Delivered fresh on September 21st, 2009
Greetings!
"Cease to be earthbound and burdened with practicality"
When is the last time that you heard a really good idea? When is the last time that you made the time to have one?
The structure of daily life offers little consideration for the luxurious pursuit of What could be, yet the very evolution of humanity relies on the willingness of ordinary people to resist the temptation to get sucked in by the hypnotic trance of being “too busy” for the opportunity to pierce the depths of the imagination and to discover what exists beyond.
Profound insight, inspired masterpieces, brilliant performances all have to be cultivated. Great work does not get created on the fly. To nurture the imagination, to entertain the possibility of those things that wait for us on the other side of merely trying to survive day in and day out, to create is to do battle for the chance to sit and to think. Quietly. For awhile...
Dana
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In INSPIRING PEOPLE: Dana talks with HBO series THE WIRE'S Jamie Hector. Jamie plays the fearless Marlo Stanfield on the critically acclaimed series. His character is ruthless, which just goes to show what a good actor he is. In real life Jamie is a kind hearted champion for children. Enjoy Dana's EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW with rising star, Jamie Hector.
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 is Hey Young Americans, Here's a Text for You by Naomi Wolf. Controversial? Perhaps. Worth considering? Absolutely.
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 Our America: Life And Death On The South Side Of Chicago by Lealan Jones, Lloyd Newman. Enter the world of two courageous thirteen year olds as they chronicle the struggle to survive their reality in an unforgiving world through interviews and personal commentary. Truly inspiring! Read this book!
Something useful in THE GOOD LIFE : WEB SITES 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
Who's The New Kid?
You can try your best to fight it but, it won't do you any good...
The cycle of life, whether we like it or not, will inevitably impose its sovereign dictate that - everything must change.
Everything has to begin somewhere and absolutely all good things must come to an end. For the most part we accept the mandate that opportunities will ebb and flow, that people will come and go; that time does not stand still. And, although we might get stuck trying to figure out how to make the best out of what it is we can't control, seldom do we resist the reality that night will follow day, that winter must surrender to spring, that young becomes old, old becomes new and that new almost always predictably improves.
But -
"new and predictably improved" will fight for its very survival when the audacity of a rare and inspired genius --
is revealed.
Salieri was very good. Mozart was a genius. Peter Keating was the standard. Howard Roark threatened to redefine the rules of the game.
Playwright Peter Schaffer's Amadeus revolves around the murderous, destructive envy of the imperial court composer Antonio Salieri aimed at a younger, bolder revolutionary Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his divinely inspired musical gifts. Mozart produced one brilliant work after another that continued to profoundly transcend what had already musically been done. Author Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead centers on the brilliant and seductive talents of Howard Roark who chooses to "struggle against the powers that be rather than compromise his artistic and personal vision by pandering to the prevailing taste". Peter Keating, on the hand, in his desperate effort to climb the proverbial ladder, seduces, flatters, cheats, lies and steals for opportunity to make it to the top.
And so the stories go -
Salieri and Keating were better than sufficient until the glaring possibility of a new reality came crashing down on them. As the Kapellmeister to the Viennese Hapsburg Court, Salieri was the more powerful person politically, content with his talent and status in court until his musical rival came to Vienna. Likewise, as someone more than willing to go along with the game, Keating has all of the establishment support. He too is doing just fine until faced with the uncompromised architectural talents of a superior rival.
While Salieri's accomplishments are as a result of hard work, Mozart has been endowed with a gift for seeing beyond, and the ability to be inspired. Roark is an ideal man and Keating is a man who has yet to find his own voice. Salieri becomes obsessed with conspiring against Mozart. Keating vows that Roark will be destroyed because -
"What has always been" will tolerate with indifference "a little bit better than" but when confronted with the shock of an unprecedented talent, expect that all hell will break loose.
We accept without fighting that --
Night will follow day, winter must surrender to spring, young becomes old, old becomes new and new almost always predictably improves. But "new and predictably improved" will wage war for its very survival when the audacity of a rare and inspired genius is unexpectedly revealed.
In the end Salieri does eventually kill Mozart and Keating tries his best to bring Roark to his knees. Yet, Howard Roark goes on to build an eternal monument in the spirit of his brilliance and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's music breathtakingly endures. In the end it is the mediocre determined to destroy the superior that is itself destroyed under the power of an audaciously inspired genius once revealed, that threatens to shatter the very existence of normal while it echoes the promise of a brand new day.
Imagine.
