Untitled by Jay Goodman

Has anyone ever thought about the type of music you listen to? What about the kind of books you are reading? The friends you have or even the conversations you allow yourselves to have with people? I have looked at people around me in prison and watched what they do for so long that it’s easy for me to see what the outcome of their lives will be. If a man or woman were to be able to sit down somewhere and have someone show them their entire life, I mean everything they have ever said or done, maybe they would understand for the first time in their lives that music, books and friends had an impact on why they are sitting in prison. Most people don’t understand that what we allow in our minds and hearts have a huge impact on us. Remember it does not matter whether it’s good or bad, what we allow inside of us is going to affect the course of our lives.

I have not only studied this, but I’ve lived it so I know that what I am saying is fact. I have a friend called Biggie, he and I have had some good conversations about music, books and other things. I told him how I feel about rap music, that I don’t consider it music. He went on to say, “There are some rap songs I like Jay, there are some rap songs I can feel inside.” First of all, I wonder if what he is feeling inside while he is listening to this song is going to lead him to become the best version of himself? Is it going to inspire him to do something great? This is something most people never learn in life, what you out in is what you’ll get out, same with what you read. When we are young kids, school books teach us to read, write, do math, about science, from first grade to twelfth, it is books that teach children how to hopefully leave school and further their education or to go into the working world and become productive citizens. If they go to college, it doesn’t matter if they want to become doctors or lawyers, it’s books that will lead them there. Now with that said, it’s very important with what you put into your mind. Can you imagine taking a kid and start reading to him gangster books when he started first grade, or books about how great it is to be a socialist or communist, how wonderful Adolf Hitler was? If you took a child and put this in his mind for twelve years, you more than likely will turn him into a mad man. How do I know this is true? Russia did it, they made sure they put teachers in every school who would read books to their kids about communism, they taught them about how wonderful their dictator is, that rules their country. If we go back in time, it’s easy to see that worked really good. Just look at the dictators of Russia, China and North Korea.

Now look at the American children, when they go to school they learn lessons on our history, they are given books on the importance of freedom, we don’t idolize a dictator, we are shown how the people are allowed to vote for whom they believe is the best man for the job, and the greatest thing about America, if we are not liking what we see, we vote a new person in. Books are the greatest tool for our brain, what we put in is what will come out. Music and books help shape our lives, ideas shape history, we all have a constant flow of ideas that inspire us, challenge us, illuminate our minds, teach us about ourselves and our world, show us what is possible and encourage us to become the best version of ourselves. We need a diet of the mind just as much as we need a diet of the body. The ideas we feed our mind today, tend to form our lives tomorrow. Think of it this way, we become the stories we listen to, it doesn’t matter if we get these stories from movies, music, TV, newspapers, politicians, friends or books, the stories we listen to from our lives. Winston Churchill, Francis of Assisi, Napoleon, Charlie Chaplin, Adolf Hitler, Mother Teresa, Mahatma Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, Marilyn Monroe and Jesus, each told a story. If you want to know how your nation will be different tomorrow from the way it was yesterday, find out how the stories your nation is listening to are different from the stories of yesterday. If you discover that the stories, we are listening to have less meaning, contain more violence and rather than inspire us to raise our standards, appeal more and more to the lowest common denominator, you can be sure that in the future our lives will have less meaning, contain more violence and be more focused in the lowest common denominator. To further make my point, what usually happens to a young kid who listens to gangster rap? It’s a proven fact that he will eventually end up incarcerated and his life will never amount to much. This is why I am so hard on that type of music; it’s not going to bring out the best in you, those songs will inspire you to do great things. Same goes for books, books change our lives, I believe that with all my heart. In my cell is where I write, I have one book that I keep put along with my bible, inside this book is nineteen other books.

Each of these books has had an enormous impact on my life. I have learned a lot from each one and all of them have inspired me in many different ways. I have learned a lot from each one and all of them have inspired me in many different ways. There are books about philosophy, theology, business, history and psychology. From time to time, I get a little down or maybe discouraged, I’ll open one of these books and I’ll always find something that helps lift my spirits. Our bodies need regular exercise and a balanced diet, so do our minds. We all have a legitimate need to nourish our minds and if we choose the right diet of the mind, our lives will be directed by ideas of excellence and greatness. If you allow the media and secular culture to select your intellectual diet, your life will be formed by distractions and mediocrity. If you have big hopes and desires for your life, if you dream of being rich, doing something more with your life than the average man or woman does, it’s of the utmost importance that you start focusing your mind on the things that will lead you in those directions. You must focus on becoming the best version of yourself. When I was talking about music with my friend Biggie and how I believed gangster rap wasn’t really music, I have seen first-hand how it has influenced too many people down a path of destruction.

Now allow me to tell you of a man I’ve read about named Mozart. Mozart had a great talent and a great desire to touch people’s lives. Here it is over two hundred years after his death and his music still leaves the world awestruck. Mozart never made copies of his music, never wrote a rough draft. No copies, no drafts, no practices, no corrections, he only lived thirty-six years and, in that lifetime, Mozart composed six first rate operas, twenty-one piano concertos, twenty-four string quartets, seventeen masses, assorted chamber music, other solo concertos and of course forty-one symphonies. Without a doubt, Mozart was a genius and he had a burning desire to leave the world with something that would touch the hearts and souls of people forever. This is why it’s important to focus your attention on what you’re reading, listening to and who your friends are.