"Attempt easy tasks as if they were difficult..."

"Attempt easy tasks as if they were difficult, and difficult as if they were easy; in the one case that confidence may not fall asleep, in the other that it may not be dismayed." - Baltasar Gracián y Morales

I just got back from New York...the City that never sleeps...and when it suddenly snowed 1/2 a foot, the City went to sleep. A snow-covered sleep. It was funny because they declared a state-of-emergency in parts of the NorthEast USA and on the tv news they were calling it the Storm of the Decade! And who knows, perhaps it was in some places. DC apparently had the most snow since they began recording snowfall. But to me growing up in Eastern Ontario where we'd have snow (thanks in part to snow plows) piled higher than I stood, this was no big deal.

The City did rally and woke-up again the next day. :)

I was there on my third weekend of my ILP training and the big DISTINCTION of the weekend was: PERFORMANCE! And the secret of performance is: ACTION. And the big pitfall of PERFORMANCE/ACTION is REASON and FAILURE. It seems we have tons of reasons NOT to perform or take action and all or often in protecting ourselves against the threat of FAILING...or ultimately: LOOKING BAD or NOT LOOKING GOOD!

We have COLLAPSED failing to perform with failing to be. In otherwords, if I take action and fail, I don't have it that my actions failed, but rather that "I" failed and/or that I am a FAILURE. And this keeps us manufacturing compelling reasons not to take action. Yet only in action is there any chance to fulfill on what we say we want to be/do/have.

Funny, I am almost through reading BORN TO RUN by Scott McDougall and by the end of the book it is making very similar points from a different perspective. It's talking about the evolutionary purpose of the brain towards efficiency. Which I posit also has a vested interest in NOT failing. There are survival instincts in not failing. Historically, if you failed, it could mean the end of your life. But not, we are living pretty cozy/comfortable lives and there are few pursuits or activities that as Westerners we are up to that are life or death. And yet, we still have this biological/human being impulse to NOT FAIL.

That aside, I am taking on this coaching which is to ever fulfill on anything/everything I say I want to be/do/have requires ACTION. Lots and lots of action.

It's funny too how often inaction consumes so much more time than the action it is designed to thwart or interrupt. I guess that's why...its counter-intuitive, but by taking more time it is more frustrating and decreases that likelihood of any further action because of the increased frustration and the decreased amount of time available or left for action. The old knowing when to hold 'em and knowing when to fold 'em!

In short...2010 is my ACTION YEAR and the beginning of my ACTION DECADE!!!! Let the games begin!!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR/DECADE!!!!

"No one can really pull you up very high -- you lose your grip on the rope. But on your own two feet you can climb mountains." - Louis Brandeis

"No one can really pull you up very high -- you lose your grip on the rope. But on your own two feet you can climb mountains." - Louis Brandeis

Sort of like: "You can give man a fish and he can eat for a day OR you can teach a man to fish and he will eat forever"...to paraphrase badly. But the note of the quote is the same. If someone "gives" it to you - you just don't value it...or lose your grip. Also, you have no ability to recreate/reproduce it. Its presence in your life was not earned with experience...therefore you have no ability to cause it on your own. Worse, you run the risk of being dependent or even addicted to the giver/puller.

This alludes to the "failure" of our culture to embrace and encourage "failure"! Its this fear of failure that makes us "easy road to riches", quick-fix kind of world. There is no ebracement of "hard" work or practice or development/training. We want our fame and glory now...so we will take the pull up or the free fish for today...and to heck with the consequences or the termporariness of the "fix"!

- Economic stiumulus or real analysis of and acceptance of the true impact of our bankrupted economic structure/lifestyle!

- So you didn't make it to third or even fourth place...here's a "participation" badge...don't worry, winning isn't everything!

- Here's another diet promising that you will lose 20-lbs in 7-days!

Instantaneous fortune/fame....youtube! Your 15-seconds of fame has been reduced to 15-nanoseconds....but it's yours! Take it!

Its not unlike "our" American cultural fear of depression. Take a pill. Eat! Drink! Do anything, but don't face yourself and your thoughts. Run from it! Turn on the tv or watch youtube and it will all be better!!!!

IT'S TIME TO PULL OURSELVES UP...TO LEARN TO FISH....TO CONQUER MOUNTAINS...ONE STEP AT A TIME!

"A life of reaction is a life of slavery, intellectually and spiritually. One must fight for a life of action, not reaction." - Rita Mae Brown

I spent the day dealing with traffic, incompetence, delays, bureaucracy and I am frustrated. I stated that I am not tolerating "unworkability" in my life and guess what...that's what's showing up!

Surprise!

"The gain in self-confidence of having accomplished a tiresome labour is immense." -- Arnold Bennett

This quote speaks to me of PRACTICE. Of PATIENCE. And of MASTERY. As a culture we are so easily distracted by shallow promises of 'easy routes' and 'overnight success' -- so few of us are prepared to do the work that's involved. We all want instant fame and enlightenment. Just take this pill. Take this course. Read this book. All of that is great/good/useful...and it still take HARD WORK. And that is the reward. Somethings cannot be gained by shortcuts. And only taking shortcuts deprives one of certain learning and development...that is invaluable and inestimable. Until you come up against that short-fall. Then it's too late OR you rise to the ocassion and take on your work! Mastery is or at least has been undervalued culturally. But I do sense shifts or even transformations in the zeitgeist or collective cultural story. Maybe...

"Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision." - Peter Drucker

A great play! A novel/movie/opera...any one of a number of "things" can be a testament to a courageous decision...including business decisions. We tend to honour and respect the arts/sciences more often than we do 'business' -- but what impacts most profoundly, daily, are the business-decisions that are made every minute of every day by business people and executives. They affect the way we live and work and play and think and interact. And courage is most often a rare commodity. So anywhere it is witnessed, it must be lauded and commended...in ourselves and in others!

I am thinking about what courageous decisions have I been making lately?

That's an interesting 'context' to bring to one's life. Will courageous decisions give one a courageous life and/or a courageously lived life? I think so and certainly and out-of-the-box life! Nothing ordinary!

And that's what I want: A truly EXTRA-ORDINARY life!!!!

"I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it." – Pablo Picasso

God bless Picasso. What an artist! Even if you don't like/love his art, the sheer breadth of IT - his talent, his productivity, his evolution, his transition from style-to-style, his inventiveness, his wit/passion/focus...are admirable and enviable.

