Last week my wife and I went to the Rock and roll hall of Fame in Cleveland Ohio. This was truly a treat! I loved every single exhibit and so did she. One of our favorites was the exhibit on the Beatles. The Beatles has an amazing catalog with some incredible songs that we both enjoy. I am a pretty big fan of jazz as well, and the wife isn’t as much a jazz fan as I am, so I spent a little more time at those exhibits than she did. The museum was pretty incredible and I would definitely suggest a visit if you get the chance.
Something that I find interesting about music is the broad appeal that music has in our society. Everyone loves to listen to and move to rhythms, melody and tone. Even deaf people have ways in which they experience music. Why does music have such a broad appeal? I like to think that the reason for music broad appeal is that it is good for us.
Did you know that music is exercise for the brain? According to this article, music is a total brain work out. Music really does keep us young happy and healthy and there is so much music out there. While you are smelling the roses go ahead and turn on your favorite tunes today too and get that brain working.
There is this image of earth from space, it is not the first image of the earth from space but it was the first color good image of earth from space. It looks like the earth is rising much like the sun looks while we are standing on the earth. Carl Sagan goes on about the pale blue dot in his book titled pale blue dot. Sagan mentions how everyone that we have ever known and currently know are there on that tiny mote. Sagan’s words are quite poetic.
I grew up in a Baptist church with some evangelical leanings. A big part of the evangelical movement in the United States involves cultivating an us vs them mentality. Evangelical Christians are not the first or only tribe / culture to indoctrinate their participants and believers in an us versus them mentality I only mention them because I have experience with this tribe. I am also a United States citizen and live in a home.
When the first operation Iraqi freedom war started and the United States military invaded Iraq in search of weapons of mass destruction some citizens of the United States took on a patriotic us versus them mentality. I see in the newspaper that the unhoused population is an ever growing issue. Almost every day I pass by a soup kitchen and the lines for people seeking help do not seem to shrink.
The Christian bible speaks a lot about good and evil. he Christian bible separates people into just two categories those who are in Christ and those who are not. I would like to point out that the demarcation line may not be what many believe it to be and that is a big thing to keep in mind when dealing with our relationships.
The Us vs them mentality can do us physical and emotional damage. This mentality puts us on the defense, and makes us unconsciously develop basis against others who are not exactly like us. It is damaging to the body and mind but is it a tenet of the Christian religion? Should it be a tenet of any religion? Let me answer the latter first. No this should not be a tenet of any religion, political affiliation, tribe or culture. Inclusivity not exclusivity, tolerance and acceptance not intolerance and repudiation should be the guiding tenants of your world view and religion.
So is the Us versus them mentality a tenet of the Christian faith? It seems on the surface that the us versus them mentality has become a tenet of the Christian faith. I see a whole market for Christian material and content but where does this idea come from? Many believers who adhere to this mentality will point to scripture like
Amos 3:3 – “Can two walk together except they be agreed?”
Ephesians 5:11 – “Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness…”
II Corinthians 6:14 “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers…”
John 17:13–16 “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.”
The scripture on its face seems to support an us versus them mentality but if you look at the scripture in context it becomes clear that it is less about us versus them than intentions and love versus apathy or hatred.
All the people of the world are on the same side there is not an us or them there is just us. The world, the universe for that matter is all one, and when one part of the body is sick (without love) the whole suffers and should help (not hurt), the others.
The us versus them mentality is toxic and needs to be dropped right now. I have done it many times. As a joke I will ask my friends and loved ones “who do I hate this week? A boyfriend that broke a sisters heart? I hate them they are not in, a driver who cut you off in traffic I hate them.”
If you read John 17:13-16 you will see that in Jesus prayer for his apostles he does not ask that God take the apostles out of the world but that they are protected. Why not just take them away or isolate them from the world? because the world needs everyone working together figuring out life.
Notice in this scripture:
“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee was standing and praying like this about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I’m not like other people—greedy, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector . . . ”
“But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even raise his eyes to heaven but kept striking his chest and saying, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this one went down to his house justified rather than the other; because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18:10–11, 13–14 csb)
The Pharisee thought that they had all the answers but he did not and neither do you or I. The most dangerous person in the world is the one who thinks they have all the answers. Humility and learning and growing will not exist in a religion culture or tribe that believes that they know everything. Let’s all just love each other and learn together and lift each other up as much as we can.
