To steal the OTH quote of JK Rowling, “The consequences of our actions are so complicated and so diverse that predicting the future is a very difficult business indeed!”  Lots of people have had some predictions on what my future will be.  Some people have said, that I would never get married.  Some thought that I was too set in my ways, that I worked too much, that no woman was going to take me serious for playing music.  So, I became a banker, actually no that’s not really it.  I would have said to answer all those questions that I used to work a lot, and I do still believe in hard work, rather than going into debt, or living beyond your means, I’ve only been set in my ways, because I believe in certain principles, and for any woman that didn’t believe in me playing music, really didn’t deserve a line in any of my blogs.  You see, I always think that there are compromises in anything.  I would think a woman that believed in family, and wanting things for the family, would support me following my passion, and making a little money while doing it.  It’s certainly changed over the years.   People think that I-pod’s are Dj’s.  I can’t even talk about that here, because that would be a full blog.  I’m waxing nostalgic about weddings here, because my OTH crush Brooke Davis (Sophia Bush), got married last night.  I didn’t really care much for her character in the beginning, but I liked what she developed into.  She had millions, and she gave it all up because of her principles.  She just wanted true and real love, and I think that’s what a lot of us want.  Some of my friends that have been married for a long time said it fades, that the shine comes off, or that you really shouldn’t get married.  They tell me, ” Matt you see em on the happiest days of their life, but you don’t see them on the rest of them.”  I think it’s how you manage the rest of them.  One of the advantages I have, having held out on marriage, is that I’ve had plenty of time to think about it.  I believe that I know what I want, and I’ve had it twice, but one time I screwed up, and the other time I got screwed over as God paid it back to me for my screw up.  If I don’t end up married, I have been blessed to know what true love really is.  I appreciate it, I believe I can harness it when it’s there, and make it continue to grow.  The tricky thing about true love is that you have to have someone that believes in it two.  One of the things that makes me hesitate about my thoughts about true love, is that people go through so much crap, and sometimes it takes a lot out of them.  Sometimes once a person breaks your heart, you don’t allow it to be rebuilt again.  You just sit and think about, dwell on all the things in the past, and you let it define you.  While any past transgression requires some time for any reasonable human being to get over, the time that matters is today and tommorrow.  Today matters the most, because you’re living it, and tommorrow matters if you want to plan special things, but don’t ever forget about today.  Do you think my 92 year old grandfather thinks about much more than today?  You’re damn right he doesn’t.  He told me what keeps him strong and healthy as an ox, is just living every day the best way he can.  It’s served him well in his 92 years, and those are the smart people.  If you’ve made it to your 90′s with all your faculties about you, you’ve got my respect.  I love older people, they can teach you so much.  I try to share some of my wisdom with younger people all the time.  They might not always listen to everything you say, but I guarantee you that they will remember it.  My stepdad used to say, ” Matthew if you can count on more than one hand how many times I’ve told you something wrong, then I will be glad to have a discussion about it, but until then you’re gonna have to believe me.”  I didn’t always want to believe the guy all the time, but I think he held up to his end of the deal. 

You know why each and every one of us is the best thing?  The reason is simple, because you’re you.  We all have basic principles that we believe in, and we have some that we won’t change.  I’ve had chances to settle, marry just to get married, have a kid or two, but there was something not quite right about those situations.  I wouldn’t want anybody to think that I believe there’s a perfect girl out there, but as Julian from One Tree Hill said, who had kept a gaming taken from the octopuss for many years, there is another half out there for all of us.  I took a list earlier this year and whittled it down from around 100 to 10.  The number one thing for me is that I want a girl that’s sweet who has her priorities in line.  I don’t want to be chasing her in and out of bars every night.  There has to be some other things as well.  If we can’t talk, we go nowhere, if we have no spark we’re a bonnie tyler song, if we can’t laugh and have fun, we’re no good to ourselves, let alone each other, and well you get my drift.  I’ve been told recently that I’ve changed.  My friends want to go out 7 nights a week.  It’s an absolutely crazy schedule.  I enjoy time to think, I enjoy time at home, and I think I’ve molded quite nicely into being ok with not keeping up with the Jones’s, but just appreciating life for what it is.  It doesn’t have to be a rat race, it doesn’t have to be guess what I did this weekend, it can be simple stuff.  The smile of a beautiful sweet woman who has her stuff together, yeah that’s enough for me.

