I Need Some Soul

  Lately I have been listening to a lot of artists like Sam Cooke, James Brown, and Otis Redding. I think it is because they are giving me something I am craving and missing. Their music, Sam Cooke especially, exudes raw emotion and the lyrics just take my breath away. "If you ever change your about leavin', leavin' me behind." Completely different than, lets say, Katy Perry. There is nothing wrong with that. I love me some Katy on a Friday night, when I act like I am still young enough to go out into the wee hours in the morning, when in reality I end up in bed at 12am. It is great party music. What Sam Cooke offers me on the other hand is plain naked honesty and passion. "I will always be your slave, until I'm buried, buried in my grave."

   Aside from the sappy love part, the passion these Soul or R&B singers embody is enviable. A love of music, making music, singing, and performing. In short, loving what they do. There is nothing more satisfying than making something beautiful, whether it is a map, a cake, a photo, or just being successful. I miss that feeling. The feeling of purpose that is missing when you just do not have a job, or you have a job, like me substituting mean teenagers. For some people, the idea that finding work is hard is completely incomprehensible, like Herman Cain. Well I am sorry Mr. Cain. It is not that I  am not trying, submitting resumes almost everyday. This is not by choice and I bet, I just bet, that if you look at the activity of the rest of those who are unemployed, it is probably the same. So there is nothing that I think is more discouraging, more heartless, more disgusting, and more pitiful than someone standing there, telling the world through CNN or Fox News, that those of us who are not working are not trying. That we are lazy and like to be unemployed. It is not productive and it is scary that those types of words come from people in respected positions. All I want is a career at this point, it does not have to be my passion, just enough to make my student loan payments, and maybe get new brakes in my 1996(that is not a typo) Volvo. I can keep fulfilling my needs to create something beautiful or to have passion through listening to Sam Cooke. All I need from people like Herman Cain is to have a heart and soul and be less like Gargamel, scolding and chiding those he feels are lesser.