It seems the people I most admire are people like this: dedicated, focussed, disciplined, passionate, productive, accomplished and accomplishing. People/artists/writers/filmmakers/business men/women/leaders, etc -- who are out to make a difference and who create a whole BODY of work/life/accomplishments. People who touch and change the world by their having been here!

I aspire to these lofty heights...and yet I know that I have been rather complacent and slow to the task. And yet, I have accomplished a lot in my already 46-years. And now it seems, I am accomplishing even more. It's funny how it takes a life to get to living a life you/I want. All that I have done/been has put me in a place to do/be that which I am up to now...THANK GOODNESS...and therefore, all that has happened, good / bad / indifferent has served a great purposes.

TEACHING! TRAINING! DEVELOPING ME...to become the man I am becoming.

I hope...no I AM up to this task/challenge.

"A person who doubts himself is like a man who would enlist in the ranks of his enemies and bear arms against himself." - Alexandre Dumas

Very interesting quote. I think about how much of my life has been spent doubting myself. This really is 'self-defeatist' -- who needs enemies when you are your own worst enemy. I am just thinking about how different life would be from the perspective of: I believe in myself and my decisions/choices -- even if they are or prove to be wrong. Not that you couldn't change your mind or even admit your wrong-ness, but just start from the premise: I BELIEVE IN MYSELF...come hell or high water.

I wonder where this "self-doubt" originates. I certainly see it in my family of origin. I see it in my culture and in the greater culture(s) around me. It seems to be inculcated from a young age. It also seems to be a major component of religion - at least the major Western religions.

And self-doubt, I postulate, is not the same as self-inquiry or self-examination or even generalized doubt. This really is a poison dart to one's own heart and sould. How much of our time is spent sabotaging, or minimizing, or denying who were are, what we want, what we really truly think. Its absolutely rampant. And the more we do it individually, the more we impose this same "self-doubt" onto others. In fact, when meet people who "seem" to not suffer this same angst, we think of them as "arrogant" or "cocky" or "to big for his/her britches" -- which isn't to say that there are plenty of people who truly are that. But be self-assured or self-believing does not automatically translate or have to translate into arrogant.

To believe in oneself, to endorse one's own beliefs/opinions/choices/points-of-view, is to be on your own side, to watch your own back, to be YOURSELF. Not something that is always encouraged or endorsed in this mass consumer-based culture of conformity.

"Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric." - Bertrand Russell

I think back to my youth (not that I feel I have left my youth...but rather, my younger days) and how "odd" or "eccentric" I thought I was. The strange thoughts I had. The strange ideas. And how I hated myself for being "different". Like there was some kind of "sameness" OUT THERE that I had failed to grow-up into...conform to. Now I am glad for all my differences and almost regret much of the "sameness" that I have assimilated. My own urges to "fit in" and to "belong" have mellowed and shaped and smoothed many of my rougher edges. And, although those rought edges needed some smoothing, they were also a part of who I was/am. My uniqueness. My vision. My art. My being. Now that I am older...and one hopes: wiser - I long to return to that former, rougher, unrefined self. Those raw, sharp edges gave me something. A sense of identity. I remember an early collection of poems I wrote: ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN (published early 1980s) and how trite and cliched they were...but at the same time, they were honest, early reflections from my particular point-of-view. The compelling urge to conform itself, must be fought and stayed! To really appreciate who were are...all of our ackwardness, geekiness, strangeness...this is the blessing of who we each are. I think too of all the other 'odd-balls' I remember from school. Were they special, gifted, odd? Yes...but in the pejorative way that was suggested then? Perhaps...but then again, as Bertrand Russell suggests, maybe these were future geniuses. I recently watched most of THE SOLOIST with Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx -- a story about a violinist/cellist who becomes increasingly taken over by his schizophrenia. He survives on the edges of life. Living on the street and performing under freeway overpasses. Downey Jr.'s character - a reporter for the Los Angeles Times - trys to "save" him and normalize him. But I remember one of the counsellors he brings him to suggests that Foxx's character and all the others under his care have had enough drugs, therapy and labels. There is an inherent suggestion that their reality is real and right and appropriate for them...and that the problem is "us" - society - for rejecting them and estranging them to the streets and fringes. What an interesting concept. How much have we disposed ourselves. What is a mid-life crisis, but a momentary wake-up call to re-assess our lives. What happened to us? To our lives? Our potential? Our youth? What is YOUTH anyway? Is it only "age" or is a state of being? Of being "new," "open," willing to examine, question and postulate new, strange and eccentric ideas? I think it is as much the latter as the former, it's just the "young" have not had all their rough edges and eccentricities smoothed out and suppressed. So here is to YOUTH, to ECCENTRICITY and to being ALIVE AND OPEN MINDED...

"When patterns are broken, new worlds emerge." - Tuli Kupferberg

I have recently ended a nearly six year long relationship and my whole life has shifted/changed/altered/transformed.

Its odd how a relationship is like a constellation...a universe. There is the SUN and the planets that revolve around it. There are stars shining out in the far distance...but one's whole world is there...circling around the sun...and all the other planets fall into a pattern, an orbit around it. Holding it in place. Circling in a familiar axis. Rising, falling, rising, falling. And then there is a tilt...a crack...a Big Bang...and everything is different.

I have recently experienced this BIG BANG. And although the shifts and transformations have been significant, and the events leading up to it, momentous...the post trauma of this cataclysmic shift has been fantastically positive. I have been jettisoned out of my old orbit into new terrain. I am rediscovering MYSELF. Making new connections. Circling and floating in a new universe. I am my own SUN, MOON and STARS!

It is total freedom...with no fear, no pain and no regret.

All is good in the universe and anything and everything we fear is fruitless. Whatever is going to happen is going to happen and all there is for US to do/be/have is to be ourselves. To be integral. To be our HIGHEST and BEST selves. And deal with and surpass our circumstances.

"Luck? I don't know anything about luck. I've never banked on it and I'm afraid of people who do. Luck to me is something else: hard work..."

"Luck? I don't know anything about luck. I've never banked on it and I'm afraid of people who do. Luck to me is something else: hard work -- and realizing what is opportunity and what isn't." - Lucille Ball


Wow! Good old red-headed Lucille Ball. She sure knew how to make 'em laugh. And sure knew how to work hard. I always remember her fondly. Although I am too young to have watched her in real time on I LOVE LUCY, I do remember (vaguely) growing up to The Lucille Ball Show -- and of course, I did eventually see almost all of the original b&w show in reruns and rebroadcasts. I mean, who hasn't.

