AARON PAUL

Resisting the urge to rant.

Procrastination.

Feels good to get done what you’ve been needing to get done… Makes you wonder why you just didn’t just get on with it sooner. Procrastination sucks.

“Negro Songs”

“Down on the Suwanee River, Massa’s in the cold, cold ground, My Old Kentucky Home, and other of Foster’s and kindred melodies, known as Plantation Songs, are songs that the white man has put into the negro’s mouth. The truth is the negro seldom sings them. They are not his in the truest sense. The real negro melodies are more or less grotesque, and sung to tunes that are partly creations and partly adaptations of songs he has caught imperfectly. […] The negro must be heard in the fields and in his country churches, when he thinks he has no white hearer. If you ask him for a song he is apt to ‘show off,’ and to imitate a manner instead of being natural. The best real negro songs are heard in the lonely woods of the south, or in the fields behind the plough, or as he rides to and from his work on the back of a mule. Very often the words of these songs are unintelligible. The negro coins words to suit himself, and runs them together in a queer jargon. […] On a still night I have heard negroes singing in their churches at the distance of half a mile. Their voices are wonderfully melodious, and as a rule very strong. They sing with the utmost abandon, the women especially giving a peculiar tremolo effect to the words. The hymns in the country. churches are almost invariably lined out by the preacher and taken up by the congregation. Familiar hymns are used, but the negro has a way of changing them that is indescribable.” — Taken from Musical Times, (1922) - Ian Cameron.

Self-Esteem

Something I’ve always struggled with is having a high/good opinion of myself. Sometimes when I tell people that they are surprised and say something like “Why? You have so much going for you…?” or “Why? You’re good/handsome/funny….”

The reality is thought that it doesn’t matter AT ALL what other people say, whether it be good or bad, if you can’t accept/don’t see it yourself. Self-esteem really does have to come from YOU - yourSELF. It wouldn’t matter if Michael Jackson himself said I was a good dancer if I thought I had two left feet.

Viewing yourself positively can be hard despite past “successes” etc. but it is totally necessary for survival.

I’ve been raised to think that humility is one of the best traits you can have and I still think this as true somewhat. However, being humble doesn’t mean thinking of yourself as nothing. Humility can still come with a certain level of boldness, gentleness with a level of strength, and being patient doesn’t mean you have to lose your purpose.

Find small ways to love yourself and accept yourself as amazing in your own way. You have to believe it before others do/will.

AP.

The acceptance and admiration of God will do more for you than the approval and applause of man.