Being Inspired by Others

"I've been absolutely terrified every moment of my life - and I've never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do."

-- Georgia O'Keeffe


The O'Keeffe quote reminds me of something that I often say: Being fearless is not the absence of fear; it's moving forward in spite of it.

Being in Love

Meeting him has been wonderful. He is rapidly filling my heart. He writes:

Your words and voice soothe me unending. How is it? I must have met you eons ago before God created the earth, with a pledge to find you at the right time.

I feel like I'm in a free fall but I don't know where. Tell me you've been there.

(Maybe this will not last but I'm enjoying it for now. Yeah, I know...fatalist, eh? Or, perhaps it's a bit realistic. I've fallen before but from a different cliff. Why do we fall on this trip?)

Being Arrogant

President Obama was called arrogant by a number of analysts and contributors on Fox News after his State of the Union address. It's completely amazing that this label was used to describe a president who like none other was a community organizer, working with the humblest among us. Here was a young man who, after attending Harvard where he was president of the Harvard Law Review, chose not to go to Wall Street but to the streets of Chicago. The arrogant label has little to do with President Obama. It has more to do with the desire to position him to a lesser degree. To them he is the quintessential historical "uppity negro." In reality he is the President of the United States.

Being the Supreme Court II

When President Obama addressed the Supreme Court directly in his State of Union speech, it was good to see that the Justices are human after all. With these words Justice Alito was visibly upset:

With all due deference to separation of powers, last week, the Supreme Court reversed a century of law that I believe will open the floodgates for special interests -- including foreign corporations -- to spend without limit in our elections. I don't think American elections should be bankrolled by America's most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities. They should be decided by the American people, and I'd urge Democrats and Republicans to pass a bill that helps correct some of these problems.

Justice Alito's obvious disapproval with the President at least shows that he's human. During the confirmation of Justice Sotomayor it was like everyone believed that the Justices were robots. Alito's reaction wasn't quite a "you lied" moment but it was as close as it will probably get from a starchy-black robbed Justice who sits on the highest court of the land who holds such indefinite life-time power. Okay, I'm not feeling the Supreme Court as of late.

Some of the other Justices also seemed displeased with President Obama's words. They seemed surprised that he would address them directly. But I don't understand this. After all, they are chosen by the President even though there is a separation of the three branches of government. Personally, I loved the moment!

Being on Message

When you allow others to define your message you can be assured that it will not be yours.

Being on Message II

In his State of the Union address President Obama made news to me. His administration has not raised taxes "on one single person."

Let me repeat: we cut taxes. We cut taxes for 95% of working families. We cut taxes for small businesses. We cut taxes for parents trying to care for their children. We cut taxes for 8 million Americans paying for college. As a result, millions of Americans had more to spend on gas, and food, and other necessities, all of which helped businesses keep more workers. And we haven't raised income taxes by a single dime on a single person. Not a single dime.

Republicans did not even clap for what they supposedly believe in more than anything else: tax cuts.

Being in Davos II

Okay, I admit it. I may just completely be in a state of utter skepticism. But I simply could care less about what the geniuses of the world are pontificating about in Davos. Well, that's not altogether true. I suppose there is a sense of what's occurring there, as this is an annual meeting of the world's most powerful. It's just that many of these which include Wall Street bankers have completely lost my respect by their sheer greed, recklessness and dearth of ideas. As I read the tweets from those in Davos, there is no urgency and little relevancy. I wonder if this conference has largely become a mere meeting of fat cats where innovation is lacking and compliments among the attendees are aplenty, fattening themselves even more.