I remember, too, reading her autobiography as a child. She fascinated me. She and Desi worked very hard and parlayed their talents and skills into their own company - DesiLu Productions (?) - and from there they bought the old RKO film company. I think at one point, they and there companies were a very BIG deal in Hollywood.

She was a consumate performer/artist/comedian...lady! And a decidedly hard worker.

I think about that "era" - post depression/pre&post war and there was definitely a different "work ethic" at rule. People expected to work hard and they also seemed to expect a regular life. Nobody had visions of grandeur. They wanted a house and kids and the white picket fence and maybe a tv and car! And all of that was the BIG dream.

Now everybody dreams of being a rock star, movie star, fashion designer...in short: a CELEBRITY. I don't think there were "celebrities" back then. There was normal people and a few movie stars. It was a small pantheon. No reality tv shows. No 24-hour infomercials. No famous for being famous types...per se. You worked hard and you lived. And then a few people, by sheer grit, determination, hard work, know-how, talent and connections made it BIG.

Of course, BIG back then was really big compared to the average. Also, there wasn't any taxes or very few at certain times. For instance, pre-Lucille Ball and looking at the Mary Pickfords/Douglas Fairbanks, et al, when they formed United Artists and were earning $1,000,000 per movie -- that was HUGE money. Pre-tax! That might be like earning $100,000,000 now...at least in it's spending power.

Nowadays, everybody suffers from entitlement-envy/expectation. Somehow, people (esp. younger people) think that stardom and fame/fortune/success is just going to fall in their laps AND they deserve it. Even if they do nothing! And sometimes they are right. With all of the internet and tv reality bullshit, people have gotten famous for absolutely no reason. I am not sure how successfully they have parlayed that success into anything lasting or profitable. But they have attained a certain degree of 'celebrity'!

But back to Ms. Ball's thesis: "...I am afraid of people who do..." bank on luck. I remember working late at the office one night and someone walked by and said to my colleague: "Oh, you are working late!" And she turned to me and say, sarcastically: "Yeah, it's all luck!" She is/was one of the hardest working people I know. And although she is taking a "little" more time off than before, it is still a) after 26-years of working hard and b) not much less than where she was before and still much more than the average.

Working hard and striving for your goals, dreams, aspirations is good for you...good for your soul and good for your bank account. It's even good for the economy. You are bringing up the economy and the national income average as well as efficiency for the whole GNP. You are a star! And you deserve all the luck that comes out of your hard work!

Time to go running! :)

"Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come...

"Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don't give up." - Anne Lamott


It's hard some times to have FAITH. So much is unpleasant and unfulfilled in the world that to think that the above sentiment is true requires a real willing suspension of disbelief. Or, in other words, FAITH.

But how do you have faith? In light of all the sadness, misery, despair both in the world and in one's own life - day to day - how do you maintain an empowering context? And what qualifies as "the right thing"? How does one know that what one is engage in doing is in fact 'the right thing'? What if - in fact - it is the wrong thing?

Do I stay or do I go?
Do I quit or do I give more/try harder?
Do I love or do I hate?
Do I care or do I kill my heart?

These are not such existential questions as they are day-to-day inquiries. Watching the news? Dealing with bosses or clients? Fighting with lovers? Sitting alone contemplating one's own life and future and all the past choices that have brought you/one/me to this point!

SO...Ms. Lamott (who was no stranger to misery, unhappiness and loss) urges us that "HOPE BEGINS IN THE DARK..." - so whenever/wherever you are at your darkest, there is where hope begins. To hope. To pray. To wish. To dream. To commit! With blind faith...and if one is present (shows up) and tries to do the right thing (the good thing, the ethical thing, the hopeful thing) the "the dawn will come"! And most importantly, YOU DON'T GIVE UP!


"People usually fail when they are on the verge of success. So give as much care to the end as to the beginning." - Lao-Tzu

"Life only demands from you the strength you possess. Only one feat is possible — not to have run away." – Dag Hammarskjöld

So the really exciting news is: I weighed in at 220lbs today! Yeehaa! That's down 6lbs in one week from working out, drinking tons of water and eating a big and healthy breakfast everyday.

The other good news is that I am not feeling physically better and ready to do more interim training: biking/running/swimming. And my workouts with my trainer, although still very challenging, are not killing me! Progress in only four sessions.

In fact, the other day I wanted to go do some extra workouts...but I was too busy/tired. And then I was away on the weekend or working!

Starting tomorrow I want to/have to start swimming/biking on Tuesdays/Thursdays. Plus I have to start running min. 30-minutes of treadmill either before or after my Monday/Wednesday/Friday workouts. And start doing one long outdoor bike ride on Saturdays! And one long run outdoors with the running group on Sundays! Oy Vey!

What doesn't kill me makes me stronger!!!!

:)

"Sometimes when we are generous in small, barely detectable ways it can change someone else's life forever." – Margaret Cho

Summer is really here! And although I am glad it's not winter (really really glad) I am not quite thrilled that it is summer, either. I think the reason is because we didn't have a Spring. We don't seem to have Spring anymore. There is no real transitional season. It goes from COLD to HOT virtually overnight. Also, I am really, really out of shape...again! Argh!

THE GOOD NEWS: I am doing something about it - at last!

I started today with a new trainer at Good Life. Not my favourite club, but I've been a member for 12-years (mostly for the free parking privileges at ManuLife) and it is cheaper and the trainers are cheaper than The Yorkville Club - and it's still a recession...lol!

So here are my opening stats...drum roll (double argh):

Weight: 226 lbs (oh my god...how the fuck did that happen)
Body Fat: 28.4% (yuck)
Bicep: 14.5 inches (ok...just tighten/tone)
Chest: 42 inches (smaller please and tigthen/tone)
Waist: 43.5 inches (W H A T....omg....no....please!)
Buttocks: 45.5 inches :(
Right thigh: 24.5 inches (crap...that's as big as some people's waists)
Right calf: 16.5 inches (huge)

So...there you have it! The honest to God's truth...whether I like it or not. AND...that is my baseline from which to develop.

