Delivered fresh on March 14th, 2011
Greetings!
If you can do more -
you should.
- Robert Redford
Dana
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In INSPIRING PEOPLE: Dana talks with HBO series The Wire's Snoop Pearson. Read Dana's EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW with Felicia Pearson.
Take a minute to read DANA'S WEEKLY INSIGHT and make sure that you listen to the AUDIO VERSION as well. There may be someone who needs you to pass that along.
Check out DANA'S DAILIES for no other reason than to hopefully smile. And come back and visit the blog all week at www.danaroc.com/dailies.
The special article FROM DANA'S GUESTS: This week's Guest Article topic is about the Wisconsin Protesters.
Check out AUGUSTE ROC'S MY TWO CENTS (For Whatever It Is Worth). There is something in it for YOU! While it may be "Two Cents" but you'll find it's worth a whole lot more. Feel free to email your comments to Auguste at auguste@danaroc.com.
This week's THE GOOD LIFE : BOOKS selection is Cork Boat: A True Story of the Unlikeliest Boat Ever Built by John Pollack. This is just a great book to read if you want to change your point of view. Well written with an emphasis on whimsy, fun and thinking outside of the box, Cork Boat is definitely one for your list!
Something useful in THE GOOD LIFE : WEB SITES is Global Volunteers this week. Check it out!
And there's more so sit back, grab a cup of coffee, relax and enjoy.
As always, thanks for reading!
Stay cool. Be hungry. Never look back. Always reach back. Fear not.
Believe always,
Dana
RSVP
It is arguably because we receive the signal so early on that it is necessary for each of us to establish our net worth as a human being, that many of us have difficulty grasping the notion that we can simply be accepted just because -- we are. We find it harder still to comprehend the possibility that we could honestly be celebrated, and dare I even suggest pursued, because -- we are unlike any other.
When we fail to realize the power of just being ourselves - that we are and so we are great - we run the risk of perpetually striving in vain; we run the risk of living a failure's truth.
It was really one of the most stunning rejections that I have ever had to endure...
The brown chicken stew simmered gently on the stove; that perfect blend of hot, spicy and sweet resulting in a heavenly aroma had rendered me proud. The rice and beans were laced with coconut, the salad was waiting to be tossed, the wine was breathing and the chocolate dessert was homemade. It was 7:00. Dinner was ready. We were excited for our guests to arrive.
He was the pre-school teacher who every kid loved, his wife had her hands full at home taking care of their three year old and a six month old - both girls. They had both taken care of Gussie for us once or twice. We liked them and Gussie liked playing with their girls so we imagined that having them over for dinner would be a cool way to spend a warm Friday night in June, only after waiting for what seemed like forever -
our guests decided not to show up.
It wasn't until after 9:30 and it was well after several failed attempts to reach them by phone that we finally had to accept the fact that we had just been stood up? As I glanced over at my dinner, still wanting to be served, I was not at all amused. In fact I was down right ticked off and I stayed that way all through the night, as I sipped my morning coffee and until they answered the phone just before noon.
"Um, well, something sort of came up", he offered in a limp attempt to atone for their sin. "We didn't call because we didn't think it was such a big deal."
Imagine.
I struggled to find a way to strike a delicate balance between allowing myself the luxury of being completely offended by what he was admitting, and trying to understand. I succeeded in my attempt, for the most part, because I decided to be honest about just how much we had looked forward to enjoying their company and to sharing a meal. I let him know what and how I had prepared and then I decided to really listen.
What I heard in spite of the words he chose to use was the curious reality that they hadn't necessarily been looking forward to an evening with us because they had somehow concluded that they were not in "our league" and that we were probably just "being kind".
Rather than insisting, in an effort to be convincing, that his assumption could not have been further from the truth, I chose instead to stand for a minute in his shoes where I had to admit - the shoes fit, so I wore them, for a minute more. And, in reluctant surrender, I was quietly compelled to acknowledge to myself that:
While I don't recall ever blowing off an invitation to have dinner, there may have been a time or two when I might have maybe declined to accept an invitation because I felt somehow that I might not measure up.
And you?
Have you ever been guilty of retreating because you weren't feeling so good about yourself; of laying low until you felt you could be certain that you had done enough and won enough to measure up in the real world? Ever felt that you were okay to hang around as long as you were certain that you could sufficiently demonstrate that the pleasure of your company would yield some kind of value or exact some sort of social benefit later on?
