One Ringy-Dingy, Two Ringy-Dingy

"Do you realize if it weren't for Edison we'd be watching TV by candlelight?"
- Al Boliska

Here is something to think about.

On March 12, 1889, Almon B. Strowger entered the U.S. Patent Office in order to file a patent for his invention called the Automatic Telephone System. The first place this device was installed was in Laporte, Indiana, in 1892. It worked, but not as good as it should have. Alexander Bell’s invention was deemed much more reliable and became the standard for all early phones.

Good thing it did or we would have been complaining about Ma Strowger and not Ma Bell.

Just something to think about.

Stay inspired my friends!

You Can't Always

Flicker - Thor

“You can’t always get what you want. And if you try sometime you find, you get what you need." - Rolling Stones

There were two professional football games played recently. As an American sport, the National Football League is big business and all of the players on these four teams are paid very well. It is also a very rough sport with high chances of injury that can end a career in the blink of an eye. But those that play the game know the risks but love the game enough to play on.

There were also millions of fans that watched these two games. While many were in the stadiums, many more were watching on television sets around the world. There were Twitter tweets, Facebook updates and Instagram pictures traversing the virtual universe in massive numbers. Opinions ran high on player performance, coaching decisions and officiating efficiency of the referees.

Yet the two games played on.

There was a tale of two games played with both tone and tenor differences. The AFC Championship game between the New England Patriots and the Denver Broncos was aged experience and mutual respect. The NFC Championship between the San Francisco 49ers and the Seattle Seahawks was youthful talent and dislike for each other. A stark contrast that had the same results, a winning team and a team that doesn't win.

There was a lot of talk about what the significance was of each team's win or loss. Commentary would try to understand the impact of a loss and how that particular team would move on from loss. That same commentary would also try to make predictions for each winning team. the money, the grand party, the weather and all of the hoopla surrounding the championship game; the Super Bowl.

Yet our lives moved on.

We have so much going on in our lives. There is so much that could beat us down and possibly make us give up, but we continue to battle. We continue to never give up, never give in. When we face a loss, we walk away with dignity knowing we did our best. We also walk away with more knowledge, more determination and more motivation to succeed next time. When we win, we know it isn't final. We honor those that made us better. We also look forward to the next success for we learn in in winning.

The game will continue to be played. Our lives will continue to be lived. Success will slip from our hands yet sometimes you will find that you get what you need. That sounds like a line from a pretty good song.

Stay inspired my friends.

Dance, Love and Sing

“Some days there won't be a song in your heart. Sing anyway.” - Emory Austin

There are days we simply do not wish to sing, struggling to engage in the dance of life or to love all that we have.

Those days will come and those days go.

How you choose to live those days is yours to make. You can take choose to be in a state of despair letting the day pass like a floating soap bubble being popped. This will ultimately leave you lost and with nothing to show for the time spent. It will be a day lost in the short span of our lives. It will become a lost opportunity to experience the greatness that life has to offer.

The other choice is to grab hold of each and every day.

It is an opportunity to dance through our problems with a joyous step. It provides us with a chance to love all that happens to and around our lives. It urges us to sing of the joys that do exist in our life.

Live your life full of wonder and expectation for what this day, the next, and everyone one beyond will bring. Stay inspired my friends!

Imagination and Knowledge

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” - Albert Einstein

From the time we are born, we learn.

From those beginning moments we are crawling, standing up to walk, learning to speak and dress ourselves. Through school and the hard knocks of everyday life, we gain knowledge that gives us the ability to succeed or fail.

It is also through those successes and failures that we learn as well.

It is imagination and dreams within in each of us that allow us to go beyond what we already know. It can drive us to learn more, it can empower us to do greater things, and it gives us a belief to do more than we are deemed capable of.

I say to "believe in your visions, act upon your visions and realize your visions" as a way to tell you everything is possible. There is a way for you to achieve and be successful in life.

It is your imagination that will lead you to that success.

Stay inspired!