MY GOALS:

RACES:
- Run the Honda Indy 2.8 on 9th July
- the Acura 10-miler on 19th July
- the Beaches Jazz Fest Tune-up 10k on 26th July
- and more building up to the Scotiabank Marathon on 27th September

I also want to do some Tri-Tri's and Sprints and maybe a full Triathlon by the end of September.

And then I want to climb Mount Kilimanjaro and run the Great Wall of China Marathon.

That's all within the next year...and some more things too!

SO...next I have to take "before" pictures and post them....yikes! And show up tomorrow at 7am for first 'full' training session. My plan is to train Monday/Wednesday/Friday @ gym for 1-hour with 30-minutes of running to warm up. Then on Tuesday/Thursday to bike for 30-45 minutes and swim for 15+ minutes! Then on Saturday's I want to ride the bike on the road and Sunday to run on the road - preferrably with the Running Room High Park group for my long run! I think that will create a difference pretty quickly.

For food I am drinking 5 20 oz bottles of water per day. Plus taking a multivitmain + SMS w/ Chondroiton & Glucosamine + an immunity booster. I will probably play around with this too.

I want to try Barley Max green drink (substituting for Greens + -- someone is telling me it is better) and perhaps start juicing again.

As well, I am going to have a breakfast routine as follows:

Upon waking (5am) and before exercise:

- bowl of organic steel cut oatmeal with organic skim milk yogurt

After exercise:

- 250 ml of chocolate milk + 1 hardboiled egg + banana

I will figure out the rest of my meals soon...probably salads and chicken for lunch and some healthy snacks...and not quite sure about dinner!

GOOOD start...keep you all posted!

S :)

"Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear -- not absence of fear." - Mark Twain

"Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear -- not absence of fear." - Mark Twain

Fear is persistent. Everywhere I turn. Fear of failure. Fear of sickness. Fear of death. Fear of loss. Fear of embarrassment. Fear of....you name it. In fact, fear seems to be the driving force in life, in business, in politics, in culture -- in the world. And yet, what does a life of avoiding fear create? A "not" life. A life in avoidance to that which you fear vs. a life in pursuit of that which you desire. Avoiding fear is a path to a cowardly existence. Avoiding fear is the road to emptiness and despair. Resisting fear on the other hand would be the pursuit of a life in spite of fear. I desire/want X and there is FEAR along the way BUT I will NOT allow fear to be the determining factor. I will not allow fear to choose how I live or what choices I make or what life I have at the end of the day, week, month, year...my life! Succeed or fail, it shall be because I say so...not because I have avoided FEAR.

"We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal and then leap in the dark to our success." - Henry David Thoreau

"We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal and then leap in the dark to our success."

It is true that "thinking" can only take you so far. Bold action! Daring! Bravado! Even foolishness itself is the necessary final ingredient for any true success. Because if you think something all the way through, you will inevitably realize the unlikelihood of success. The absolute utter folly of trying. The inertia of inaction will gain momentum and all of your dreams and aspirations will come to naught. I speak of experience. Being of relative sound mind (most of the time), I am only too familiar with a history of rational thought and smart, well-thought-out choices. And the results: a boring, safe, and ultimately unsatisfying life. And those rare times (seemingly rarer by the day) when I 'leapt' as Thoreau admonishes? On many occassions - abject failure! But on just enough - bliss! success! heroic accomplishments! memories worth cherishing and retelling! and always a sense of satisfaction for having tried. The most recent of these experiences being my Marathon in Hawaii. Completely unwise given a) I hadn't trained for over 3-months, b) I had injured both knees in the preceeding 3-months of training, c) the financial burdon of travelling there and covering the obligations of my mediocre fundraising efforts. But I was committed. Determined. Or at least unprepared to not go. In fact, it was only at the very last moment that I truly decided to proceed. I remember it was the night before the race and I was still not decided. Soberer voices begging me to reconsider lest I do more damage to my middle-aged body. I went to bed that night undecided. I woke up wide-awake without alarms or wake-up calls at 3:30am and was so certain that I didn't hesitate once before jumping into my running gear and headed down to the lobby to meet the rest of my so-called team. It's funny. I didn't make very good time at all. In fact, I probably would have completed sooner/faster if I had walked the whole way instead of ran the 1st half and walk-ran-hobbled the second. But I finished! I did it! I completed the race. And although I was in absolute agony for the rest of the trip and for days/weeks later, I am to-this-day proud of that frail accomplishment. I DID IT! So...the question now begs asking: TO WHAT OR WHERE SHALL I LEAP NEXT?

Talks Frans Lanting's lyrical nature photos (TED Talks)

A million words streaming through my mind...

A million words streaming through my mind
A
S
T
R
I
N
G
of in and out
1s and 0s
An infinity of impulses, thoughts, images, desires, wishes, hopes, fears…
TUMBLING THROUGH SPACE
The infinite cosmos
Master and slave
Whose thoughts are these anyway
Did I think them?
Or am I just a repository…some vessel…some container of beauty and ugliness?
ONLY
TIME
WILL
TELL!
A minute….now an hour…a day…weekmonthyeardecadecenturymilleniumeon!
QUICK
FLASH
OUT
like a candle's brief flame
MY life A miracel OF impossible MISTAKES
I LoVe YoU!

"If we wait for the moment when everything is ready, we shall never begin." – Ivan Turgenev

Now is always a better time than later...for the most part.

Especially in matters of business or love. If you are acting from informed choice, then taking any action NOW is better than thinking, waiting, perfecting, hoping, figuring out...WHEN! What usually happens is that NOTHING happens! Procrastination is the killer of most dreams/hopes/plans. Most lives are lived, to quote Thoreau:

"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation." - WALDEN (1854)

So ACT NOW. THINK but also ACT! Take a bold step:

"Then indecision brings its own delays,
And days are lost lamenting over lost days.
Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute;
What you can do, or dream you can do, begin it;
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it."

(John Anster in a "very free translation" of Goethe's FAUST from 1835)

Say "YES" - Liza Minelli

Yes
Say yes
Life keeps happenin' every day
Say yes

When opportunity comes your way
You can't start wonderin' what to say
You'll never win if you never play
Say yes

There's ?.........? and Marigold right outside
And warm white Cadillacs you can ride
Nothin's gained if there's nothin' tried
Say yes

Don't say why
Say why not
What lies beyond what is, is not
So what, say yes...

