We live in a world plagued by pain.
A world full of forced smiles, stifled cries, tears hidden behind covered windows and locked doors.
And people deal with that human temperament in different ways.
Some play the role of the person they used to be.
Some attend services and worship gods that will one day save their totured souls.
Some search for solace at the bottom of bottles, hoping for healing or at least the numbness the burning liquid brings.
But a blessed few, a saintly selection, turn to the arts.
Let the pen draw not from encased ink, but instead from their bleeding hearts.
Paint with the tears of memories that will never dull,
Create concoctions of chords to mimic the cries of shattered souls.
I used to think that the greats turned to music because their broken spirits were the key to meaningful melody.
But I've realized now that their colossal creations were not for reasons so selfish, but instead because composition of harmony was the only way to bring back harmony to a life so out of tune.
We have all stumbled across measures in our song when chords grew unstable.
When the melody disappeared.
When the entire key changed and the result was an unbearable cacophony of misery.
And don't you dare pretend as if you are to young to have experienced excruciating anguish, no matter who told you otherwise, because that agony was real and it really hurt.
But that anger, that longing, that sorrow that left you sobbing, is what brought you here.
The vulnerability your catastrophe created is what makes you human, and what makes you a musician.
The most beautiful music screams from the hearts of the most beautifully broken, and somewhere inside you, you are a beautiful mess.
So today, I implore you for the hardest thing I could ever ask.
I ask you to be vulnerable.
I ask you to show the world your miserable moments and blatantly scream "I am broken."
For if you let your shattered soul into the light, the music will repair your broken being.
And with your presentation of vulnerability, you can begin to help heal the heart of humanity.
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