Have you ever had one of those moments of clarity, where a few things started to make a lot of sense?  What triggered that moment?  My guess would be that it was something that inspired you.  Another great line in the movie is, ” Maybe I could write great lyrics, but I’m waiting to be inspired?”  I’ve written a lot of things over the years.  I used to have a pretty big following I guess.  I wrote lots of things on myspace back in it’s heyday.  They just laid off half their staff.  Should I save these pieces of literature, before that website goes the way of dinosaurs?  Should I re-read some of them?  It’s been a long time since I have shared a lot of what I have written with the public.  To be honest with you, and I only have told a few people about “Matt Luecking’s Little Corner Of The World” blog on wordpress.com, I don’t know if I want to.  There’s a few people that I care enough about that I want to read this, I don’t mind if others stumble across it, there’s lots that won’t understand it, because they haven’t had the experiences, or maybe they lack the depth, but most of all when it comes to writing, what you write should be true to your heart and soul, and it should mean the most to you.  Writing can be very raw, and the good writers don’t always know what they are going to say, but what they do know is when they are inspired.  I’ve often wondered at times if I’m better on paper, or if I’m better in the real world.  As the years have gone on, I’d have to say that I believe I’ve rounded into being pretty good at both.  I was thinking about my youth on Friday night.  I went home to see my beloved Princeton Tigers play to a sold out middle school gym.  If you stumble across this from somewhere around the world, just know that from where I’m from, it’s Indiana, and if you don’t know about basketball you just might want to find another area or zip code not associated with our fair state.  I always think about a lot of things when I go home.  I’ve made that drive in and out of town so many times.  My eyes, ears, and heart start to perk up everytime I drive through Patoka.  Patoka, is a little podunk smaller town outside of Princeton, that’s been my gateway to longtime friends and family for the past several years since I went to Indiana State University many years ago.  Not much has changed about Patoka, and when you’re looking for a sense of comfort and stability, that some things do stay the same, you don’t have to go much further than a small town.  That post office is still there, that old school is still there, that bar on the hill, that’s been owned by God knows how many people is still there, that ex-girlfriend I think is still there, lol…!  Anyway, what I love about my hometown is that it always grounds me, not be confused with being grounded as a kid, because I did have a few of those moments.  Mom, “I’m sorry about that!”    The feeling of being grounded and being amorous about being grounded is a sense of peace that lots of us don’t get to.  I see so many people that are out chasing things.  Some things you have to chase I suppose.  They say that men enjoy the chase, and that they spend as much time chasing women, as women do on their hair and make-up.  If you know any proper woman, you know that can be quite awhile.  Yes, Brad Paisley, you’re right, there’s nothing quite like Waitin On A Woman.  I think I’ve chased different things in life.  Not to say I haven’t chased a few women, but maybe I’m still looking for the one that wants to catch me, before I get swallowed up like a big fish on the line that goes to be put up on the wall in the cabin.  We have singing fish, we have plenty of fish in the sea, we have fish out of water, we have fish that are still swimming and will never stop, we have fish that are waiting to be caught, and sometimes we have fish that are only meant for that other fish that truly gets us.  As I sit here thinking about this, I hope the fish thing isn’t me having a hard time dealing with the fact that my astrological sign is a fish, and some people are saying with a recent study that I’m a Pisces.  I can promise you to the best of my knowledge, that I am and always will be a Pisces through and through.  Astrology is a fascinating thing.  Some people think it’s hogwash, but I fell in love with it several years ago.  I just thought it was fascinating.  If you like astrology, you might really fall in love with numerology, and as I said earlier in this peace, you should fall in love with as many things as possible.