Yes I can, yes I will
Yes I'll tinker, said yes I'll touch
Yes of cause, yes how nice
Yes I'll happily, thank you very much
Yes, oh-oh, Yes...

Yes

There's lots of chaff, there's lots of wheat
Yes
You might get mugged as you walk the streets
But on the other hand you might reach
That handsome stranger you've longed to meet
Say yes...

Yes I'll look, yes I'll walk
Yes I'd love to do such and such
Yes I'll try, yes I'll dare
Ye-es I-I'll fly, ye-es I- I'll share

And yes I am, and yes I'll be
And yes I'll go...
Oh Yes...
Yes

Interesting TED Talk w/ Timothy Ferris

"We cannot live for ourselves alone. Our lives are connected by a thousand invisible threads, and along these sympathetic fibers, our actions run as causes and return to us as results." - Herman Melville

"Not to feel exasperated or defeated or despondent because your days aren't packed with wise and moral actions. But to get back up when you fail, to celebrate behaving like a human--however imperfectly--and fully embrace the pursuit you've embarked on." - Marcus Aurelius

Special Invitation to a Presentation and Discussion on Sustainability - "Policy to Practice" with Cameron Hastings on Earth Day - Wednesday 22nd April

So, what is next?

April 22, 2009 is Earth Day; a day when we can celebrate the Earth in whatever way moves us, inspires us or calls us into action.

Have you ever attended a powerful presentation addressing many of the circumstances that threaten humanity’s existence?

The information and data are overwhelming that something has to be done and the question we seem to be left with is: how long do we have?

As you watch and listen you can hear the messaging shift to what can be done to “turn” things around. Just as you get to the point where the solution must be the next statement made you hear, “Ok so now we’ll take a short break and then come back for some questions.” (or something close)

This generally leaves me empty and wanting more, this Earth day I will start where others leave off.

What you can count on from Wednesday’s interactive conversation is a fresh perspective, a new voice and a call to action.

How do we take the multitude of solutions that exist around the globe and deploy them effectively, now? How do we shift the paradigm from competition to collaborative creativity? How do we demonstrate the change we advocate at the global level?

A fresh new pathway from ‘Policy to Practice’ will be introduced.
I will share an idea that creates a platform or framework that removes the interference from the natural expression of sustainability.
You will have the opportunity to participate in the conversation to speculate and create ways we may expand this idea and what role you can play.

It is the collective human community that impacts the future we create.

Come out Wednesday and consider answering the question; “How” do we create a future that works for everyone and everything?

Location: Langstaff Community Centre, Yorkshire Room in Richmond Hill, 155 Red Maple Rd. (Hwy 7/Yonge area)

Tel: 905 8824295

Date: Wednesday April 22nd, Earth Day 2009

Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm

Cost: $5 per person (children and seniors free)

Please rsvp to Liz Couture of the Green Party of Ontario Richmond Hill Constituency Association (event sponsor) at: lizcouture@hotmail.com

Looking forward to seeing you all there!

Aimee Mullins: How my legs give me super-powers

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The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances

The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.
Carl Jung
Swiss psychologist (1875 - 1961)

I met you in the depth of despair
Bleeding from my loss
Maternal passing
You…like some divine creature
Spoke and I awoken
Swelled up and came to life…
Kissed I was conquered
Little did I expect to see you again so soon
Or ever
And yet you did call the very next day asking me out for coffee
How simple your logic
How spellbinding your smile
Your kiss
And next I had found that elusive thing I’d not thought possible
L O V E
Like some disease passed from person to person and for which no vaccine has yet been created
And I was smitten/bitten
But the passion played itself out and you were GONE forever I thought
Then by some celestial chance I found your text message
Stored like some chestnut of old on my phone
Dare I call/text/reach out to you so many months later?
And I did!
I remember that first date…
Holding your hand after so many furtive minutes of silence in the theatre
Secretive
Furtive
Passionate
I still remember the trembling sensations that travelled up and down my spine
It was like I was alive for the first time
I remember kissing you that night…
Breathing in your life
Your breath filling me up and inflating my heart
I was sooo ready
Sooo full of possibility
And you were ripe and beautiful and available
And I tasted
I ate deeply
I plucked from the tree and bit deep
Full contact
All teeth into the ripe apple/pear/peach
And I bit hard and deep
And away came all the luscious fleshy fruit and you were exquisite
Those days/weeks/months were divine
And no matter what I shall always have that
You are/were my life my love my joy my everything
How did I exist before you?
I ask myself still: was that a dream or real?
And yet you are here…still…with me…alive and breathing into me.
I still l o v e you
I still w a n t you
I still n e e d you

A Love Poem Written While Listening To "YOUR LOVE IS BLACK" by Kaskade

It's five years since we started loving together...living together...making life/love together
FIVE YEARS!
Seems extraordinary doesn't it?
So much time has gone by so fast.
So many roads taken and others not.
People met and passed-by.
You and I together...still!
Is it love or friendship or desperation?
Fear is just as powerful as love isn't it.
Yet I think I love you.
I do like you...often.
I think of you always.
I desire you mostly.
I feel for you...
And at times I even cry for those early days when the mere thought of you would send shivers up and down my spine and tears of joy exploding from my eyes.......
And it is still possible, that...
After all this time...
I COULD STILL LOVE YOU!
Fully
Completely
Wholely
Deeply
Forever and ever and ever...plus a day!

Je t'aime caro mio!
Je t'aime!

Quotes of the Day!

"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great."– Mark Twain

"You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality." - Ayn Rand (1905-1982)

Miracle

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Raising of Lazarus, (c. 1410) folio 171r from Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry. Musée Condé, France.For other uses, see Miracle (disambiguation).

A miracle is a sensibly perceptible interruption of the laws of nature, such that can only be explained by divine intervention, and is sometimes associated with a miracle-worker. Many folktales, religious texts, and people claim various events they refer to as "miraculous". People in different cultures have substantially different definitions of the word "miracle." Even within a specific religion there is often more than one of the term. Sometimes the term "miracle" may refer to the action of a supernatural being that is not a god. Thus, the term "divine intervention," by contrast, would refer specifically to the direct involvement of a deity.

In casual usage, "miracle" may also refer to any statistically unlikely but beneficial event, (such as the survival of a natural disaster) or even which regarded as "wonderful" regardless of its likelihood, such as birth. Other miracles might be: survival of a fatal illness, escaping a life threatening situation or 'beating the odds.'

