a-changetheworld

"I'll try to change the world..."
By Bob Perks (forwarded by Ms. Isaj Quesea)

This is fresh from my heart!

There are times when something burns inside me so intensely that I must
share it right at that moment. It was something someone said tonight. He was a loser in one sense, but the great winner he was born to be. You may be shocked when I tell you this. It's confession time. I'm...well, I'm an..."American Idol" junkie!

That's right. Maybe I'll need to form a support group and hold meetings.

I wasn't before. I rarely watched last season or any of the others. Everyone who knows me couldn't figure out why. I sing, I perform, I love music. So why wouldn't I watch that show every year? I donno! But now?

Tonight it was simply what one person said that lifted me to my feet, made me shed tears of joy, jump up and down and rush to the phone to call my sons, Keith and Evan. The people auditioning fly on and off the screen so fast you hardly get to know them. Had I known that this young man would have such a profound impact on me, I would have paid more attention. That in itself is an important lesson. How could you ever know when a life changing moment is being delivered to you? You don't. So make it a point to just pay attention to everything. The next person you see may be the one to deliver that message. Before rushing to write this, I did try to find his name on their website. Thousands of pictures, but no names. So I did something I hardly ever do. I posted on the message board and someone told me.

His name was Michael Luizza

"What did he say, Bob? "Tell us already!" After auditioning he stood before the judges and they simply told him, "No." He said..."Thank you. I'll try to change the world some other way!"

"Pow!" "Bang!" "Oh, my Lord!"

He failed to make it any further. He approached a dream opportunity and
it stopped right there. Some of them cried. Some cursed. Some died right there in spirit. He took the moment, gleaned from it all he could learn and recognizing the full value of it all, immediately saw it for all it was worth. "I'll try to change the world some other way!"

I'm telling you, as I just wrote that line chills rushed over me again. What is it that you have dreamed of that has you facing a dead end instead of turning right or left? What is it that finds you standing still instead of turning around and planning a new route to happiness? My goal, my mission all of my life was to change the world. I've tried and I am still trying to do just that.
In my lifetime I have fallen flat on my face and cried in a puddle on the floor in my living room. I have begged God to take my life because I had wasted it. I have given up and given in. I have been defeated and I have been depressed.

All in just the first 55 years of my life. This young man picked me up off the floor tonight, smacked me in the head and said..."It ain't over, old man!" I told you I was burning within my soul about this. Most of you will read this and just won't get it. You weren't supposed to. But you! You, who are reading this right now and crying, maybe screaming with the joy of waking up from the dead. You and I must learn...

"I'll try to change the world some other way!"
( Michael Luizza from American Idol 2005.)

Oh yes, one other big winner of the evening. A woman with a young child at home that she loved so much, she gave up the opportunity to go on with the competition. The first person to ever do that. She knew she was an Idol already...in her son's eyes.

Wow! Pow! Oh, My Lord, I'm burning inside!
"I'll try to change the world some other way!
"I believe in you!"

Bob Perks
Bob@BobPerks.com