Me, Myself and I on Christmas

Since it's the week of Christmas, I figured I'd post this set of videos that I created last year.  Basically, I spent Christmas 2008 by myself because I had to work on Christmas Eve and couldn't go out of town with my family. So instead of enjoying home cooking and opening gifts by a Christmas tree, I was watching TV and eating frozen pizzas.  As boredom began to get the best of me, I decided to create this four part video piece on my Christmas experiences.  Check out what unexpected guests came to visit, and follow our preparation for the performance of a LIFETIME.  

Happy Holidays! 

Part 1: The Interview


Part 2: The Christmas Miracle


Part 3: The Sweater


Part 4:The Performance

Drake's "Forever" Unofficial Remix

I know it's been a minute since I've posted, and I'm sorry for that.  I've had a lot going on.  I'm sorry. For those of you who don't know, I'm a songwriter/rapper.  I also play a little guitar and pretend to sing. Awhile back I decided to write a verse to Drake's "Forever" and record a video for it.  Those of you who are Facebook friends with me may have already seen this...but it's all I've got to offer right now.   But there will be more stuff to come. Enjoy this for now.      

The Unexamined Life is Not Worth Living

I was thinking a little about Plato's "Allegory of the Cave." If you're unfamiliar with it, it describes a situation where a group of prisoners are shackled and chained in a cave since birth. They know nothing of the outside world, and only of life inside the cave. They're aware of each other and shadows that are cast on the cave walls by their captors standing behind them holding figurines in front of a fire (see above image). Plato suggests that, since the shadows are all the prisoners know, they would believe them to be real things, rather than mere reflections of reality. And their society would likely be based around the shadows on the wall. For example, one's wisdom or understanding of the world might be determined by one's ability to predict which shadow would come next.

Have I lost you? I hope not, because here's where it gets interesting.

Plato (through Socrates) asks, what would happen if one of the prisoners were to get free and become aware of the fire and the people casting shadows? And what if he made his way outside the cave and learned of the rest of the world, and the sun? Would the prisoner not consider his previous existence inside the cave to be small, primitive, and based on an inaccurate view of the world? Might he want to share his new found truths with the other prisoners? And would they likely reject him for his "crazy talk" and for challenging their reality?

I present this scenario to ask, where do you stand? Which is better? Would you rather live in the bliss of ignorance or the enlightenment of truth and reality? If you say the first, then....well....carry on with your life. There is no need to read the rest of this post. But, if you say the second, which I believe most of you will, how prepared are you to ACTUALLY hear your reality and beliefs challenged? We all say we want to know the truth about ourselves and the world, but most of us are highly resistant when we hear commentary that contradicts what we believe or want to believe.  It's what keeps us blissfully ignorant, even if that's technically not what we want.

But shouldn't we, at the very least, strive to know ourselves as individuals? And how then do we go about doing that? Our understanding of ourselves can not simply be achieved within the "cave" of our own minds. Sometimes it takes outside sources, especially people who are close to us and care about us, to help us obtain clarity about ourselves. If we fear input and reject feedback from others, we can never really grow or mature. We remain shackled in set perspectives and hold ourselves back from real progress and betterment. Our own stubbornness, denial, and fear can keep us believing in the false realities of our own shadows, and prevent us from ever benefiting from the light of truth.

Haters are gonna Hate. Ask Obama.

So what is it now? What's Obama's latest "offense to the world?" Well, as it turns out, that awful man won the Nobel Peace Prize.  How dare he?!?! How despicable! 

Wait...what? You guys are hating on our president for winning one of the most prestigious recognitions in the world?  Do you really hate the man THAT much? Do you want so bad to be right about all the negative things you've said about him that you'll find something wrong in everything he does? Even his accomplishments?  Seriously?

In all fairness, some of you make valid points.  Indeed, Obama has not been president for even a year yet. Most of his plans have not had a chance to come to fruition, and there is no definite that they will (especially with haters that will do anything to see him fail).  So in your opinion, he is obviously undeserving of this achievement.  I can see that.  In fact, this is one of the better arguments I've heard against Obama. Not GREAT. But better. Good job. Now let me respond.

