The Amy Winehouse and Peace Report

Peace. Let's start with that, shall we? Some people have been protesting the Iraq war from the start, some people tried to understand both sides of the story, yes, even including that of the people we were fighting over in the Middle East. (And those who decided to reject the Middle Eastern side are just a textbook example of people fearing what they do not know, then some choose to be ignorant of the other side, then leaving themselves to still fear.)Well I have news for you all...

For about the past 9 or so months I have been walking through malls, chain stores, and all that good stuff and noticed something that I don't know how to feel about.

Peace is plastered everywhere.

On one hand, this is great. I mean really, people are finally coming to their senses and begging for peace. They are finally also promoting recycling and environment saving along with that too! Oh joy, oh rapture! Perhaps this is the greatest era since the 1960's!!!

Or perhaps not...

I was right when I said that Peace is plastered everywhere. In clothing stores that use overseas slave labor for that matter, (Victoria's Secret being my prime example, just Google it)the manufacturers are plastering Peace on every item of clothing, and along with that comes recycling and "Love" and all that good stuff. But, now all these wonderful things that should have been being fought for from the start are becoming just another fashionable fad. Maybe the people who go around wearing peace and recycling signs around their necks and on their T-shirts DO mean what their wardrobe says, after all I know I do.

But my question is, and even to myself, what happens when the fad dies? Could we be being nearly brainwashed with catchy slogans that make us appear "cool" to our friends, so that when this fad dies, we no longer feel the social pressure to take on the real issues in the world? what happens next?

So now, I challenge all those reading this, and especially myself (because I'm a fad victim too) that even after cool store around America stop selling the positive messaging to the public, that we all take on the responsibility of still caring and fighting for the issues. Still no matter what, we have to remember the Peace should never be a manufactured fad, but rather a way of life. Challenge made.

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Amy Winehouse. Now for my rant about her.

Simply put, she is one of the most admired women in my world. (besides that of Kasturbai Gandhi,worldwide feminists, and my Great-Grandmother)

She is a truly lovely woman, with a wonderful singing voice and lyrics that really grip at a person.

So, as much as I aspire to someday be her musical equal or more, I realized something that makes me quite sad.

I was singing along with one her songs, and comparing the voices, she far exceeds any of my ability in the vocal-ness of music.

Sadly, I want to be a singer/songwriter for my lifelong career, but now I fear that I am extremely untalented and painful to listen to, and I will most likely never even come near to the equivalent of Amy Winehouse.

Sadly, I am most likely already an untalented singer, and I doubt that I will be admired by fellow musicians in the same way i admire Amy Winehouse.

A sad epiphany, but the times change, and so do my opinions of myself, so perhaps I should be Zen for a little while, and live in every moment as it comes.

Why does blogging always give me these strange epiphanies???

In short,

xoxoxoxoxo

~Kayla Jo, Little Miss Indie Trash