So, I wanted to think about things I’ve fallen in love with.  The first time I shot a basketball I couldn’t even get it to the rim.  I tried over and over again.  I remember that first basket I made in a game.  I was pretty proud of myself back in my Boys Club days.  Ok, maybe I don’t remember my exact first basket, but I bet my mom does.  I fell in love with basketball, because I could think, I could exercise, I could perfect all the angles and shots, and it was something fun to do outside my house in little old Princeton, IN.  I remember my mom had to ring the dinner bell to get me to come inside from playing basketball.  As I got a little older, my little brother would come out and play with me.  We’d shoot until it was dark, and we shot the ball so much that we convinced my stepdad to put in a light outside so we could keep shooting until bed time.  We shot on weekdays, weeknights, holidays, and I shot anytime I was stressed, or just wanted to play something that was so basic and simple, yet so complex, that I could be alone with my thoughts for an hour.  I used to bring out my radio and play it to give me a soundtrack to those years of my life, that I will always fondly remember.  While I fell in love with basketball, I also fell in love with music, which led me to falling in love with radio several years later.  Radio wasn’t even what I went to school for, which has served me very well in life years later, but radio was something that the first time I got a taste of it I loved.  A lot of people that I have met over the years love the fame of it, but if we go back to part 3 of this blog, love and fame have a hard time existing in the same place.  I never had any thoughts of fame in my own head, and what makes me feel ok about my 15 year radio careeer is that fame and love never did exist in the same place for me.  I loved radio for the art of it.  I loved constructing a good performance, a good flow, and presenting great music to a large mass of people.  What I also loved about my radio experience was that it was so very real.  It was as real as some of those moments in my small town growing up sitting in the corn field, driving on the backroads, stopping on the backroads, ok that’s not blog material,lol…!  I was allowed to create the show I wanted within certain parameters, and I thoroughly enjoyed that.  The basic are of creation is something that we all have inside of us.  What do you like to create?  I bet there are several things that you fall in love with every day, and you just don’t think about it?  I wanted to create a certain vibe or feeling about the love of music.  I’m sure you have a favorite song?  What is it?  I’d love to know?  Why is it your favorite song?  I don’t just mean the song that you like at the moment, but you’re favorite song?  As I think about this I’m not sure I have a favorite song, I think I have many, but there’s one I always come back to, ” 100 Ways by James Ingram!”  There’s nothing like the love of a good woman, and this particular line has always stayed with me, “Complement What She Does, Send Her Roses Just Because, If It’s Violin She Loves Let Her Play, Dedicate Her Favorite Song, And Hold Her All Night Long, Ask Her To Stay, Find 100 Ways.  100 Ways is pretty simple yet deep.  I’ve always appreciated simple and deep.  Lots of people get the simple, but how many people can grasp the deep?  We’re talking about Falling In Love With As Many Things As Possible Here, and over the years I think I’ve come to realize that I just might be a bit amorous, and a romantic at heart.  I’ve often wondered if women really appreciate romantics?  You always hear that they do, but lots of jerks end up with women that are utterly stunning, charming, and even some that are simple yet deep.  Romance is a lot of things to a lot of people!  What one person might think is totally romantic, another might not even have that on their list.  What’s romantic to me is something that comes from your heart.  You can’t ever fake that, and at this point in my life I have no time for fake.  I don’t like fake, I don’t like drama, I don’t like things that are a foolish waste of time, but I have always and still do, like things that are so real that it captivates you, it leaves you speechless, and it stops you in your freaking tracks.