At the end of the day all we are is this tiny blue dot in what seems to be infinite space
Dan Weiden passed away Friday at the age of 77. Who is Dan Weiden? Dan Weiden was an ad executive and he came up with the Nike slogan “Just do It”. Nike was not going to use a tagline and told the ad company that Weiden worked for that they did not use slogans. Weiden insisted that they at least try the slogan for the campaign. He said that the images were to disconnected and asked Nike to try the tag line (not slogan), the rest is history… Well sort of
Dan wieden lets the world now in an interview where he got the idea for Just do it.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
DAN WIEDEN: And the firing squad was there. And before they put the sack over his head, they asked him if he had any last words, and he said, you know, let’s do it. I remember when I read that, I was like, that’s amazing. I mean, how do you, in the face of that much uncertainty, do you push through that? And so I didn’t like the let’s thing. You know, I just changed that because otherwise I’d have to give him credit. Now I don’t really have to, so…
Gary Gilmore was the inmate who told the firing squad “let’s do it”. Let’s or just do it is an action statement and life is all about action. Granted the action taken after Gilmore said those words was death it is still kind of empowering hearing the charge Just do it or let’s do it. We made the plans, bought the gear, arrived in the place now what? Do it! Get it done! Make it happen! I feel empowered as I type. Don’t talk about it, be about it. Just do it or lets do it doesn’t ask for permission, doesn’t assume you can’t it just is and that is truly the nature of living isn’t it?
Whatever you need or want to do today my advice is DO IT!
I love the song Fast Car by Tracy Chapman and yesterday I blogged about a performance of the song by Tracy Chapman. I wanted to blog about the song and lyrics today however, sometimes it is good to just get out of other peoples way and build them up. So instead of reading my blog today please read this one. Manning Patston does an incredible job of covering this song.
I like to listen to Apple Music radio on my way to and from work. My wife got me hooked on Apple Music and Apple Music radio is incredible. The playlists are curated by some pretty incredible DJ’s no algorithms and between the tracks you get to hear some incredible stories.
One of the shows that I really enjoy on the radio is Huey’s 80s Radio. The host of Huey’s 80s Radio is Huey Lewis of Huey Lewis and the News. I tried to explain to my oldest son who Huey Lewis is. It took a while but he remembered Back to the Future and then the song “Power of Love”. Huey explained the story of Tracy Chapmans “Fast Car” performance at Wembley Stadium. The story goes (according to Huey) that, Tracy was at the concert with a group including Stevie Wonder and she had just finished her set. Tracy sat back ready to enjoy the rest of the concert when she was told that Stevie couldn’t perform and she was asked to go back on stage. She performed acoustically, the song Fast Car. The crowd loved it!
I love the song Fast Car. The song tells an amazing story if you listen to it and that is certainly a blog post for another day. The story behind her Wembley performance though, told by Huey Lewis, is also amazing. Being ready to do something and then stepping up and actually doing it makes all the difference in the world.
When you have an opportunity to help others I encourage you to step up to the plate and swing for the fences.
In 1996 the band Sublime released the single “What I got”. The song is an anthem it starts with the lead singer wondering why he is so broke and feeling a little down then, this singer realizes just how much he has because he has love. The lead singer reframes his life and sings about all the good things he has.
I have just watched the first two episodes of Amazon Prime “The Lord of the Rings:The Rings of Power” television series. Let me tell you something, I am only two episodes in and this show is spectacular!
So far we have been introduced in story form to, Elves, Harfoot and dwarves also I think we got glimpses of Orcs. Every story line has a lot of stuff going on. Lives are being lived, romance is kindling friendships and rivalries being formed and although the stories are separate they are all connected. I know that the stories are all connected because, the series is set thousands of years prior to the the trilogy by Tolkein.
Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.
Soren Kiierkegaard
The ability to look back on events that have already happened and believe that we can predict the future is called hindsight basis. Engaging in hindsight basis is very tempting.
It is important not to engage in hindsight basis because history does repeat itself but we cannot predict the future based on history. So then what should we do when trying to learn from history and make judgement calls today right now in our stories? Of course we should do the right thing and what is that?
The right thing is the thing that will harm the least amount of people and help the most. The right thing is something people have struggled with since the times of Plato and Kant.
I am not foolish enough to believe that I can answer the philosophical question of what the right thing is in this blog post. Spike Lee couldn’t answer that question in his 1989 masterpiece, Do the Right Thing.
