Quoting ancient philosophers as if their words were my own

Aristotle Aeropostale, getting Buddha belly flopped straight to the dome

Trying to find unity with the inner and outer me, peacefully

Trying to find this ambiguity... called home

But still,

Be still my heart

Dittoed the wind gently whisper hypnotical hymns of free flowing fallasaic art

Suffering succotash, I build myself up because you always pull me apart

No matter how hard I try to be a simple man, I will always be a complex kid.

I find it warm to experience nostalgic music. I’m currently listening to The Blue Album by Weezer and yeah, this album has always done this to me. I remember when I first listened to the album and I remember all the feelings that came along with it. It was back when music seemed ‘new’ to me, I would sit with my eyes closed for hours on end with a song on repeat just so I would memorize every single lyric, line, and lick. The first time I heard ‘Only In Dreams’ I couldn’t express the emotions that overcame me, the passion I felt for life and love. This album is a reminder of who I once was and seem to always forget about. Music isn’t my life; it’s my soul and breath.

Music, to me, goes beyond simple words on a blog that no one will read. I once thought it was weird that I used music to narrate my life until I realized that music is simply a narration of life. Once I formulated this ideal is when I transformed myself into a living passion for creation. I started writing song after song after song, spilling my guts out in every meaningless rhyme and every dissident progression. Writing lyrics became the only way I was able to express my truest feelings.

My creativity started here, like I’m doing this very second. Listening to songs that cause such euphoric sensations that make me feel better than any drug I can pump into my blood and lungs. Stay golden Daniel, you will find your place in this beautiful world you wrap yourself in. One day, years from now, you will look back and know that if there is anything you accomplished in this world it's that you’ve found this fire inside that can never get enough fuel. Even though you feel out of place right now and it seems like you are looking up when your eyes are pointed down, when you’re feeling so lonely that the slightest whisper feels like an over exertion of energy, just remember that you make an impact on more people and things than you think. Sit here and tell yourself that no one is listening, or reading, to what you have to say so just write to yourself. No one will understand how beautiful of a person you have become because no one will take the time. Why am I saying this? Why am I vocalizing to a deaf crowed? I try to lie to myself and say that I’m vocalizing to a mute crowd and they are listening better than anyone who has ever said more than two words to me. Am I making up imaginary friends or am I speaking in the harmonic key of my songs? My small contribution of thoughtful expression might be an almost completely fruitless impact on the world but if I can motivate just one breath out of someone I will look back at my life and know that the breath was worth a lifetime.

Take a breath,

Daniel Ward

College is for hipsters

Intelligent and educated are not the same thing. You will spend thousands of dollars and countless hours over four years just to get a piece of paper given to you by a bunch of people who think they are smarter and more sophisticated than most of the population in the world. You know your life is meaningless but you have too much pride in yourself and your family to admit the shame in the world you wrap yourself in. Adequacy is internal and the life you're living is just a life of fear. Screw social norms and come at terms with perception. Why am I going to school again?

The New Year

     I miss the days when I use to write for people that would actually care about what I had to say. Expressing myself in ways that could help influence and motivate people. Well, this is it. I'm starting it again for the first time in years. Welcome to my blog, the world that I am releasing from my mind onto the literate people that care enough to spend five or ten minutes every few days to see what my head is wrapped around.

     This is a new year, a fresh start to something that last year couldn't accomplish. I used to always think retrogression is the purest form of perfection, obtaining the blissful feelings that the past has given. Things are changing, we are getting older and experiencing things that we didn't know existed before. Dwelling on the past is over because we have the future at our grasp. It's a huge world out there full of great friends we are yet to know and great experiences we are yet to feel. Goodbye yesterday, tomorrow is coming in full gear. Let's do this.

Peace and Love,

Daniel Ward