Blog 2: Finding Your Howl

http://changethis.com/manifesto/show/51.01.YourHowl <- is the link to the article "Finding Your Howl"

Summary:

I find myself to be in relation of the second story of “Finding Your Howl”.  The story is set in Jonathon Flaum’s 5^th grade class.  One of his classmates wrote a story that explained “the way of life”.  The story explained how a Tiger who was in a cage of a zoo, continuously tried to escape, but every time he would, he just fell right into another cage.  The message is that we can’t escape the prison of the situations we identified ourselves with, we must dig down deep in ourselves letting all of that go and start over fresh.

“Life is short if you don’t notice it’ll pass you by,
That’s why my head is in the clouds trying to pass the sky.”

The quote above is one that is stated by one of my favorite artists, Ludacris.  Ludacris is not only a hardcore rap artist as some may think, but he is also a very intelligent, inspirational artist who uses different methods to create emotions and feelings into his work.  This quote comes from the song called “Child of the night”.  In the song, Ludacris talks about his accomplishments and the obstacles he had to overcome to reach these accomplishments.  The song is very inspirational while encouraging never giving up and following your dreams.  This quote really speaks to me as a creative person especially because I too have big dreams that I am really determined to accomplish like Ludacris.  Also, because I have similar goals as the ones of Ludacris, so I feel as if this song has a connection with my values as well.

Specifically, the first line, “Life is short if you don’t notice it’ll pass you by,” is something that I feel everyone should recognize.  This is a common saying by many people but Ludacris adds this to his song to emphasize the meaning of the piece.  Though some may not realize, it is so true.  Ludacris wants to point out that everyone should live his or her life to the fullest because it will be over before you know it.  The text of the song creates a pattern, which helps the audience recognize the main focuses that are being portrayed to the listeners.  Differing from Ludacris’ other songs, this one truly expresses his emotions and actually gives words of advice from his own experiences.  It is meant to be a inspirational piece given from Ludacris’ point of view and past experiences.  I clearly connect to his lyrics because they encourage me to never give up and relate to what I feel will happen in time that is soon to come.  

The following line, “That’s why my head is in the clouds trying to pass the sky” has, in my opinion, the biggest impact on the moral of the song.  In this statement, Ludacris is implying that the sky is the limit, or maybe it isn’t.  Either way you view it, one can identify that he is trying to urge you should reach for your wildest dreams and continue to follow them.  In the next section of the sentence, Ludacris uses a sort of metaphor by stating that his head is “in the clouds”.  This creates a picture in my head, visualizing what he is saying to try to understand the meaning.  This is how a lot of other rappers write their lyrics as well, use metaphors for the audience to understand the double meaning so it generates higher impact on the songs message.  Then once again after, he says, “trying to pass the sky”.  After reading the second part, you now know what he was trying to portray.  He explains how he is “in the clouds” trying to “pass the sky”, in other words, he is putting no limit on his success and triumphs.