Because I have not prepared a political lecture today, I thought it might be refreshing to discuss a startling personal revelation that recently came to me at an odd place--a concert.

On March 4th I attended a concert in Charlotte, NC starring the up-and-coming band Shinedown. I had no idea that it would be such a spiritual experience. The lead singer was one of the most motivational speakers that I have ever seen, and promised at the beginning of the concert that when we left we would be completely different people.

Not only was he an amazing speaker, his voice was astounding. Throughout the night he utilized some sort of personal power to manipulate the energy of the room, and by the end of the night I saw everything in its true beauty. The next morning, when I woke up, I felt as if I had been drained of the poison that had contaminated my spirit for years.

But the most enlightening experience of the night was when they performed the song "45," the lyrics of which can be found here. After he sang the song, he launched into an intense speech: "For everything in your mind that no one can ever take away from you: (singing) Let go of the 45! For everything in your heart that no one can ever take away from you: (singing) Let go of the 45! For everything in your soul that no one can ever take away from you: (singing) Let go of the 45! I don't care what anyone fucking tells you; your life...is a gift."

And so I came home and let it all sit and crystallize for a while. When I was inspired, I wrote this on a sheet of paper as I lay awake in the middle of the night:

In truth, the 45 is a versatile metaphor. We all have our own 45 that we pick up and shoot ourselves with every day; we are all dying inside--bit by bit being squelched out of existence. Every day when we wake up and pick up the newspaper to see "30 dead in Iraq"...every time we get in the car to drive to a job we hate to pay for a house we also hate...every time we have relationships with people who would hate us if they knew who we really are, so we put on an act to please them.

And we die every time we experience these things because we never ask "why?" Why are people allowed to die for a lie? Why do we suffer every day for the sake of our own misery? Why do we hide our true selves from meaningless pricks who don't matter and never will? The universe, in its pure essence, is beauty, and all things are manifested through its purity--even misery.

So when we see the pointlessness of our wars, our dead-end jobs and our volatile relationships and relenquish themselves of obligation to these tings, misery is forced to stand in its naked form, where it cannot reside in our hearts as misery--it must inevitably return to its true origin: the beauty of all existence.

It's like a good friend of mine told me today: "Everything is beautiful. Even in the most gruesome death there is beauty. You can watch to animals rip each other apart, but in truth it is beautiful. It is all in our own perceptions."

So, for the love of the Universal Spirit: "Let go of the 45!"