Why not consider that -
Just because you are, you are all that you can be! Because you can never try hard enough to be good enough and because any attempt at trying to measure up will only result in living an exhausting and unforgivable lie, why not risk just being yourself?!
I ended my conversation with my absentee guest by extending a sincere gesture of forgiveness, and with a fresh and unexpected compassion for myself. As a result of being on the receiving end of someone else's self uncertainty, I was able to take a good long look at the man in the mirror where I was confronted with a fragile sense of self confidence about what it is that I bring to the dinner table, and where I began to grapple with the possibility of embracing the notion that I could honestly be celebrated, and dare I even suggest pursued, just because I'm me.
We are!
Therefore -
WE ARE GREAT!
And, when we can emerge from the shadows of the disempowering suggestion that we are not already okay and shatter the myth that we must always be tirelessly establishing that we are worthy and that our company is worthwhile, then and only then will we experience the kind of freedom that will allow us to breath; to deeply and finally -
BREATHE.
Dana
Have a great week!
HBO series The Wire's Snoop Pearson
Snoop Pearson got her undergraduate degree from the "School of Hard Knocks" and the lessons that she has learned are paying off. She is young and although she has lived a thousand lifetimes, she is just starting out with her whole life to look forward to.
Her manager Ally Roberson,writes this about Snoop:
On May 18th 1980 a premature baby girl, Snoop Pearson, was born fighting to survive. Hours old and about 3lbs, doctors didn't expect her to live, Moms and Pops were locked up, so she was on her own. Days went by and she was holding on so Snoop, was made a ward of the court and was placed with a Foster Grandmother on the Eastside of Baltimore. She was so small she was fed with an eyedropper until she grew stronger.
There is no pretty story here, just the gritty truth of growing up in the system on the Baltimore streets but...Snoop is a survivor. While other 12 year olds were in school Snoop was learning the drug game. While other 14 year olds were starting high school, Snoop was standing before the judge being sentenced to an 8year bid. She finished school while behind bars and earned an education the hard way. Snoop was released 6 years later in 2000. Her pretty face showing no sign of the struggle life had been for her so far. She's not trying to be pretty, she just is and she'll pull your girl if you're not careful. I witnessed this myself when the waitress blushed and gave her special treatment as we ate dinner one night in a Brooklyn restaurant.
Snoop's story is proof that we can overcome the odds. Snoop was offered a role on HBO's hottest series "The Wire".
The recent arrest of Felicia Snoop Pearson has raised the opportunity for us, as a society, to take a close look at the root of some of America’s most serious problems and where we might be failing our children and robbing them of possibility...
DR: Talk to be about your life, so far.
SP: I come from, how can I put this? I am adopted. I just found out where my parents are at. They are deceased now. I am twenty five years old. I went to jail or prison when I was 14 1/2. I came home when I was twenty. I came home and tried to get a couple of jobs. I was never trying to hide any of my criminal...
Read the rest of the interview! Click here.
Wisconsin Protesters Refuse to Quit
Fight On Wisconsin!
MADISON, Wis. — Clogging the Wisconsin Capitol grounds and screaming angry chants, tens of thousands of undaunted pro-labor protesters descended on Madison again Saturday and vowed to focus on future elections now that contentious cuts to public worker union rights have become law.
Protests have rocked the Capitol almost every day since Gov. Scott Walker proposed taking nearly all collective bargaining rights away from public workers, but the largest came a day after the governor signed the measure into law. Madison Police estimated the crowd at 85,000 to 100,000 people – along with 50 tractors and one donkey – by late afternoon. No one was arrested.
Speakers delivered angry diatribes while the crowd carried signs comparing Walker to dictators and yelled thunderous chants of "this is what democracy looks like."
"This is so not the end," said protester Judy Gump, a 45-year-old English teacher at Madison Memorial High School. "This is what makes people more determined and makes them dig in."
Read the rest of the interview! Click here..
BIGGER
We all know what it's like to win a few and we all now how it feels to lose. And, while winning is something that we anxiously prepare for, that we willingly visualize and imagine, nobody really plans for how they will handle defeat.
You don't plan for losing. You just hope it doesn't happen.
