NO MATTER HOW DARK THE NIGHT ...

 FRIENDSHIP WILL LIGHT THE WAY

ONLY THE HEART SEES CLEARLY

 I ran across something that spoke to me. 

Perhaps it will speak to you, too.

DON'T CHASE YOUR DREAMS

 

It's become a mantra of our generation 

and of all those seminars where "experts" charge you $89.99 to tell you:  

It starts with a dream ...
   ...add faith and it becomes a belief.

Add action ...
   ... and it becomes a way of life.

Add perseverance ...
   ... and it becomes a goal in sight.

Add patience and time ...
   ... and it becomes a dream come true.

Sadly, no.

Many who follow that course of action never achieve their dreams.

 Christopher Nolan 

shared some respectful, realistic graduation advice at Princeton's commencement ceremony on Monday morning.

It ran counter to what speeches like that say.

 "In the great tradition of these speeches, generally someone says something along the lines of  'Chase your dreams,' 

But I don't want to tell you that because I don't believe it," he told the students at Class Day. 

"I want you to chase your reality."

"I feel," he said,

"that over time, we started to view reality as the poor cousin to our dreams, in a sense. ... 

I want to make the case to you that our dreams, our virtual realities, these abstractions that we enjoy and surround ourselves with — 

they are subsets of reality."

The end of Inception where the camera cut to black just as the spinning top looked to be wobbling was Nolan's statement --

Cobb didn't care anymore.  He was with his kids ... all levels of reality are valid.

Nolan said, 

" But the question of whether that's a  dream or whether it's real is the question I've been asked most about any of the films I've made. 

It matters to people because that's the point about reality. Reality matters."

" I think our generation went out into the world believing 

that if we could connect the world, if we could allow the free exchange of ideas across geographical boundaries, economic boundaries, 

if we could all talk, these problems would go away. 

Unfortunately, I think by now, we have to acknowledge that we were wrong, 

that's not the case. Communication is not everything."


I agree with Nolan that reality matters, that if we sacrifice the bounties of the here and now 

for the grasping of that Brass Ring that may never come close to our fingers ...


We have ceased to live fully, to be entirely in the moment ...


and our fiction will be paler and less authentic than winning prose needs to be.


Hemingway's work is still valued and talked about ... for he lived life fully ...


He inhaled life and breathed out prose that pulsed with reality.

What do you think?

SEEKING A FRIEND FOR THE END OF THE WORLD

 A movie was made by that title:

I'm not talking about the END of the WHOLE world, mind you, just the END of the WORLD AS WE NOW KNOW IT.

Ever have an old beloved sweater? 

One day you noticed it slowly unraveling, 

Soon, it began to unravel faster and faster.

The world seems to be that sweater. Peace seems to be slipping through the world's fingers.

Texas could vote to secede from the union in 2023. The Texas GOP passed the resolution denying the legitimacy of Biden's victory.

Runaway inflation is spiraling prices for food, gas, rents, and a dozen other necessities. 

The president is in obvious cognitive decline, making decisions that worsen the situation.

The new Supreme Court Justice can't define 'Woman.' 

Would you go to a vet couldn't tell the difference between a dog and a cat?

What faith can we have in such a court?

Congress has become the Three Monkeys ignoring the situation so long as they can continue to pad their accounts in Swiss banks with insider trading.

It won't happen overnight ... but I remember that sweater unraveling right before my eyes. 

What do you make of the world you see?

THE FATHER CRISIS

 

When I was six years old, my father abandoned me on a street in Detroit known as Skid Row to hurt my mother while she was at work.

He was angry for her divorcing him due to his alcoholism, infidelity, and lack of financial support.

My last memory of him was me running after his car screaming, "Daddy! Daddy! Don't leave me!"

There were no Amber Alerts in those days. A street person, Maudie,  and her little dog, Tufts, looked after me for 6 terrifying weeks.

When I developed Double Pneumonia, Maudie overcame her fear of uniforms and took me to the nearest Salvation Army station.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1511548207

I immortalized her and Tufts in FRENCH QUARTER NOCTURNE and END OF DAYS. 

And I fed the wandering dog who looked like Tufts and hung around Lifeshare for years.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09NRBY5K3

Now, you know the genesis of the street orphan, Victor Standish. He is what I wished I had been on the mean streets of Detroit.

FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE FATHERS, YOU ARE IN CHARGE OF FRAGILE CARGO, WALK CAREFULLY.

MR. PRESIDENT, HAVE PITY ON THE WORKING MAN

 

LIKE ROMEO AND JULIET ... BUT BETTER!

 

ORIGINALITY

I was browsing the headlines of Yahoo this morning when I arose, hoping not to find any new mass shootings,

When I spotted this.

I had a mental image of a Netflix writing room filled with a group of execs drawing in puffs from their joints saying ...

"See, two teenage girls fall in love ...."

"Yeah, better ... one is black, the other white."

"I can see it, man, one is from an ancient family of vampires, the other from a family of vampire killers!"

The head exec nods his head. "Like ROMEO AND JULIET ... only better ... we'll name one Juliet so no one misses what we're doing."

Aren't you tired of actually seeing the boxes being checked off in certain new entertainments??

THE FIRST FOUR

 

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree, 

and I will spend the first four

 sharpening the ax.”  

- Abraham Lincoln

 The people we surround ourselves with 
are the biggest influence 
on our behavior, 
attitudes and results. 

Who you are around ,

what they’ve got 
you thinking, 
saying, doing 
and becoming,
sets the course of your life.

 “You are the average 
of the five people 
you spend the 
most time with.”

 - Jim Rohn

Social scientists say the people you spend the most time with 

tend to shape who you are. 

They determine what conversations dominate your attention. 

They affect to which attitudes and behaviors you are regularly exposed. 

Eventually you start to think like they think and behave like they behave.

 No matter what you believe about what the social scientists say ...

You can agree it is hard to stay positive when surrounded by negative people!

Even if you do what you feel is right, you will not get as far if, around you,

you do not have people who hold you to a higher standard ...

who by their very example show you it can be done.

I am far better now than I would have been

because of the friendship of Sandra Thrasher and the example shown by her entire family.

If you truly are the average of the five people in your life,

what kind of person are you?

Has there been one person who touched your life with wisdom and friendship?