Naysayers

naysayer - someone with an aggressively negative attitude
obstructer, obstructionist, obstructor, resister, thwarter - someone who systematically obstructs some action that others want to take

It doesn't matter what you call them: basement people, naysayers, dream-stealers, joy-robbers, party poopers; they all have the same affect in our lives. They want to crush our dreams and make us feel like what we wish and hope for is unattainable. They drag us down into their pits and want us to live there with them in the basements of defeat and negativity...and worst of all--reality.

You just can't listen to the naysayers. They told Moses that Pharaoh would never let God's people go. They told the followers of Jesus that Christianity would never survive. They told Christopher Columbus the world was flat. They told the colonists they could never start a new world. They told Benjamin Franklin and the authors of the first constitution that the document would never last. They told Helen Keller's family to lock her up in an institution. They told the Wright Brothers it was impossible for humans to fly. They said this country would never recover from an attack of the magnitude of September 11th.

Imagine if you will all the naysayers in Barry's life. Those who said he should keep his safe 9-5 job with a paycheck and not risk a career in music. Those naysayers who told him he had no experience producing a record and couldn't possibly take on the task of doing Bette's first album. Those who balked when he wanted to do a jazz album (a pop singer doing a jazz album????). Those who probably said he'd never last this long recording "pop" music. Those who laugh at his repertoire of music.

Thank God he didn't listen to any of them. He grabbed hold of his dreams and he embraced them with conviction. And when they said he wouldn't last...and when they shook their head and said dream on because dreamers disappear...he kept dreaming, no matter what they said. Because he wouldn't give up on his dreams.

He held tight in spite of all the odds stacked against him. He didn't listen to the naysayers. The people who said his music had no substance. Why? Because he knew that he could move people. He knew that his music had a message and if we would just "listen" we would hear what he was trying to say. And what he is trying to say is "never give up on your dreams". And NEVER listen to the naysayers. NEVER.

We dreamers have our ways...and those ways make our dreams come true!
Texas Fan