I knew I wanted to see Country Strong.  I knew the girl I wanted to see it with me, but she couldn’t go at this time, hence the timing is everything title.  So, I still knew I was going to go to the movie.  I was asked to go by a female I know, but I didn’t think I was prepared to see it with her, so I didn’t.  I knew for most of the weekend, that I would see this movie today, this Martin Luther King Day 2011.  It’s a day where the great Dr. King said, we should not be judged on the color of our skin, but the content of our character.  I started to think about what the content of my character has been over the years.  Have you ever thought about the content of your character?  What are you really about?  What do you fall in love with every day?  That’s what makes you who you are, and if you’re simple yet deep, I would have to say it probably makes you amazing.  So many people judge their life on how it unfolds.  They say we all have a plan of how it’s gonna go.  Maybe you’ve been the luckiest person in the world who fell in love with that first person you met, and it never faded, maybe you’ve been married for a few years and you lost all it was supposed to be about, maybe you’ve loved and lost and are appreciative of the fact that you’ve had the experiences, but maybe just maybe you’re living your journey.  When you take the time to develop the content of your character, and you have a pretty good understanding of what you’re about, that’s when you have the opportunity to share you’re simple and deep with another.  I loved one particular thing in Country Strong more than any line, though obviously I liked a few lines.  I loved that look of love across a table in a restaurant, where all you can focus on is that girl across the table.  It’s not the same as that first glance love at first sight, but it’s that look of developed love, when you trust somebody, when you want to be with somebody, and when your love is appreciated by somebody from a far.  Gwyneth Paltrow’s character notices this look, and I always appreciate those looks between two people that are in love.  There’s nothing like it, and as we said earlier, you should never be afraid to fall in love, because it’s the only thing that matters.  You can’t fake that look, you can’t make it happen, it just does.  That’s real, and in your journey and mine of falling in love with as many things as possible, if you’ve ever had that type of look, seen it, wanted it, appreciated it, craved it, forgotten it, reciprocated it, or had it with somebody else at the exact same time you don’t forget it. 

They say the Pisces are dreamers, yet I think we’re optimistic, I think we’re in touch with what truly matters, and I think that there is no doubt in my mind that it will happen again.  That look is paralyzing, and it makes up for any bad day, any kid crying, any headache, any day where you can’t wait to get off work, and any day that you might say, “Now why didn’t I fall in love with anything today?”  Wouldn’t it be grand to fall in love with something different in our life everyday?  When I say this, I don’t necessarily mean people, I mean places, things, ideas, or passions?  If you’ve had that look reciprocated from the one person that means more than anything to you in this world, you won’t want it to be another person day after day, you’ll just want it to be a snapshot frozen in time, that you hope will be as good with that special person later on in that day, tommorrow, next week, next month, next year, or 50 years from now.  The 100 ways might change, but that’s a good thing.  You should always find 100 ways and 100 things that you could fall in love with on any given day.  Sometimes we don’t have the time with all the day to day goings on.  Life is busy, but I challenge you to keep in your mind 100 things, and maybe even 100 looks that say the exact same thing with that special person in your life, or when you’re lucky enough to find it for the first time, or when you you’re blessed enough to find it again.

Country Strong was very moving.  The music was awesome, the story was great, the problems of the flawed main character, were sad and sometimes tragic, but the development of a future generation of young musicians and music lovers was so very exciting for me to see, and I do think that all of these lovers of music, performing, and life lessons were very real.  I’ve had some pretty real things happen to me.  I’ve had a very interesting  journey that still continues to this day.  I always try to appreciate something about each day, and this particular day I will be thankful for this movie.  If you take the movie at face value, some things you might see as predictable, others things might shock you, the problem of alcoholism might sadden you, and people singing music on a stage might not be anything that is different to you.  However, if you take a step back from the movie, if you appreciate it’s layers, if you remember that first time that you knew that you loved something, how you looked, where you were, what you were wearing, and how it made you feel, maybe just maybe you’ll understand that loving as many things as possible, and falling in love is the only thing that truly matters, because it has the power to make you write your own lyrics of inspiration.  If  however you’ve lost it, but you know that you’ll find it again on your journey of loving as many things as possible, it should make your life even more exciting, because good things are always still yet  to come to you when you allow yourself to be simple and deep, and you appreciate the road that you’ve taken to get there.

