In Retrospect

Everything must change

In the days following the levee break in New Orleans, I remember poignantly seeing the word REFUGEE splashed across my television screen and the huddled masses crying out for help; any help. Crying out for water, ice, food, any of the things that only hours before perhaps they’d taken for granted. Refugee - one seeking refuge. This is America, land of the free, home of the brave, land where our fathers died and so on. There are no refugees here. But, looking at those faces, the need, the want, the disbelief; the horror crystallized my understanding that anarchy is not so far removed from us after all. This could have just as easily been a foreign land, some third world country without even the barest of necessities. Perhaps that’s why so many took offense to the term. None of us wants to acknowledge how quickly things can fall apart. The very things that we put our trust in fail. The Superdome - undoubtedly a superstructure – was no shelter against the ravages of Mother Nature. Everything is transitory. When we set about to define ourselves as infinite, nature reminds us that we are not.

Nothing stays the same

In a moment, in an instant all you hold dear can be gone. The things that you believe are forever vanish in an instant. But more than the destruction of structures there is the laying open of festering wounds. The bearing of age old hurts. All the hatred and inequality living in New Orleans bubbled to the surface, buoyed by the cresting waters of the swollen Mississippi. Floating like bodies in the dank and fetid waters of change.

On Becoming

In recent months I've spent a significant amount of time going over my life in excruciating detail to determine how I went wrong. However, I determined that my assertion that I messed up is based on my assumption of what defines success and achievement. The realization that perhaps the path that I am on is configured differently than someone else's and maybe just maybe I'm not meant to live anyone's life but my own. Maybe I just am approaching life at a different pace or from a different angle. Perhaps these are just things I tell myself so I'll feel better. I'm not a attempting to make my inadequacies seem smaller than they actually are but I am attempting to embrace the whole package that is me. When things are not going the way that we think they should we tend to rake ourselves over the coals and never get the lesson that is in the pain. I'm not going to climb on the hokey bandwagon and regale you with tales of silver linings, but there is something to be said for downturns. Appreciation grows from overcoming.

Dog on Bike - Nuff Said

The Pursuit of Happyness - A Must See

This Christmas Will Smith brings the true story of Chris Gardner's road from homelessness to becoming a stock broker, to the big screen. If you've ever had a dream and circumstances seem to be against you, then you have to see this movie. The core of the movie is that you never give up, no matter what. Follow this link http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/thepursuitofhappyness to see the trailer and hear Will Smith talk about the experience of bringing Mr. Gardner's life to the big screen. This movie is sure to be an Oscar contender or the Academy has no soul. Mark your calendars now.