Instead of engaging in Hindsight basis when considering what to do we should learn from the past. One thing that we have can do is learn from the past. A major lesson from the past is that kindness wins always in the long run and that kindness makes the difference.
The team was down by 2, there was less than five seconds on the clock, both feet were behind the three point line, the player pulled up and missed the shot. He started to hang his head and started to feel down but his team mates wouldn’t let him they cheered for him and made him feel like the champion.
I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life, and that is why I succeed
Michael Jordan
In 2007 I took my kids to the movies to watch the Disney movie, “Meet the Robinsons”. The movie was all about an orphan boys adventure traveling through time. The boy was a scientist and when he traveled to the future he meet a pretty strange family. One member of the family was working on something and when he helped that family member he did not actually fix the problem but made it a little worse. The family saw the failure the boy stood with bated breath and then the family cheered concerning his failure.
Do not be afraid to fail. I worked for a few years in a manufacturing plant, The plant had hourly goals for production and when goals were meet they were marked as green. One of the engineers told me something interesting. He said that, “we learn way more from from red hours than we do green ones”.
Today you and I and everyone everywhere will fail let us all learn adjust and try again and despite our failures we will be champions.
“Failure is another stepping stone to greatness.” ― Oprah Winfrey
When I was dating my wife she bought me a print of Muhamad Ali standing over Sony Liston and a copy of the poem / book Paradise Lost my Milton. The print is hanging up in my office at work and the book is on our bookshelf.
I am a big fan of the poem Paradise Lost. The fall of humanity, Lucifers’ revenge for being sent out of heaven.
The thing about Paradise Lost and the Christian creation story that I find most strange and there is a lot to find odd, talking snakes and all, is that God placed humans on earth. In the creation story God creates everything, then puts life on earth, humans are the last created creatures and they are the ones who are given rules to abide by on earth. Satan was kicked out of heaven prior to the creation of everything and wants revenge. Satan takes on the image of a serpent and tempts humans to disobey God. The humans succumb to temptation and God punishes the humans. The punishment for humans is almost the same as the punishment for Lucifer or Satan, banishment. Humans are banished from their home the garden of Eden. The garden of Eden is on earth.
The earth is an incredible planet. Planet Earth provide us with life, and protects us from space. Everything we have ever needed to survive and thrive has come from the earth. I do not know if it is irony or not, I do know that it is tragic, but humans have destroyed more than 97% of the earths ecosystem. Humans have not lost paradise, we have burned it away.
Why did humans do this and why do we continue to do this? Because we were tricked and continue to be tricked everyday. Instead of learning to live in harmony with the Earth we have learned to destroy the earth and carve out our living at the cost of the earth.
We still have a chance at paradise, we were not kicked off of the Earth. We just need to stop being tricked. A life that is zero waste, respects all life around us, works towards sustainability and understands that we must always be growing, that is a life that is lived without being tricked.
“We don’t have a lot of time on this Earth! We weren’t meant to spend it this way! Human beings were not meant to sit in little cubicles staring at computer screens all day, filling out useless forms and listening to eight different bosses drone on about mission statements!”
Construction on our route to work, a spilled coffee cup, hour changes at the local restaurant these are all things that can throw off our daily routines.
Routine:
noun
a sequence of actions regularly followed; a fixed program.”I settled down into a routine of work and sleep”
Many of us have settled into routines it is simply a way of life. Routines can be good they can help us get things done in a cumulative way but what happens when our routines are disrupted?
Most of react poorly with disruptions to our routines and that might not be so great. Sometimes the best thing for us is a disruption from our routine. Robert Nardelli was next in line to be the CEO of all of GE when he was passed over. His routine was just beginning to be changed. Nardelli, who was then in charge of GE Power Systems, got a call from Ken Langone, a GE board member who is also an influential director at Home Depot. “You probably could not feel worse right now,” the raspy-voiced Langone boomed, “but you’ve just been hit in the ass with a golden horseshoe. And I’ve got the horseshoe.” Within a week, Home Depot’s board pushed out co-founder Arthur Blank and installed Nardelli as CEO. Robert has gone on to be CEO of Coca cola, and Chrysler.
Nardelli learned to deal with routine disruption and allow the disruptions to unlock creativity and discovery. Whatever is disruptive now I know you can handle it and I think with the right attitude it could be a golden horseshoe.
The Corrigan Encore 