Taking Drugs

Steve Vai - For the Love of God


I've been watching this Steve Rai video every day since it was sent to me by a friend (thanks Leila!). I'm totally into it and connected, and then the part comes with Hitler and I think I hold my breath until Vai falls down at the end and explodes up again off of his feet. And I think of how being a teacher is like being a musician.

There is so much wisdom existing in the world from so many different sources, yet we as parents and teachers are teaching so many people to destroy versus create. And it makes me think that there are no "bad" people, just those hurt and disillusioned that have been taught to fight back by fighting against and trying to destroy his fellow man.

After I separated from my second wife, I was so disillusioned with man and God that I gave her everything. I wanted to start over with nothing, and make sure I could trust that everything I had in my life was honest and real.

This meant that I had to ride a bicycle to work. Teaching at an inner city school meant I had to travel through some very bad neighborhoods. In the morning there were no problems. People left me alone, looking at me curiously, and some even smiling at the oddity of a white guy riding his bicycle past them.

Later that afternoon or evening, if I stayed late to help a student, these very same people would either run out and try to attack me or send their dogs to do it. The only thing different was that they were now drugged up.

Thinking about it now makes me laugh as I feel I was among zombies trying to kill me from the movie "Shawn of The Dead".

Why were these people trying to hurt me? Were they evil, non Christian people? No, I found out many of them attended church with the same students I taught. So they had Jesus in them.

Was it because they were black and I was white? The reason has to be because of their color and that's just how "they" are. No, one of my godsons is black and I was the best man at his parents' wedding.

Ah, it has to be because they were poor. We all know money solves everything. Poor people are bad, black or white. No, 90% of the big lottery winners are broke again within 3 years. And my godson and his father who asked me to be his best man are from a terrible part of Cleveland, Ohio. I would visit a lot and sometimes thought I was going to die just driving into the neighborhood.

NO! - it was the drugs they took - the choices they made. That did it, turning them from normal people into crazy angry zombies (I'm doing Brad Pitt's mentally imbalanced character from the movie, "12 Monkeys" as I'm saying this - well, not "right" now because I'm typing - but as I thought it I was literally standing up and imitating him by flailing my arms and fingers wildly in the air as this realization came to me).

Drifting back to the Steve Vai video, I think this applies to all of mankind. The "bad" things we do are largely due to the choices of thought we make and the drugs we take, which can come in so many different forms.

We all wake up to a brand new day, a brand new life, a brand new opportunity to create a more beautiful and better life. Yet some of us take drugs, sometimes every day, and not just the illegal kind.

They can be doctor-prescribed. Drugs that we believe we "need", and maybe actually do, but still diminish our thoughts.

They can the drug of one negative thought after another, overwhelming the one or two positive thoughts we had to start the day, and destroying our day.

All I know is if we're going to take drugs, let's take the ones that get us REALLY high:

- Truly POSITIVE thoughts that fill us with positive feelings. The more of this drug we take the higher we get. This drug should be taken in massive amounts all throughout the day and right before going to bed.

- LOVE.....The BEST drug I know. FEEL the love you do have in your life, and get high from it. I wasn't able to do this until I learned to stop injecting myself with the depressant of focusing on the lack of love. Now, I inject myself with the liquid love of my children.

- The drug of ecstasy is also so very potent. But instead of seeking it artificially from a pill, feel it come from the animal spirit within, and let it slowly fill your soul until your cells are literally vibrating with ECSTATIC LIFE. Then express it how it feels best to you. Do what truly thrills your soul and fulfills and fascinates your spirit!

- I've experienced both the sunrise and sunset of the Grand Canyon. I can't imagine heroin or cocaine or even acid being able to create the same explosion of brilliance inside my soul. And this drug has heightened my life, versus diminished and destroyed it.

Death IS coming for me. I'm not only determined to live each moment I have until that time, but live it as high as possible, taking the drugs of the gods and getting naturally high, and not unnaturally off the drugs of man.

And when the Grim Reaper beckons me, I want him throwing off his hood and raising his bleach-white bony hands in a big high-five, saying, "Holy Heavens dude. You rock! Come on. There are some people that saw that motorcycle ride and have been waiting to meet you ever since!"