1. Obama did not elect himself to be the Nobel Peace Prize winner. Nor did he nominate himself.  In fact, he's probably in a very awkward place right now having won it during the world's current climate. So get off his sack. It wasn't his choice.

2.  Your hating on the man, our president, for a tremendous honor.  Sounds pretty childish to me. It's almost funny even.  I'm reminded of a certain Kanye West who criticized a certain Taylor Swift for winning a certain Video Music Award for her accomplishments.  Much less significant, I know.  But I wonder whose side you were on for THAT one.  Whom might you have called a crybaby?

3.  Name the last 5 Nobel Peace Prize winners.  You know what, name 5 winners in the HISTORY of the award.  If you can do that with little challenge, without looking it up, then I'll perhaps begin to believe that you're really concerned with who wins the award, and not just that Obama won the award.  

4. Do you even know how the Nobel Peace Prize winner is selected?  Do you know what makes one qualified?  That should be a key part to your argument, no? After all, if you're saying someone is unqualified you have to know what the qualifications are, right? I mean certainly you wouldn't argue in ignorance, would you? So of course you know that the award is not designed to recognize peace efforts AFTER they've become successful (although one CAN receive the award for this.)  The truth is, MOST of the awards are given to people in order to encourage them to continue with their efforts and plans to bring about human rights, democracy, and of course peace, especially during times of noted turmoil or conflict.  But why am I telling you what you CLEARLY already know?

Man, Obama can't get a break, can he? He has been severely hated on SINCE he put in his bid for the presidency.  His faith has been called into question.  His experience.  His wife.  His past. Now his achievements.  And let's not forget the BIG ONE.  President Barack Obama is a black man! Hey, maybe his blackness is one of the main reasons everything else about him is being called into question.  And I don't doubt that some of you will PROBABLY think I'm pulling the race card for saying that.  And to that I'll say, you're pulling the "Race Card" card which is conveniently used by certain others to dismiss complaints of very real acts of racial injustice or discrimination.  Well put away your "Race Card" card and WAKE THE HELL UP!  It's a little too much of a coincidence that our first BLACK president is being attacked and criticized and questioned and scrutinized and doubted and hated as much as he is in a country that just happens to have an awful racist past towards blacks.  Even Bush didn't get it this bad this early on... and we've all witnessed HIS incredible speaking ability, intelligent statements, and sound judgement.  I mean think about it: A black man's noteworthy accomplishments/intelligence/goodness being questioned?  That sounds familiar. Where have I heard that one before?  Oh WAIT! That sounds like American history.  

But here's the thing.  Obama was voted into office by the MAJORITY of the U.S.  He is supported by numerous countries around the world.  So the haters are in the minority.  How about that?  YOU are in the minority. Frustrating isn't it?  Can I discriminate against you now? Can I question your intelligence and accomplishments? After all, you are a minority. Isn't that how we treat you? 

Clearly I support Obama. Please enjoy (or hate on) this song I wrote during Obama's presidential run. It's called "We Know." 

What REALLY matters?

So this blog thing is harder than I thought it would be. It's so easy to get wrapped up into life and just not keep up with it. I had one post I started and decided not to send. Maybe I'll do it at another time. I've found that I want to write and talk about the things in my life that really matter to me. But that's difficult, because that means getting personal. Which is fine for me, but may not be fine for the people who are involved in my personal life. And I must consider that. The truth is, the time in between my last post and this one has been filled with ups and downs and some challenging personal/life struggles for me. And writing what I felt during that time may not have been a good idea for various reasons.

