How To Start a Revolution: Pt. 1, Introduction

Part 1 The Introduction: or What Are You Trying To Change

   This is as much for me as it is for anyone reading this blog. How do you start a revolution, how do you effect lasting change when you don't like the status quo? Where do you even start? These are things I have been asking myself. I am not happy with many of the things I see and hear around me everyday and I feel like I have no way to fix any of it.

   How does a normal, well sort of normal, person find the power first in themselves, and then in the world around them to stand up and make a difference. We have countless examples of people in history who have taken that step and we hear their stories of triumph, but what we don't hear is the road that leads there in the first place. We don't hear about the feelings of frustration and powerlessness that precede that first step. We don't hear the failures and false starts that come before the first triumph. And we absolutely never hear someone who has been there and made a difference tell the rest of us how to do it for themselves.

   I realize that some of this is because the road has to be different for everyone, for every cause and every outcome. There is no road map because the road changes every time. A revolution is a new way forward, a new road, a new idea, a new normal, and in the end, a new status quo which should then incite it's own revolution.

   So this is where I start, at the beginning, feeling like there should be some change and looking to make a map for myself that leads to a new way of life. I am open to suggestions, and comments, discussion or even criticism, but this is my road and my map, and I am going to see where it leads.

Thoughts on Love, Life, Loss, Regret and Death

   I had intended my next post to be about a film I saw recently, but before I had the chance to write about it something came up. As these things do, we had a death in my family, those are usually unexpected and this one surely was. My sister messaged my daughter last night to let us know that my uncle Jimmy had died on Saturday. Jimmy was the youngest of my dad's brothers and had been one of my favorite people when I was a kid. He was a few years younger than my mother and barely a teenager when I was born, so he was the fun uncle.

   My dad died himself a little over 10 years ago and I have had little contact with that side of the family in the past 20 years. After my parents split up my dad tried really hard to win her back and when he realized it wasn't going to happen he went away and didn't really come back. He was not the greatest husband according to my mom and my mother was his biggest regret, he never realized what he had until she was gone and he never got over her either. Friends and family of his tell me that he regretted the split until he died. 

   My dad and his brother had that in common. Jimmy had three children with a woman named Katie, a little girl and twin boys. After the boys were born he didn't want to or couldn't get his shit together so Katie left with the kids. I know my uncle regretted it every day of his life, he loved Katie more than anything in the world. 

   I found out my Uncle passed away Saturday which was about two days before, and I also learned that Katie had died in March almost 90 days exactly before my Uncle Jimmy. I also learned that it was learning of Katie's death that was the beginning of the end for Jimmy. After her death he gave up, and let himself die of a broken heart. 25 years spent apart didn't diminish his feelings for her or his regret over losing her. 

   I am sad over the passing of both my Aunt Katie and my Uncle Jimmy, but I am heartbroken over the circumstances of their deaths. I have always been a romantic, and to me this is the saddest, most fitting ending to two lives that crossed for a brief time and couldn't make it work.

   I don't go through life thinking I have it all together, I know I don't. This makes me wonder if I will have any regrets at the end though. Will there be that one person I never made amends with, or that thing I always wanted to do but never took the chance. I say to myself and anyone who asks that I have absolutely no regrets in life. I would not take anything back, even the bad stuff. I have learned and grown from every experience in my life. I wish the same for everyone else out there, and if you realize you fucked up and let the right one get away, may you get a second chance to make things right.

Welcome To My Opinions!

When I first had the idea for this blog, it was still the mid 1990's and ok so I wasn't thinking blog back then, I wasn't that technologically progressive, I was thinking a column in a print publication, and I was also thinking only about reviewing current things like concerts or films. Not the regular insider type of review but one from just the regular person going to see a show, from the cheap seats, no frills, no extra perks like backstage passes or pre screenings. So now blogging is really the way to go if you want to get your thoughts out to the world at large without the benefit of actually getting paid for it. So that lands me here. I talked to my husband about my idea and we thought it would be great to get not just one but two opinions on things and that would be two sometimes very different opinions on things. 

   So I set up this blog and let him know, and suddenly he didn't like my idea. So I figured I'd go back to doing it by myself, and then last night he tells me he wants back in again. So this time it's me, Kerrie, but sometimes it will be him, Darren, and maybe even both of us together depending on what we are talking about.

I had originally intended this to be reviews of current movies, music, tv shows, etc but as I thought about it I realized I really wanted to talk about a lot of things, so there will be entertainment reviews of both old and new stuff, as well as reviews on restaurants, retail establishments, products, and any thing else I come across in my day that I think needs to be either shamed or praised. I may also pull out past stories about things that have happened before, like our experiences with the staff and issues at major theme parks, I have had a few notable run ins at more than just one park franchise. 

   Feel free to throw in a topic or an item you want to see discussed, use the comments as much as you like. I am hoping to keep this as a twice a week blog, Tuesdays and Thursdays, we'll see how that goes. I have off weeks as we all do sometimes so I may miss a post or post too much every now and then. Thanks for checking me out and I look forward to feedback. I'm off to figure out what my first topic should be!