Right or Wrong

I honestly believe that if all of us would just concentrate on trying to be a better person, the world we live in would become a better place. Instead too often we seem to be trying to disguise the responsibility. Or even worse, point out what others are doing wrong. We are all given a gift of life by some force much greater than us, some people call it god, some evolution, mother nature, heck some even believe the aliens are involved. I am not in the business of telling people what to believe. To me spirituality is a personal thing and it is for you and you alone to explore.

But I am in the business of making you think. And here’s a thing that really gets to me from time to time.  Quoting a book, does not make you a better person. It is your actions that define you. If you are not willing to live the life you preach, then no amount of reading, quoting, posting or accusing others will make you a better person. It is not what we say, but what we do that defines us. You are responsible of you! If you have children, then yeah you are responsible of them as well, until they are old enough to take care of them selves.

I strongly believe that no one has the right to consider themselves in any way better person than anybody else. We all do it all the time, heck I am guilty of it, but deep down I know I am no better than anybody else out there. We are all made of the same flesh and bone, no doubt about it. I am not here to tell you if you are “Right or Wrong,” I am here to tell you that it is all up to you. If you have been given a life, please live it!

That life we have been given is precious. It is your responsibility to make the best of it. If you believe you are a slave of your personal life situation, and that you have no way to make it better, then I am sorry to tell you that you probably are right. No one can change your life, except you. And if you don’t believe it is possible, then no one can help you.

Back in 1995 I was living trough some difficult times in my life. I was trying to come to terms with loosing my father. I had dropped out of School, and had no job or qualifications. I was scraping by. But I had a dream. I knew I wanted to be a musician. It was what I lived for. Back then, I had no internet, no Google to ask “how to become a musician?” But I did know my options back in Finland at the time were limited. So I decided to do what ever it takes, to save money and relocate myself. And in summer of 1996 I moved over to Dublin, where the music scene was vibrant and the opportunities were plentiful.

Don’t get me wrong, it took a lot of work to save the money and build up the courage to just leave the life you know behind and move 1200 miles away from anybody you know. But also when I arrived to Dublin, it was a steep learning curve musically. I was “the guy from Finland who played Irish music.” Why would you hire me, when you had hundreds of Irish musicians on your doorstep? But I worked hard and I got better.

So you see, my situation was not a “walk in the park.” But even when everybody else was telling me it cannot be done, I did’t listen. I believed with ever ounce of my body it could be done. Sure enough, about a year down the line I was playing full-time and never looked back.

Today, I take that gift of life even more seriously. I’m not as young as back in 1995, so I need to take care of my physical body bit better. Yeah you young ones out there, party while you can 😉 There comes a time when you realise the body is not up for it anymore 😀

So I ask you this, how can you be a better person today? And I hope if nothing else, this weeks song and blog post has made you realise that becoming a better person requires action. Action that only you can make happen. So go forth, live that life of yours. Make this world of ours a little bit better place. And don’t forget, little smile goes a long way 🙂

As is the tradition by now, you can download this weeks song from my Bandcamp page HERE. Name your own price, or just put $0.00 to get it free. Also feel free to share this blog post and the song with your friends. If you do happen to like my songs and blog posts, please consider supporting me on Patreon HERE. Thank you for reading, listening and being here 🙂

J.P.

The author J.P. Kallio is a singer songwriter
To get EIGHT of his songs for free go HERE