Clearly, everybody has their issues. And their struggles. And their insecurities. And their arguments. And their fights. And mistakes. These are the things that often make it difficult to become the people we WANT to be, and live the lives we WANT to live. And sometimes we let these negative things rule our lives. We fail to see our positives. And our blessings. We miss opportunities because we surround ourselves in doubt and fear. We see the worst in people and situations. We push away the people who are the closest to us. That's probably the worst. We question their motives and pelt them with blame. And treat them horribly. We over-react. Sometimes we won't let them breathe. Sometimes we criticize their dreams or their fashion-sense. Sometimes we're simply selfish. Sometimes we're hypocrites. Maybe we even seek to control them. Sometimes we just want to be right, and are too stubborn to admit when we're wrong. Or even that we MIGHT be wrong.

My point is. Sometimes, we as humans take bad situations and make them worse, unknowingly. And our own unhappiness is redirected onto others. We blame them for our unhappiness and simultaneously make them unhappy. And we give too much power to all the things that don't matter quite as much. And by subconsciously relinquishing power we never really feel in control of anything in our lives. So what DOES really matter?

I'll answer that like this:

Yesterday, a loved one of mine got into a car accident on the highway that COULD have been horrible. She swerved to miss a careless driver that failed to check his mirror, lost control of her car, spun, ended up perpendicular to oncoming traffic and was then hit by a truck...and spun some more. Damn. The miraculous thing is that she survived with only some soreness. Nothing broken, no cuts, no bruises. Thank you God!

But that incident to me was a reminder of how much this person means to me, and how difficult life would be without her. Seemingly impossible. It reminded me of all the incredible attributes she offered to the world, and how awfully bland things would be without her spice, and fun-loving outlook. And at the same time I hope that she realizes from the outpour of support and concern, how much she means to EVERYONE, not just me. And I hope she was reminded what matters to her.

I can't say that incident put everything in perspective for me, because it didn't. I didn't have some sort of epiphany that would make every issue from that point forward clear or easy. I'm not going to now be free of missteps, or flaws. Or never argue. It doesn't work like that. I just remembered that we can't be so wrapped up in ourselves that we forget about the loved ones in our lives, and the respect they deserve. Whether we want to admit it or not, they are part of what shape us, and help us grow. They often look out for us and try to help us, even when we think they're being annoying, or controlling, or ridiculous, or clingy. They stand by us. They are imperfect, just like we are. But they are what matter. She is what matters. We are what matters. And that's something to fight for. And definitely something to live for.

Who the Hell is Nat?

Welcome welcome welcome to my blog. First of all, I have a blog...that's pretty crazy in itself. Sure, it could be said that I'm jumping on the blog bandwagon given that a few of my friends already have blogs and blogs are hardly a new thing anymore. BUT, if you know me, then you know I like to write, and to create, and I'm pretty opinionated and I think I know a lot.....sooooo a blog seemed to make sense. For those of you who DON'T know me, that's ok, because this blog will probably provide you with a lot of insight into who I am. Maybe. If I keep up with it. We'll see.

Now, it seems only appropriate that I properly introduce you to my blog by explaining it. I'm sure by now many of you are wondering, "What is this Nat Chat? "Who the hell is Nat?"And if you are NOT wondering either of these things, this is where you pretend like you are. You see, this blog doesn't really work without your interest. Otherwise it's just an online journal entry which is pretty loserish. But a blog is COOL. It's hip. It's happening. Right? (cricket, cricket.)

Alright, so Nat is me. Kind of. Actually, Nat is short for Natty, which is short for Natty Dread, which (stay with me now) is a Bob Marley album, and I like Bob Marley. And I used to have dreads. So alas...the name Natty was formed. Make sense? If you look around, you will see that my complete pseudonym is Natty Cavé. Cavé is my mother's maiden name. More about the Cavé's at a later time I'm sure. Big part of my life.

So my blog doesn't really have a specific format or topic. Nor will I have a consistent day or time that I update it. Which, I know, means the two people who were actually going to read this have now probably decided it will not be worth the hassle. But welcome anyways. And HOPEFULLY my two friends, I can prove you wrong.  

Now please enjoy a 1979 performance by Bob Marley of "No Woman, No Cry."  The original studio version was on the album Natty Dread.