But, maybe there is something to be said for taking the time to imagine what you'd do if you do lose because, in the absence of the loser losing graciously everybody loses and nobody really wins. The winner misses out on the full glory of a job well done, of a fight well fought, of a game well played. The loser misses out on the opportunity to honor the process and to grow. The future is tainted because history reflects badly on such displays.
The greater good of the game is dishonored when the loser won't willingly accept their defeat because of the series of unwritten protocol that gets violated and abused. A destructive tone gets set for the ones who are expected to follow the lead of a leader who spoils the sport.
We'll win some but we can also expect to most definitely lose more than we'd like to imagine we will. But even after a well fought fight, when the winner loses with dignity and grace, everyone is honored so -
everybody wins.
That's my two cent's (for whatever it's worth).
Auguste Roc
auguste@danaroc.com
Read more of Auguste's Two Cents! Click here.
100 Years From Now - Daniel Winchester
Name:
Daniel Winchester
Age:
32 years old
Where are you from:
Trinidad and Tobago
Where do you live:
New York
Occupation:
I'm into retail management, design... all that good stuff...
100 years from now What do you want to be remembered for:
Still deciding. Still working on that.
Want more dailies? Click here.
Why I am recommending this website:
The more I talk to people the more that I am convinced that one way to maintain a sense of happiness and self satisfaction is in reaching out to help another human being. I have never talked met anyone who has shared any sense of regret when they took the time to lend a hand. Global Volunteers offers people the opportunity to have fun while making a real difference in communities that are in need, while also offering an opportunity to discover something new about themselves.
From the Website:
Global Volunteers is a private, non-profit, non-sectarian, non-governmental organization engaging short-term volunteers on micro-economic and human development programs in close partnership with local people worldwide. Working at the invitation and under the direction of local leaders, volunteers help create a foundation for world peace through mutual international understanding. Our purpose is to maintain a genuine, sustained service partnership with the host community and provide volunteers a genuine opportunity to serve.
A Global Partnership
By Michele Gran, Senior Vice President and Co-Founder
Occasionally in life, you get to do something amazing. What's more, you might change your life forever.
In January 1980, we enjoyed what my husband, Bud Philbrook, wryly refers to as "a properly balanced honeymoon." We spent five days indulging Bud's childhood dream to visit Orlando theme parks, followed by five days in an impoverished Guatemalan village. This curious blending of Disney World and "the real world" eventually led to a life change that involves thousands of others around the world.
Originally, our honeymoon plans centered around a "barefoot cruise" in the Caribbean. But it was late in 1979, the period of a massive exodus of Hmong and Cambodian people into the vast waters toward America. Week after week, evening network newscasts spotlighted the growing tragedy - the casualties of capsized refugee boats lost in the frigid waters. A cruise seemed increasingly frivolous to us in the context of world events. We decided to try to create a more meaningful vacation for ourselves, where we could experiment with being true "world citizens," if only for a short time. We thought perhaps we could contribute our skills to an international organization that needed help. But where would we find such an outlet?
Continue with Global Volunteers' founding story...
» Visit Global Volunteers
Browse the web sites archive! Click here.
Cork Boat: A True Story of the Unlikeliest Boat Ever Built
Why I am recommending this book:
As a speechwriter for President Bill Clinton, Pollack was inspired to promote the value of whimsy and the importance of bringing people together to simply have fun. This charming account of his experience building the worlds first boat made out of corks and then sailing it down the Douro River in Portugal, provides an opportunity to be truly transported!
Click here to purchase this book.
Amazon.com:
Most people have childhood dreams; few ever pursue them. At the age of 34, John Pollack quit a prestigious speechwriting job on Capitol Hill to pursue an idea he had harbored since the age of six: to build a boat out of wine corks and take it on an epic journey.
In Cork Boat, Pollack tells the charming and uplifting story of this unlikely adventure. Overcoming one obstacle after another, he convinces skeptical bartenders to save corks, corrals a brilliant but disorganized partner, and cajoles more than a hundred volunteers to help build the boat, many until their fingers bleed. Hired as a speechwriter for President Clinton midway through construction, Pollack soon has the White House saving corks, too. Ultimately, he and his crew set sail down the Douro River in Portugal, where the boat becomes a national sensation. Written with unusual grace and disarming humor, Cork Boat is a buoyant tale of camaraderie, determination, and the power of imagination.
Click here to purchase this book.
Browse the book recommendations! Click here.
Tomorrow is miraculous because -- you get to begin again.
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