I don't know if that is Mecca...butt!

Text of President Barack Obama's inaugural address on Tuesday, as delivered.

OBAMA: My fellow citizens:

I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.

Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because we the people have remained faithful to the ideals of our forebears, and true to our founding documents.

So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.

That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.

These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land — a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.
Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America — they will be met.

On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.

We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted — for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things — some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.
For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life.

For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.

For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sanh.

Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.

This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions — that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.

For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act — not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. All this we will do.

Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions — who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.

What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them — that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. Those of us who manage the public's dollars will be held to account — to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day — because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.

Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control — and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our gross domestic product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart — not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.

As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our founding fathers ... our found fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake. And so to all the other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.

Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.

We are the keepers of this legacy. Guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort — even greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet. We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.

For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.

To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West — know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.

To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to the suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.

As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains. They have something to tell us, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages. We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty, but because they embody the spirit of service; a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves. And yet, at this moment — a moment that will define a generation — it is precisely this spirit that must inhabit us all.

For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter's courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent's willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.

Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends — hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism — these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility — a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.

This is the price and the promise of citizenship.

This is the source of our confidence — the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.

This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed — why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent Mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.

So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America's birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:

"Let it be told to the future world ... that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive...that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet (it)."

America, in the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.

Thank you. God bless you. And God bless the United States of America.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press.

When I was four years old I wanted to be a ballerina!

In fact, all my life I wanted to be a singer, an actor, a writer, a dancer...something in the arts, something expressive and creative...something glamorous and special!

My parents are/were simple people. They grew up in small towns in the heart of the Ottawa Valley. They had fairly rugged lives. Lives of frugality and sparsity. They both grew up just after the Depression and both of them went to work at young ages because there weren't many other options. They had to contribute to their families and they had to grow up fast. It was because of their simple and rugged beginnings that they wanted me to have all the opportunities that they did not. I became the vessel of all their love, hopes, dreams and secret desires.

I had a fairly indulgent childhood. Although we were far from rich...in fact we were far from even middle class; I never did without. I often had more than my truly middle class schoolmates. I was, for nearly fourteen years, an only child. And, in a word, "spoiled".

But what I remember most vividly though was my parents love and encouragement. They constantly told me, "You can be anything you want." The other thing I remember was my mother's love of the arts, music, dancing, fashion and especially movies and movie stars. My mother had had aspirations that she never fulfilled and she passed them onto me. Kind of her bequest. Part treasure and part burden. In fact it reminds me of a beautiful line from a film by Francis Ford Coppola called "TUCKER" wherein Martin Landau's character
reminisces about his mother's warning: "Don't get to close to people or you will catch their dreams!"

I grew up in the small town of Pembroke, Ontario. In it's heyday there were approximately 15,000 people in this bustling metropolis. Needless to say there weren't a lot of opportunities to be a ballerina! I day dreamed a lot of moving to the big city. At 12 years of age I made my first foray into Toronto with my dad. It was love at first sight. So many people. So many big buildings. So much going on everywhere...all the time. Every year thereafter I would make my annual pilgrimage until at the cusp of my 17th birthday I called my parents on one of my visits and told them that I thought I was staying. Remarkably they handled it well and even commented that since it had been gone over three weeks already, they were kind of getting that impression.

When about two weeks later my much imposed upon uncle told me that he had invited me down for a visit and not to live with him, I tearfully called upon my parents who immediately loaded up a trailer full of supplies & goodies and drove to Toronto to help me move into my first home...a room in a very funky old rooming house on Madison Avenue. And there after began my long great adventure that I am still on today.

Along the way I dabbled in acting...in theatre...in dance...in writing...in filmmaking. For a while I even published an up-and-coming arts magazine.

And then, one day, I stopped and took an assessment of my life. I was 34 and broke and in yet another 'arts' job that was unfulfilling and poor paying. I worked 12-hour days and got screamed at all day long. Nothing was ever good enough. Nothing was ever appreciated. Nothing was ever going to make me happy...let alone my bosses. And I asked myself: WHY? WHY AM I DOING THIS?

After a particularly brutal trouncing by my vicious talentless boss at this sleazy film company (which shall remain nameless...because they changed their name every year anyway...if you know what I mean) I fax blasted out resumes and got several job offers. The one I ultimately settled on was working with one of the top real estate agents in the country. It was an odd choice, but I had had a couple of stints working for some friends in real estate and something about the field had always held some appeal. After several interviews, I started my 'part-time' job and nine and a half years later I'm still there. I am now a successful real estate agent selling homes all over this great and exciting city...including on Madison Avenue. My clients come from all walks of life: working class people to CEOs and bank presidents....even a few movie stars and other celebrities. Along the way I have also revived my own dreams:

- I am acting in and producing films...mostly short to date...with aspirations to something longer;
- I travel annually to the Sundance film festival and for the last three years I have been a patron of the Toronto international film festival;

I do feel that somehow my mother's love and passion - especially her love of film - has found a home in me and that somewhere she is smiling down proud of what I've become. Just yesterday I got an email from my wonderful, generous father wherein he referred to me as "My dearly beloved son in whom I am well pleased!" Perforce revealing his poetic heart.

And although I never became a ballerina, I feel like I have made a beautiful and rich life.

Talks Barry Schwartz: The real crisis? We stopped being wise

http://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_on_our_loss_of_wisdom.html


About this talk:

Barry Schwartz makes a passionate call for “practical wisdom” as an antidote to a society gone mad with bureaucracy. He argues powerfully that rules often fail us, incentives often backfire, and practical, everyday wisdom will help rebuild our world.

About Barry Schwartz:

Barry Schwartz studies the relationship between economics and psychology, delivering startling insights into modern life. His latest field of inquiry: wisdom.

A simple shortbread cookie made with butter, powdered sugar, and flour.

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup powdered sugar
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
pinch of salt

PREPARATION:

Mix together the flour and salt in a bowl and set aside. Cream together the butter, vanilla and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the flour and salt mixture a small amount at a time, kneading into creamed mixture with your hands.

Turn dough onto floured surface and pat or roll out to 1/4" thickness.

Cut into squares [or any shape you want] and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 325E for approximately 15 minutes or until golden brown. Cool and store in airtight containers.

