Dare to Live Outside of the Box

“That’s not what society says,” “No one has ever done it before,” “That’s not what the educated and the well-connected say.”

SO WHAT?  All the more reason to do the unthinkable!

“Leigh Anne Tuohy manages to do what she wants to do in the way she wants to do it.  She doesn’t care what it takes or how she has to do it but she does it her way … I’ve never met anyone like that before.” (Sandra Bullock)

“Anytime anyone does something unconventional, you have to think about the reality of that (action). Usually, (change) starts with someone who can look at things differently … what if …” (Ray McKinnon)

Stand on the sidelines or get inside the ring — the choice is ours.  🙂

It’s Complicated!

Don’t know about you but the the longer I hang around the block, I find myself enjoying the company of complicated people — the so called “screw ups” — the ever so adorable human beings! 

Would you prefer to be around people who are always “doing great” and “so together?”  Not me.  I’m so imperfect; I’d suffocate amongst wanna-be-perfectionists. 

Wanna know my humble opinion? Folks who think and act like they’re so together are really more screwed up than you and me — at least we’re able to admit to and live with our humanity.  “Perfect people” are just in denial — too insecure to face their true selves.  To the goody two-shoes, “STOP JUDGING.  LIVE A LITTLE!”

If you were divorced, successful, stable career woman about to start a new relationship, and your charming, unreliable, two-timing ex-husband showed up saying “I really want to grow old with you”, would you take him back?

My head would say “NO WAY!”  But my heart?  “Maybe …?  Maybe … someday?”

LIFE — so hilarious, so complicated, so unbelievable! 

It’s Complicated — two thumbs WAY UP!  A must see this holiday season!  🙂

 

Dance Your Way to Success — Love, Respect, Dignity, Teamwork

“If you believe in yourself, you have what it takes to win.  You can get whatever you want . . . Show up and get it.”

“To do anything is hard . . . Even if you find the place to assign blame, problems don’t go away”

“If a woman allows me to lead, she’s trusting me.  More than that, she’s trusting herself.  If your 16-year-old daughter is strong and secure and trust herself, how likely would she let some idiot knock her up?  And if your son learns to touch a girl with respect, how will he treat women throughout his life? . . .”

“So, ladies and gentlemen, this is what I do here.  I teach dance.  WITH DANCE AND ITS SET OF RULES, WE TEACH YOUR KIDS LOVE, RESPECT, TEAMWORK, and DIGNITY; that which would help give them the vision of the future they could have.  THE VISION OF THE FUTURE THEY COULD HAVE.”  (6:30-7:46)

“I’m not interested so much in teaching ballroom dancing techniques. What’s important is the civility that ballroom dancing can bring . . . courtesy, respect, and dignity.”  (Pierre Dulaine, educator, founder, Dulaine Method)

 

America — Struggles and Hopes Inside Foster Care

All a kid needs is one person to hang on to, to listen, to care, to show up consistently.  (Dr. Maureen Brennan, psychiatrist of residential treatment facility)

Imagine … abandonment, sexual abuse, lies, secrets, guilt, shame, drugs, distrust, nightmares.

Imagine … Help!  Hope!  Healing!

In America, more than half a million kids are in foster care.  Once they reach 18 and age out of the system, only two out of ten will make it.  Others will end up homeless, in prison or dead.

We can do better.  We must.  These kids don’t belong to someone else.  These kids belong to all of us.  They are America’s children.  THEY ARE AMERICA.

Coco Chanel C’est Magnifique!

“To be irreplaceable, you have to be different.”  (Coco Chanel)

Attractive, ambitious, charming, capricious, creative, elegant, simplicity, feisty, progressive, rebellious, legendary! 

Vive Chanel!

Thirty Years Apart — Love or Lust?

A bit of both, initially.

Love … defies rules, social norms, “common sense.” 

Tumultuous, transforms, transcends!

Amore! 

Two Million Minutes — The 21st Century Education

“American students are capable of competing academically with the best in the world given the right curriculum, the right teachers, the right inspiration, and expectation for success.”  (Robert Compton, Executive Producer Two Million Minutes) 

To expect less than the best from our children and our students is CHILD ABUSE.

Alarming!

Departures: WHAT Is Your Dream Job?

What is your dream job?  Which jobs are beneath you?  WHAT … is a “respectable job”?

Pros make everything look easy … until we step in their shoes and realize, “Man, they sure earn their keep!”

Landscapers who work for hours under the scorching desert sun, custodians who maintain buildings for children and workers, employees who spend countless hours cooking burgers behind the hot grill — thank you, thank you, thank you! 

YOU are the foundation, the priceless fabric of our society!

How about morticians; professionals who prepare the deceased for their burials?

Love, discovery, hope, transformation … Departures capture and reveal the beauty, compassion, and the power of the human heart.

WHAT is your dream job?  🙂

The U.S. Food Industry — Faster, Fatter, Bigger, Cheaper, Death! (II)

Who ever imagined eating would become life-threatening?!

When big businesses and government look solely after their self interests, the populace are screwed.

A two-year-old dies from E. Coli infested meat. Who cares? Profit over life.  Money is THE ONLY “LANGUAGE” greed understands.

(Why have two-party systems?  Forget Democrats and Republicans.  Once in power, most simply pursue their self interests.  Why not call “Spade” a “Spade” — the “Have Conscience” and the “Don’t Have Conscience.”)

Food, Inc. reveals chilling realities:

• Chickens stuffed in dark “growing houses” — no space to move, no space for exercise, smeared in feces.  Cows, too. Feces halfway up their legs!  Wonder why more people aren’t dropping dead left and right from food poisoning?!
• Mexicans lured by American meat corporations at $8 to $10 per hour wages; entering the country illegally, enduring inhumane working conditions. Corporate big shots are never charged.  Just the hardworking undocumented workers brought to the plants by their cut throat employers.  (Former corporate employees hold powerful government positions.  One of the many dirty secrets between government and corporations — fattening their wallets and taking advantage of the people and consumers they supposedly serve).
• Working class families are getting sick from $1 meals and other cheap, high sodium, nutritionally poor, fast foods. Bread winners on costly medications are choosing to eat cheaply, not healthy.  Consequences — illness, high prescription costs, tight budgets, unhealthy food choices, cheap processed foods, more sickness.
• Farmers who take on the food industry giants face emotional and financial bankruptcy — silenced, alone, jobless.

The vicious cycle — greed and intimidation — continue.

Until now … KNOWLEDGE IS POWER.

Strength lies in numbers.  No demand, no supply.  Look at the tobacco industry!

Food industry, you’re next!

Consumers, it’s time to DEMAND safe, quality, real food.  The time is NOW.  Take matters into our own hands.  We want our health back!  We want our lives back!

Whose side are you on, “Have conscience” or “Don’t have conscience?”

IT’S A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH!  SPREAD THE WORD!

Will You Donate Seven Pounds?

Absolutely!!!  I’d donate seven pounds of fat — in a heartbeat!

How about seven pounds of organs — the priceless gift of life?

Hmm …

In Seven Pounds, Will Smith does … just that!

Smith plays Ben Thomas, a guilt-ridden man who survived but lost his beloved wife to a car rollover.  Thomas desperately seeks to right his previous wrongs.

Determined to give his all — from his house to his heart — Thomas seeks seven deserving strangers.

Recipients’ lives, no doubt, are changed forever.  But what about Thomas’?

I’m still trying to wrap my head around his GREAT BIG HEART.

Gut wrenching, heart warming, awe inspiring— Seven Pounds is a must see — in just two hours, your life may change forever!

Enjoy! 🙂