Stand By Me

Your day can drag on in what seems like a 'you against the world' type of atmosphere. All that you try to do is a lonely uphill battle with no end in sight. You tell yourself that if you try hard enough, you can accomplish it on your own. This can be true at times but is not always the case.

The great thing about our human existence is our connection to other people. There are others that will stand by us and help steady our climb. They offer encouragement, a helping hand or the means to keep moving. As coincidence may have it, a friend of mine sent me the following video.

I was in the middle of writing this article at the time and his email came to me titled, "Something to smile about ..." It is a video put together from street performers around the world performing the classic Ben E. King song, "Stand By Me."



It can put a smile on your face and one of the things to take away from it; we can all stand together, help each other and empower each other to make it in life.
_

Expect the Unexpected

EXPECTATION by Gustav Klimt

"If you do not expect the unexpected, you will not find it; for it is hard to be sought out, and difficult." - Heraclitus of Ephesus

All of us have expectations in life. We expect,

- our kids to be good
- our marriage to be wonderful and exciting
- our jobs to be enjoyable and well paying
- our health to be good with little suffering
- our car to always function properly
- our retirement to be well funded and relaxing
- our death to be pain free and peaceful

But having an expectation and actually having it happen requires some level of work on our part. Many of the above expectations do not simply 'occur' to our benefit. They require that we put time and effort into achieving each of them.

Achievement in each of these or many other areas of our life depend upon us having some level of expectation. Expectation is the yearning for something that we either dream of or envision for our life. It drives us to attempt and reach a goal.

It is with this expectation that we learn to "expect the unexpected" that life will either throw at us or give to us. You can't plan for it, but you can accept that the unexpected will happen. While we tend to accept that bad things will happen, we should put as much effort into believing that unexpected good things will happen as well. If you concentrate on the bad things, you are going to miss the good things that will happen.

So 'expect the unexpected good' that will happen in your life. Move forward towards your dreams and envision the outcome. Before you know it, the reality will occur.
_

Vacation Day

“A vacation is having nothing to do and all day to do it in.”
-Robert Orben

Yes - nothing today as I'm on vacation. Attending a Golf Tournament, not playing but sitting and watching for a "hole-in-one" at the thirteenth hole. Its a tough job but someone has to do it.
_

Earth Is Under Attack

What was old is once again new. Back on October 30, 1938, Orson Welles performed a radio show about aliens attacking earth. It was based upon a novel written in 1898 by H.G. Wells called The War of the Worlds.

It scared thousands of listeners, mostly those who tuned in late. Each thought it was a live news broadcast of a real invasion. It was estimated by a Princeton psychologist in a study of mass hysteria, that 2 million people were alarmed into thinking an alien advance was happening.



Orson Welles said, "Radio in those days, before the tube and the transistor, wasn't just a noise in somebody's pocket - it was the voice of authority. Too much so. At least, I thought so. It was time for someone to take the starch out of some of that authority: hence my broadcast."

Now take a look at the social media outlet called Twitter. A micro-blogging application that is very popular. I myself 'tweet' quite a bit, almost to a point of obsession some might say. Twitter and similar web applications can be great sources of news informations, general information, the mundane and even breaking news.

But Twitter or "tweets" can be misleading as well. With the ability to 're-Tweet' other peoples comments, a statement of 140-characters or less can spread like wild fire. It is not that much different from Orson Welles radio prank. Think of where one person tells a story and passes it along; the story changes. But with Twitter, the re-Tweet repeats the same message over and over until people take it as truth.

You don't have to be skeptical to the point of obsession. Just remember to get the full story first. If Orson Welles were alive today, he might adjust his quote and say, "Twitter these days, isn't just a noise in somebody's pocket - it is the voice of authority. Too much so. At least, I thought so. It was time for someone to take the starch out of some of that authority: hence my tweet!"

Enjoy the technology that is out there, but don't lose common sense over what you read. For that matter, check what I've said.
_