Makes about 3 dozen.

Blackberry Love Poem #1

Your smile delights and warms me to my quick...
Your beautiful eyes twinkle with delight and mischief...
Your warm lithe body a delight to hold and cuddle...
Your piercing intelligence
Your lustful soul
Your creative mind
Your delicious mouth
Your beautiful self!
All mine to behold and cherish!
How lucky am I!How grateful am I!
What great deeds have I done in lives past to warrant such good fortune?
My karma repaid with the grace of god...of cupid...of aphrodite!
I shall not question this - my good fortune - but rather I shall hold and cuddle it and love it:
YOU.....forever!

RUNNING WITH JAMES - Tuesday 10th February 09

I ran with James H again this morning. We've gotten into a routine lately. We meet Tuesdays & Thursdays @ 6:15am and run around Christie Pits for five laps. It's quite fun. We talk a lot too. James is a great generalist, like me, and a part-time philosopher. So we can talk about everything from the news headlines to the meaning of life. Today we talked about reviving old friendships, ice fishermen who ignore cracks in the ice, Joseph Campbell and the meaning of life as interpreted through mythology...all this and we run. It's quite exciting.

Just yesterday I had sent James an email for a marathon on The Great Wall of China (http://www.great-wall-marathon.com/) On this official website it says: "Probably one of the most beautiful and extraordinary marathons ever. A little tougher than a usual course - but no extraordinary experience is obtained ordinarily."

I love that last line: NO EXTRAORDINARY EXPERIENCE IS OBTAINED ORDINARILY. Wow...this is a really inspiring phrase/mantra. I am finding myself increasingly attracted to BEING extraordinary and to engaging myself in EXTRAORDINARY activities and commitments.

James has said he's interested, but probably more for 2010 -- since he's just getting back into running an not quite ready for a marathon and also because money is tighter right now. This is also somewhat true for me...and yet I am inspired, captivated, considering...running a marathon on THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA!

Now that sounds EXTRAORDINARY.

Bill Maher's Valentine's Day show-ending rant monologue Saturday night (dated but still relevant)

"You can't claim you're the party of smaller government and then make laws about love. On this Valentine's day, let's stop and ask ourselves, "What business is it of the state how consenting adults choose to pair off, share expenses, and eventually stop having sex with each other?"

And why does the Bush administration want a constitutional amendment about weddings? Hey, why stop at weddings? Birthdays are important; let's put them in the great document. Let's make a law that gay people can have birthdays, but straight people get more cake. You know, to send the right message to kids. Republicans are always saying we should privatize things like schools, prisons, social security -- hey, how about we privatize privacy! Because if the government forbids gay men from tying the knot, what is their alternative? They can't all marry Liza Minnelli.

You know, the Republicans used to be the party that opposed social engineering, but now they push programs to outlaw marriage for some people and encourage it for others. If you're straight, there's $1.5 billion in the budget to promote marriage, but gay marriage is opposed because it threatens or mocks or does something to the sanctity of marriage, as if anything you can do in Vegas drunk off your ass in front of an Elvis impersonator could be considered sacred.
Half the people who pledge eternal love are doing it because one of them is either knocked up, rich or desperate. But in George Bush's mind, marriage is only a beautiful lifetime bond of love and sharing, kind of like what his dad has with the Saudis.

But at least the right wing aren't hypocrites on this issue. They really believe that homosexuality is an abomination and a dysfunction that's curable. They believe that if a gay man just devotes his life to Jesus, he'll stop being gay, because that worked out so well with the Catholic priests.

But I have to tell you that the greater shame in this story goes to the Democrats because they don't believe homosexuality is an abomination, and, therefore, their refusal to endorse gay marriage is hypocrisy. Their position doesn't come from the Bible; it's ripped right from the latest poll which says that most Americans are against gay marriage.

Well, you know what? Sometimes most Americans are just wrong, and where is the Democrat who will stand up and go beyond the half-measures of civil union and hate-the-sin-love-the-sinner and say loud and clear, "There is no sin. It's not an abomination and no one can control how cupid aims his arrows, and the ones who pretend they can usually turn out to be the biggest freaks."

The law in this country should reflect that some people are just born one-hundred-percent outrageously, fabulously, undeniably Fire-Island gay!

And they do not need re-programming -- they need a man with a slow hand."

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish: A copy of a speech that Steve Jobs delivered to the graduates of Stanford University in June of 2005

"I am honoured to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and hiswife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had nevergraduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating. None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. Butten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college.But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky - I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation - the Macintosh - a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did,our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly beganto dawn on me - I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I retuned toApple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance.

And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If youhaven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it.

And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever theanswer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving onlywhat is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart andintuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much."

- Steve Jobs - June 2005

"There's always one who loves and one who lets himself be loved."

- W. Somerset Maugham (1874 - 1965), 'Of Human Bondage', 1915


I have loved you endlessly from the moment I saw you…
Our lips connected and your breath entered my body
Deeply
Fully
Wholly
I was engulfed
Swept up in your enthusiasm…your youthful charms
My heart alighted with possibilities
You were the crystallization of all my hopes and dreams
I desired you
I longed for you
I craved you
I devoured you
How my simple uncomplicated and innocent life became consumed
Passion is not a flame for all to have or handle
It burns
It scars
It hurts deeply
And I have endured the foundry of this passion
I have forged myself against the lava of your love
I have tested my mettle and lived
My heart in tact
My love whole and complete
And still I love you
Oh beloved
Oh divine
Oh sweet man/boy/child…
MY LOVE!

- SV 3rd Feb 09

My favourite Goethe quote:

"Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back-- Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth that ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now."

A wonderful Message by George Carlin:

The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings, but shorter tempers; wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less; we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families; more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense; more knowledge, but less judgment; more experts, yet more problems; more medicine, but less wellness.

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom. We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often. We've learned how to make a living, but not a life. We've added years to life not life to years. We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbour. We conquered outer space but not inner space.

We've done larger things, but not better things. We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We've learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill.

It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom. A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit delete.

Remember, spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever. Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side. Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn't cost a cent.

Remember, to say, "I love you" to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you. Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again. Give time to love, give time to speak, and give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.

The British Humanist Ass'n (http://www.humanism.org.uk/home) has plastered sign on buses in London which read:

"There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life."

