Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Painting Through Written Imagery

Recently, while going through a bunch of my old stuff, I found a treasure trove of things that had been tucked away & long since forgotten. As I was going through these things, I came across an old school binder overflowing with my writings. I found poems, lyrics to songs & partial writings galore. As I was going through the mass amounts of scribbled words & typed lines, memories flooded my mind with each piece of paper. Some I remembered the exact moment the lines came to me & some I could barely make out what I was writing or where my mind was going.

Some of what I wrote was pretty good....actually....really good! Matter of fact, some were so good that either I or my teachers had entered them into different poetry contests. Of the 12 different entries that were submitted over the years, I placed 1st three times, 2nd Place three times & 3rd Place two times & have been published 6 times! My first time submitting a poem, I took 2nd Place & I was only 12 years old at the time.

Besides the poetry, I've written a lot of lyrics/songs. Back in the late 80's, I started up a rock band with my friends. I was the going to be the lead singer & therefore I took it upon myself to write the lyrics to all of our songs. Over those next few years, my bandmates changed as did our band name & by the time I was in high school my current band was doing pretty good. My writing was also getting better & better. I even had quite a few songs copywritten! By the time I was in my Junior year of high school, the music scene had changed, the band broke up & so ended my days of writing lyrics although I continued to write poetry throughout the rest of my school days.

Upon reading these poems & lyrics & scraps of written lines, I'm amazed at some of the subject matter that I was writing about. Now keep in mind I started writing when I was 11 years old. I wrote some really great pieces about love...being in love...falling in & out of love...all the pain that's associated with love. I wrote about death & despair...deception & revenge. I also wrote A LOT of sexual stuff. All of which are great writings but surprising in the maturity of which I wrote them. I very much intend on posting some of those songs & poems on here...so keep your eyes open for some fun & interesting writings from years ago.

Interestingly enough, I stopped writing altogether by the time I finished high school. The 1 exception was a poem that a friend & I wrote in 2004 although that was more of an accidental writing then a planned out decision. My friend submitted it to a writing contest & it went on to be published in a poetry book. Minus that poem, I have not written in over 10 years...until I started my first blog in 2008. That blog was dedicated to my culinary endeavors & to keep family & friends up-to-date on my life but it still was more fun factual writings based on events. Last year I ended that blog as my journeys started to lead me down different paths. Now I'm writing much more fun & interesting blogs allowing my mind to fully stretch the boundaries & write what's inside & even some fantastical stuff too...just like my writings of yester year. I guess that I've always had the creativity in me to paint great written & verbal imagery. It's good to be writing again!

Monday, May 13, 2013

Mourning The Loss of A Childhood Idol

Since I was a baby...I have been going to & enjoying a place entitled "The Happiest Place On Earth". I own films by this mega giant & have enjoyed them to the point that I know them word for word, song by song, start to finish. I have gone to the parks & spent countless amounts of my hard earned money supporting the company. I considered myself extremely lucky to be able to perform in the parks & actually sing in the studios. I dreamed of the day that I would be employed by this sweet dream of a company & proudly wore the costume I thought I had earned when I was actually employed by them. I even became one of their most prized employees. I fought word wars in their honor & gave up a huge piece of me to the eternal "happy place".

Now...I am completely broken hearted & in deep mourning over the loss of the dream that used to be so true to me. It's like waking up Christmas morning & finding no special presents under the tree from Santa Claus. It even hurts just as much as walking in & finding that special love of your life bedding someone who is not you. At first, I was in total denial. I blamed myself...I blamed the media...I just simply could not wrap my mind around the thought of something that I held soooo true & dear to my heart ultimately revealing itself to be a company that was just out for itself no matter what.
As one day led to the next, the realization started to settle in. The denial became a reality & now I find myself in complete dismay that something that claims to be such a great thing is absolutely no better then the one that takes candy from a baby just to turn around & throw the candy in the gutter while spitting in the baby's face & walking away laughing. I know that sounds really bad & I'm pretty sure that there are MANY out there that would have harsh words for me in retaliation...hell...I USED to be that person! Not any more. My eyes are very much wide open now & yet I'm STILL being punished by the company even though I'm no longer directly a part of it.

As I sit in this pained place of hurt & dismay...I'm constantly being reminded of how bad this company has gotten. In the past 3 weeks, the company has been in the news in not so flattering a light. They recently lost a law suit where they denied earned benefits to their employees. They are currently fighting against giving benefits like sick time & maternity leave. They are also battling against the FMLA standards. They are sinking their employees financially via over priced medical costs & even having employees pay back health benefits that they earned while working for them. Tonight I even heard on the news about this company being the second largest employer on this planet to be completely under-paying their employees.
Now what I'd like to know is....how can we continue to support a company that purposely has it's employees lie to it's patrons & yet takes total advantage of their employees in the process? They have their "Cast Members" smile & create "magic" all while also snapping the employees' kneecaps in the same breath. Do they not realize that without those employees...there would be NO "magic" in the first place?! The company now has several billion $$ empires but won't put that money into its own employee benefits. There are many employees that have spent their entire working lives there, only to be told that they are not fully vested when the time comes for retirement (yes this IS true as I'm partnered with one).

The "happiest place on Earth" should be relabeled "the worst company to work for on Earth". I want to make sure that you all know that I'm not simply a disgruntled ex-employee who has a bitter taste left in his mouth...but a person who is truly mourning the loss of his childhood idol. I make this plea to Disney: FIX THIS!!! You are ONLY as good as those whom you employ! Keep them happy so that the phrase "happiest place on Earth" also goes for "happiest place to work".