CHANGES. Change what you can for today.

"It never stops, when my mama ask me will I change, I tell her yeah, but it's clear I'll always be the same, until the end of time." - Tupac Shakur (a.k.a. 2pac) from the song End of Time.

I was on Facebook, which has been a great source for networking, outside the box thinking, and good old fashioned chatter. Ally and I were instant messaging and talking about life and how I have probably set the Guinness record for the number of lemons I have been dealt in life. But as Jay-Z says, "When life gives you lemons, make lemon pie." I told her I have enough lemon pies to feed all of Africa at this point. As we continued to embark on higher thinking, we started talking about "Changes". Her philosophy was that I cannot control the past but I can change the future. Change is sometimes about opportunities.

I politely disagreed with her. My philosophy is that my life was predestined. Predestination is a concept, which involves the relationship between God and his creations. Predestination is basically the opposite of the philosophy of other ideas such as determinism and free will. Determinism is the view that every event, including human cognition, behavior, decision, and action, is causally determined by an unbroken chain of prior occurrences. Those who believe in predestination, such as myself, believe that God determined the fate of certain lives, events, and so on. Thus, though I have never been to church a day in my life and though I do believe in God, I believe that my life, not everyone's lives, but my life was predetermined.

I explained to her that sometimes you cannot just change. You can want change, you can be willing to change, you can seek change, you can believe in change, but you CANNOT always make change happen. Sometimes, you can be stuck in a rut, and no matter how hard you try to get out of it, you are stuck. Obviously, some things you have control over, but I have had so many events that have happened to me in my life that I have had no control over, and I am expecting there will be many more in the future that I cannot "change" and therefore there is no other way to explain all of those events, other than predestination.

A friend who I lost touch with over the years once told me, "Everyday seems like the day before it, repeating its pattern over and over again, and sometimes you just have to stop and create a new one." The movie Groundhog Day is a great example of this statement. But this statement is not always true, hence my belief in predestination, at this point in my life, I have no control over being able to change the things I need changed. The economy fell apart, which I had no control over, and put me in a position where I cannot change my life, no matter how badly I want it to change at this point in time. As I decided what exactly I was going to write about in this article, I remembered one of my favorite songs that was written by 2Pac called "Changes". Rest in peace Tupac, you gave more than you took in life, and you too understood change and were a victim of events that could not be changed. His talent and legacy lives on, will mine?

If you know anything about Alcoholics Anonymous at the end of every meeting they say the serenity prayer. It reads:

It does take courage to do things differently in ones life. People find comfort in repetition and routine. They become comfortable in their lives and eventually realize that they need to 'mix things up'. Live life to the fullest, you never know what day will be your last day. Don't leave Earth wishing you had experienced more in life.

2Pac/Tupac Shakur "Changes" Lyrics

Come on come on
I see no changes wake up in the morning and I ask myself
is life worth living should I blast myself?
I'm tired of bein' poor & even worse I'm black
my stomach hurts so I'm lookin' for a purse to snatch
Cops give a damn about a negro
pull the trigger kill a nigga he's a hero
Give the crack to the kids who the hell cares
one less hungry mouth on the welfare
First ship 'em dope & let 'em deal the brothers
give 'em guns step back watch 'em kill each other
It's time to fight back that's what Huey said
2 shots in the dark now Huey's dead
I got love for my brother but we can never go nowhere
unless we share with each other
We gotta start makin' changes
learn to see me as a brother instead of 2 distant strangers
and that's how it's supposed to be
How can the Devil take a brother if he's close to me?
I'd love to go back to when we played as kids
but things changed, and that's the way it is

Come on come on
That's just the way it is
Things'll never be the same
That's just the way it is
aww yeah

I see no changes all I see is racist faces
misplaced hate makes disgrace to races
We under I wonder what it takes to make this
one better place, let's erase the wasted
Take the evil out the people they'll be acting right
'cause both black and white is smokin' crack tonight
and only time we chill is when we kill each other
it takes skill to be real, time to heal each other
And although it seems heaven sent
We ain't ready, to see a black President, uhh
It ain't a secret don't conceal the fact
the penitentiary's packed, and it's filled with blacks
But some things will never change
try to show another way but you stayin' in the dope game
Now tell me what's a mother to do
bein' real don't appeal to the brother in you
You gotta operate the easy way
"I made a G today" But you made it in a sleazy way
sellin' crack to the kid. " I gotta get paid,"
Well hey, well that's the way it is

We gotta make a change...
It's time for us as a people to start makin' some changes.
Let's change the way we eat, let's change the way we live
and let's change the way we treat each other.
You see the old way wasn't working so it's on us to do
what we gotta do, to survive.

And still I see no changes can't a brother get a little peace
It's war on the streets & the war in the Middle East
Instead of war on poverty they got a war on drugs
so the police can bother me
And I ain't never did a crime I ain't have to do
But now I'm back with the facts givin' it back to you
Don't let 'em jack you up, back you up,
crack you up and pimp smack you up
You gotta learn to hold ya own
they get jealous when they see ya with ya mobile phone
But tell the cops they can't touch this
I don't trust this when they try to rush I bust this
That's the sound of my tool you say it ain't cool
my mama didn't raise no fool
And as long as I stay black I gotta stay strapped
& I never get to lay back
'Cause I always got to worry 'bout the pay backs
some punk that I roughed up way back
comin' back after all these years
rat-tat-tat-tat-tat that's the way it is uhh

Some things will never change.

Other things will change One Day...

Make the changes you can, and live with the rest. PERIOD.

The above was a Tribute to Ally and Tupac.