Professor Dawkins of the BHA said: "Religion is accustomed to getting a free ride - automatic tax breaks, unearned respect and the right not to be offended, the right to brainwash children.

The group chose Calgary as its second Canadian target because it has received a lot of support from city residents. It hopes to launch the Calgary campaign in March.

I'm sitting at the office waiting to hear about a Seller's response to my Buyer client's offer. It's a low offer, but in the market we are in currently, it is an Offer! Which is something!

It's really quite amazing to me how the "market" dropped off a cliff...suddenly. Our overall housing market had been already slowing/moderating, primarily due to the onerous new City of Toronto Land Transfer Tax! YIKES. Talk about suck all the sales out of a marketplace. The day that took effect, Feb. 1, 2008, sales ground to a halt. Then it was summer and then...Lehman Brothers & Bear Stearns collapsed. And the end was nigh!

What is funny to me is that the "writing was on the wall" about the US market for some time. Housing had been plummetting for nearly 2-years. Job losses were mounting. Credit was tightening. Demand for imports was dropping. Everything was pointing to a US slow down/recession...but nobody paid any heed! That is until these two banks were allowed to go under!

In retrospect, it's curious why the US government let these two banks go down but they bailed out AIG...and now they are spending 100's of billions of dollars (and probably soon trillions) to bail out their economy. What a blunder. Where was the wisdom of all those market mavens and economists and politicians then...when it counted?

The truth (small 't') of the matter is, we are talking about CONFIDENCE. About a national and now international conversation about wealth, money, abundance and enough! For the majority of the planet's population, nothing has changed. For the billions of impoverished, malnourished, uneducated and disenfranchised, they have not necessarily noticed any difference in their living standards. When you are at the very bottom of the food chain...what does a recession/depression/market correction/reset...whatever you want to call it...mean? NOTHING!!!!

Likewise, other than the fact that post September 16, 2008, we are now living in the post-credit age and a world conversation call recession/depression. So what really, fundamentally happened...at least on the micro-level...to you and me? We stopped believing in the fairy-tale of consumption without limits!

I just read a startling factoid in the Economists 2009 preview issue. They make a comment that US citizens save approximately 0.5% of their GDP on a per capita basis. In other words, Americans (and Canadians not too far behind) have been spending 99.5% of their income...and many much more than they earn or own. This article goes on to say, that if Americans begin to save again at a higher percentage point - which they suggest will be the inevitable result of this recession/depression -say 5%, then this act alone could throw the entire planet into a prolonged depression. In other words, US citizens must continue to consume at the levels they had in order to get the world out of the situation were are currently in...all the while slowly (emphasis on slowly) increasing their saving %!

What a funny world. We are in this mess because the citizens of one powerful country have consumed at ridiculous and unsustainable levels for so long that all of our country's economies and our very own life-styles have become addicted and dependent on it...no matter the long-term cost to markets, the ecosphere, human rights, poverty, resources...you name it! We are an addicted world feeding on fear and desperation.

So my question is: WHAT IS ENOUGH?

Fascinating stuff

I JUST GOT THIS STORY FROM CAMERON BY EMAIL AND WANTED TO SHARE IT (not sure of the author...sorry):

A man sat at a metro station in Washington, DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that thousand of people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. Three minutes went by and a middle aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried up to meet his schedule. A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping continued to walk. A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.

The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.

In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written with a violin worth 3.5 million dollars.
Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston and the seats average $100.

This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of an social experiment about perception, taste and priorities of people. The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour:

• Do we perceive beauty?
• Do we stop to appreciate it?
• Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context?

One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be:

If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?

25th January 2009

I just got home from running 8k+ in -11 C weather! Wow! Nothwithstanding the short run I did on Friday with James, my last long run was 14th December 08 in Honolulu and it was in the low 80's F. What a change! Lol!

Nevertheless, it feels very good to be back. I have been too lethargic for far too long. At 45 years of age, I cannot afford to slip into laziness an complacency...it's a slippery slope...not unlike the black-ice that covered much of the roads/sidewalks this morning. And one fall could bring me down. And that is just not something I am prepared to endure or allow.

It's funny that I am taking up or on running. As a kid, I was a complete nerd/arts-brat and didn't ever do anything physical unless forced. I was not a jock and didn't do anything much physical until I was older and started going to the gym. Even that was a mostly a travesty. However, the last couple of years I have been edging closer and closer into running. And in 2008, I jumped in fully.

Last year I ran with Team In Training from July onward and ran my first official Half Marathon at the end of September (Scotiabank Waterfront 1/2 & full). After which I actually injured myself and didn't run again until almost Honolulu when I chose - against many people's recommendations/urgings - to go ahead with my first official FULL MARATHON! Wow...and was that an experience.

It's so funny, because as gruelling and physically devastating as that was, I got home a week later and immediately started looking up marathons in the world. I saw that there is/was a marathon in Madrid sometime in April 09 that totally inspired me. Now with the economy so bad and business being rather challenging, I am not sure that is likely...but it inspired me. What also surprised me was how eager I was for it.

Just Friday I signed-up for four races: an 8k, a 10k, a full marathon and a 5k, in that order. I will also sign up for the St Patty's Day 5k in March and perhaps a 1/2 marathon somewhere in May (perhaps the Women's 1/2 and full). I have become addicted.

Long distance running has become something of a test for me. For who I am. For I am committed to being. For what I want to accomplish with my life. I am a late bloomer or re-bloomer...and I am determined NEVER TO GIVE UP.

I am totally inspired to take risks, to push myself and my boundaries: emotionally, physically, spiritually, mentally, artistically...in all ways I can. Life is way too short to spend it whining and complaining and/or wishing I had done something. 2009 is my year for ACTION. And running will be my gauge of how far I am willing to go. I particularly like the 'long distance' aspect too. It is a metaphor for the long journey's in life. For staying the course and making through to the end. Just like today, I wanted to quit a couple of times...but I chose to finish. I am a finisher! This is my new mantra. I finished the Honolulu marathon and although there was no record set by a very long shot...I finished...and I finished running! Thanks to my amazing coach!

So onward and upward!

My other physical goals this year include hiking, mountain climbing (Mount Kilimanjaro this summer), parachuting, biking generally and doing a bike rally specifically, at least 2 marathons and maybe a triathlon or two...at least a mini-if not full one! WOW...from couch potato to athlete at 45-years old. IT'S NEVER TOO LATE!!!!