Commitment
I was saddened and completely stunned when the news flashed on the screen: former Vice President Al Gore and his wife, Tipper, are separating after 40 years of marriage. Politico broke the news first and covered it here.
While I didn’t vote for Gore in 2000, his marriage always struck me as very real. Kiss or no kiss, the Gores’ relationship seemed like a solid and stable one – not a sham as some political marriages are eventually exposed to be.
Without casting aspersions on the Gores – because that’s not the point of this post – I hope this news serves as a wakeup call to those of us who have made “until death do us part” commitments.
Marriage is hard work. (Especially if, like me, you married up!) I am exceedingly blessed to be closing in on ten years with my wonderful wife. I’ve made innumerable mistakes along the way, but through our commitment to each other, our faith, and the support of our families, we have built a marriage that we are both working to make last a lifetime. And given that we got married at 22 and 20, we intend to celebrate 50 years together – and beyond!
That will only happen if we both invest in our marriage and work on it every day.
It was a sad day yesterday for the Gores, but don’t let that stop you from striving for 40 or 50 or 60 years with the person you’ve made a lifelong commitment to. I’m convinced it’s worth it.
Photo Credit: Jodi Cobb
What if Seinfeld were a drama?
(Mobile, feed and e-mail readers: embedded video above.)
A big hat tip to @abrahampiper for posting this piece of weekend fun.
Individually Inspired
Our church started holding an incredible annual concert and art exhibit for the community last year. It was an amazing production then, and now the amazingly talented team of young people is presenting Individually Inspired II on April 30th and May 2nd, 2010.
So if you’re local to the Sierra Foothills, come and enjoy original art, photography, music, poetry, drama and dance. The art and photography exhibit opens at 6PM and the concert begins at 7:30PM.
It’s a great evening, and admission is completely free. The event is at Foothill Christian Fellowship, at 1100 Sugar Pine Road in Meadow Vista. Call 530-878-0293 for more information if you need it.
Weekend Fun: Don Knotts Announces Baseball
This is CLASSIC Don Knotts. There won’t ever be another comic quite like him. Enjoy your weekend!
(Feed, e-mail and mobile readers: the embedded video is above. H/T to @NoelPiper for this video!)
Talent is Overrated
Geoff Colvin is the Senior Editor at Large for Fortune Magazine and one of his most popular cover stories ever was entitled “What It Takes to Be Great” – which offered new evidence that top performers in business, sports, politics, music or science aren’t determined by inborn talents, but rather from skills honed by decades of practice and perseverance.
Sound simple? There’s more to it. In “Talent is Overrated,” Colvin turns that subject into a book-long exploration of how the specific structure of practice separates the average from the truly elite. By breaking down and practicing the separate components of success, and then rigorously analyzing the results and learning from mistakes, Colvin argues that exceptional greatness can be the result.
The book is chock-full of scientific backup for the theory, as well as real-world examples. Whether it’s Warren Buffett in investing, Tiger Woods in golf, or Mozart as a composer, the case studies he present are cogent and help you understand how those maestros got where they are today.
“Talent is Overrated” will change the way you think about solving tough problems or getting better at things you do every day. It’s a great read!
» Check out “Talent is Overrated”
The Noticer
I had never read or heard of Andy Andrews until his publisher’s CEO, Michael Hyatt, started raving about this book, so I decided to give it a read.
The Noticer is described as “part fiction, part inspiration and part allegory” and you leave it with a deep sense of how important perspective can be in life. Too often, we get down into the “trees” of our lives, and can’t see the bigger picture.
An allegorical tale written from a Christian perspective, the center of the story is an old man named Jones – “no mister, just Jones” – who carries around a tattered leather suitcase and always seems to show up at the right moment.
Jones is always sharing his gift of perspective with people blinded by their own challenges. Some are on the brink of divorce; another suicide; still another bankruptcy; or young people just giving up on life.
At each stage, the solution is to look at things differently. He gives books on great people in history to those young people; counsels the couple headed to a divorce on the differences in their love languages; and helps the near-bankrupt businessman see that treating his employees well and doing right by his clients will pay far greater dividends than his short-term perspective has.
If you view this book allegorically, it seems to work. But in truth, there was an element of the story that just wasn’t deep enough for me. My faith teaches me that God is massively big in comparison to the problems I face in life. That doesn’t mean everything will be peachy – but it does mean that I don’t have to solve these problems in my own power. (Which is good, because I’m incapable of doing so!)
Ultimately, that’s the lack of perspective that I often deal with, and despite its roots, this book didn’t really lay that foundation.