By mattluecking

Do you like getting Christmas Cards?  It’s one of the very few things that people mail anymore.  I have some old family friends, Malinda and George Gilbert who send me a card every year.  I always look forward to it.  My friend Lauren, who I’ve known forever sent me a card, a very sweet girl named Heather just sent me a Christmas card that I received today, I got Christmas cards at the bank, I got a few business Christmas cards, and then occasionally you get that Christmas card that you’re not exactly sure why you get it.  Then other times you get an e-mail, or someone reaches out to one of your relatives, and says so and so called me, and was asking about you.  You realize you haven’t seen this person since Las Vegas many moons ago.  You’re not exactly sure what to do with it, but you just say oh ok, and continue on.  Christmas brings out something in people.  It makes people reach out more than they normally would, it makes you forget past rights or wrongs, and sometimes you just feel compelled to say something.  I recently read this article about break-up’s.  I guess I’m kind of morbid, because I find these things fascinating.  When do you think that most break-up’s happen?  What would you guess?  Well the answer believe it or not is at Christmas time, and March.  I talked to a buddy of mine, and he said guys do it at Christmas to get out of the gifts, and girls do it in March to enjoy spring break, or after they are sick of having cabin fever with somebody, and then want to start anew.  I guess people must think about it for January and February, before they act?  I always wonder what do they think?  Well, it’s winter I’ve got nothing better to do, so I’ll just hang around until the weather gets better.  Not really good logic, but for some people, logic never really factors into their life.  I remember one particular break-up years ago on what I believe to be about 1998 on Dec. 23rd.  It’s the one time I’ll say that I probably had something coming to me.  When you’re a young guy, sometimes you get caught up in some things, possibiilities, and a new career.  It was a bit odd, because after we broke up, we exchanged Christmas gifts.  Now, I wasn’t really in the mood to exchange any Christmas gifts, but I opened the things, more because what was I going to do throw them out in the yard?  We all have tough days in our life.  I’ve talked to a lot of people lately that have had a lot of them this year.  I’ m sure you have a day in your life you remember like it was yesterday.  You don’t really want to, but you just kind of do.  As Christmas has gone on over the years, I’ve always remembered that day.  It kind stole the soul of the 1998 Christmas.  I thought it was going to be a good one, but it turned out to be a not so good one, but 1999 now that turned out to be a good year.  I learned some lessons, I changed some things, and I didn’t let one day define my life in a bad way.  I made the change as MJ says by looking at the man in the mirror.  I assessed what was wrong, and how I was going to live from that day on.  I’ve never wavered from how I felt about that day, and when I ever had selfish thoughts, or thoughts of hey life is going pretty good right now, I always remembered that day.  You have to have some low’s to balance out the high’s.  We don’t always like the low’s, but there are a reason that they happen.  If everything always went exactly how you wanted how well rounded would you really be?  My answer is “Not Very!”  Dec. 23rd might not mean much to other people, but I think it’s the day I really grew up.  I already felt somewhat grown-up, but on that day I knew I had no real choice but to get it together.  So, occasionally a conversation that you don’t expect to have, about a person from your past wanting a phone number, sends you back to December for more time than you want to.  Then you remember that Christmas is about the little things, the people ringing the bell for the Salvation Army, looking at the lights on the Xmas Tree, egg nog, old friends getting together for drinks and a movie, conversations, reflections, family, people who don’t have much who you encounter and you just try to be kind, a co-worker wanting you to listen to Christmas music even when you’re not quite in the mood, a collection guy telling you the line of the year, “I’m just walking through life waiting for it to end!”,(Ok that was a bit morbid), and then you get back to a card that you get your 92 year old grandfather, who has aged gracefully, always been steady, and not quit on his life or the way he’s done things for years, and you think you see a tear from a man who hasn’t shed many, and you remember, yeah it’s Christmas….  It makes the bad days not seem so bad, even if today you don’t think you can return the e-mail you didn’t expect to receive, or the phone call that came from out of the blue.  Sometimes you just want to enjoy this day for what it is with some new music from “Mama Sox” from American Idol, doing a little writing, doing a little reflecting, and not forgetting about always looking forward, always learning, always growing, and never forgetting about how hard it is to earn a dollar, and how you should never forget about the things that shaped your life no matter how many years later when you really haven’t gone back to December in quite a long time.