That’s my only criticism, though. The Noticer is still a valuable tool, and one that reminded me of the need to surround myself with people that I trust, who can “notice” things that I lack the perspective to see. It was also an entertaining page turner, and I look forward to reading future work from Andy Andrews.
» Check out The Noticer by Andy Andrews
“Come Together Now” for Haiti
Last week, I tweeted about how “Music City” (Nashville) united to help Haiti in the wake of the horrible earthquake that devastated that country in January.
Now they’ve released the music video. (Mobile, feed and e-mail readers: the embedded video is above.)
This entire project was the brainchild of Christian music artist Michael W. Smith, and the results are simply stunning.
Buy “Come Together Now” today – 100% of all proceeds go to Haiti.
Celebrate Family, Celebrate Life
I was thoroughly underwhelmed by most of the ads at this year’s Super Bowl. The Letterman/Leno ad was probably the funniest, with an honorable mention to Denny’s for the screaming chickens.
But the feel good ad of this Super Bowl – by a couple of touchdowns – was when University of Florida Quarterback Tim Tebow’s mom stole the show reminding people how precious every life is.
(If you don’t know the back story, Pam Tebow was overseas and had dysentery when she got pregnant. Doctors advised her to terminate her pregnancy, but she refused to do that. And just a couple of decades later, Tim Tebow won the Heisman Trophy because of her decision.)
After seeing the ad, I couldn’t help but wonder if some of the pro-abortion organizations who had so vehemently attacked the Tebows for their message were wishing they had done a little bit more thinking and a little bit less shrieking.
This can be an emotional issue for many, but ultimately, I think what this ad really illustrated is that there is nothing to celebrate about ending life. Nobody would put an ad on the Super Bowl applauding the termination of a pregnancy. And for those of us involved in the orphan care and adoption cause, that fact really does hit home: all human lives are precious and deserve our protection.
It’s a beautiful thing to celebrate family. It’s a beautiful thing to celebrate life.
Regaining Control of an Accelerating Vehicle
You may have heard recently Toyota is doing a massive recall of many vehicles, because their accelerator pedals have gotten stuck on their floor mats, causing the car or truck to accelerate out of control.
I actually just had this happen in my Toyota 4Runner, even though it isn’t included in the recall. My floor mat had bunched up and my accelerator pedal got stuck. Fortunately I was on the freeway without a lot of traffic. My instinct (while braking) was to reach down and pull the pedal up with my hand and fortunately, that worked.
Consumer Reports recommended something I didn’t think of: shifting the vehicle into neutral. They also say to brake firmly, without pumping the brakes, although I have to say that advice makes me a little nervous. When this happened to me, I had the sensation that braking firmly could cause the vehicle to swerve or even flip. (Whether it would have done that or not, I have no idea.)
All that said, I’m keeping “neutral” in the back of my mind in case this happens to me again. Stay safe on the road!
Has this ever happened to you? Or do you have a Toyota vehicle affected by the recall?
Best Tweets of 2009
I didn’t do Twitter much in 2008…really started in the first few months of 2009. I’m told by several people that I wrote some funny stuff last year. Here’s a review of some of the ones that got the most laughs:
- The White House has announced that the Chevy Malibu will be available in a beautiful forest green next year. (June 1, after GM was taken over by the feds)
- My wife, @caceyklein, thinks we should raise $ to send Abel Maldonado on a cruise for next 2 years. With luck, he’ll be captured by pirates. (June 9, after Maldonado caved in and voted to raise taxes yet again)
- From a friend…BREAKING NEWS: Chicago has announced that Senator Edward Kennedy is now eligible to vote in their fine city. (Aug 31, after Senator Kennedy’s passing)
- Biden just grabbed the mic from the President and told the crowd “Ronald Reagan had the best missile shield OF ALL TIME….” (Sep 17, when President Obama announced he was eliminating President Bush’s missile shield project, just a few days after Kanye West stole the show at the MTV Awards)
- Reading the Roman Polanski story. Intl fugitive flies to another country, arrested at airport. He hasn’t seen this in the movies? (Sep 28)
- http://twitpic.com/krcmo – Huh. Somebody printed Google and delivered it to my office. (Oct 8)
- I just pumped 20 gallons of fossil fuels into my car, but I saved the environment by hitting no when it asked if I wanted a receipt. (Oct 13)
- Hapa Sushi has pretty good food. I’m guessing each order is hand delivered from Japan, given how long it took to arrive. (Nov 14)
I will continue to do my best to keep you all entertained in witty 140-character snippets in 2010 as well. Clearly that full-time job would be far easier if I knew what you think my best tweet of 2009 was.
So now it’s your turn to decide – cast your vote in the comments below. And yes, if you think my sense of humor is just lousy, you can vote for “none of the above.” 