What does not need permission -- will not be denied, and -
everybody can't be Mozart!
Yes, we're all good at something and some of us are very good at one particular thing. And, while all "men" may indeed be fundamentally created equal, some "men" are just destined to touch the sky -- those rare individuals whose talents reside somewhere in the heavens; whose genius propels them to a place beyond -- and I choose to give my self permission to surrender and to bask in the glow of genius wherever I can find it; to be transported and to find my better self.
I have considered, with concern, the destiny of a generation caught up in the habit of shunning and suppressing greatness, risking the possibility of conquering new frontiers for the satisfaction of not being outdone.
And you?
Have you stopped to consider that cost?
Have you imagined this world without Einstein or Gandhi, without Jordan or Mandela or Baryshnikov? Without Shakespeare or Aristotle where would we be now? Consider the mastermind behind the first man on the moon and envision what might be next to come.
Really hard work goes a long way in achieving greatness. Cunning and strategic maneuvers when you've got establishment support, may serve to put you over the top. But every now and then, the unpredictable comes along and threatens the status quo by offering true greatness.
Perhaps, when presented with the privilege to dwell with and learn from someone who is exceptionally gifted, you might lay down your arms, surrender and permit yourself to generously receive and then happily -
go along for the ride.
Dana
Have a great week!
Jamie Hector
HBO series THE WIRE's Marlo Stanfield
Jamie Hector has established a tremendous fan base due to his portrayal of Marlo Stanfield on the critically acclaimed, HBO series, THE WIRE.
Jamie enrolled in college while he continued to audition and book roles on NY Undercover, Third Watch, Law & Order, Law & Order SVU, The Beat, and Oz. Jamie's film work dates back to Spike Lee's "Clockers". From there he went on to appear in "He Got Game", Ghost Dog", "Prison Song", "Everyday People" and "Paid In Full". Jamie's film work was highlighted when the short film "five deep breaths", directed by Seith Mann, featured Jamie in the lead role of Banny. This film was an Official Selection of the Cannes, Sundance, Tribeca and The IFP Film Festivals and went on to accumulate 14 awards.
After graduating from college Jamie enrolled in The Lee Strasburg Theater Institute, and studied there for several years. What is so appealing about Jamie is more than just his enormous talent, it is his sincere humanity and his modesty. The general consensus is that Jamie Hector is a dynamic person with tremendous talent who works hard to create the best possible results.
So who is Jamie Hector? According to his manager:
"On THE WIRE, he is a cautious, intelligent, ruthless gangster. In real life he is a concerned community minded young man, who believes that he should help those in need."
I agree wholeheartedly.
It was late on a Saturday when Jamie and I finally got a chance to talk. He had been working hard on the set of the critically acclaimed, HBO series, THE WIRE, but still made time to chat.
Jamie Hector is wise beyond his years. He is complex and the texture of his speaking leaves you wanting to know more. I am clear that we have yet to discover the depths of Jamie's remarkable talent. It was my pleasure to spend time talking with him.
DR: Tell about your life and your work.
JH: Well my life and my work -- I think they come together as one...
Read the rest of the interview! Click here.
Naomi Wolf, for me, exists as a courageous voice in a world full of tentative passion. I appreciate the unapologetic stand that she takes as a patriot; as someone who cares deeply about America and about the world that we will one day leave behind.
Hey Young America, Here’s a Text For You by Naomi Wolf
Naomi Wolf was born in San Francisco in 1962. She was an undergraduate at Yale University and did her graduate work at New College, Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar.
Her essays have appeared in various publications including: The New Republic, Wall Street Journal, Glamour, Ms., Esquire, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. She also speaks widely to groups across the country.
The Beauty Myth, her first book, was an international bestseller. She followed that with Fire With Fire: The New Female Power and How It Will Change The 21st Century, published by Random House in 1993, and Promiscuities: The Secret Struggle for Womanhood, published in 1997. Misconceptions, released in 2001, is a powerful and passionate critique of pregnancy and birth in America. In 2002, Harper Collins published a 10th anniversary commemorative edition of The Beauty Myth.
Naomi Wolf is the author of The End of America: A Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot and the Forthcoming Give me Liberty: A Handbook for American Revolutionaries.
Naomi Wolf is co-founder of the Board of The Woodhull Institute for Ethical Leadership, an organization devoted to training young women in ethical leadership for the 21st century. The institute teaches professional development in the arts and media, politics and law, business and entrepreneurship as well as ethical decision making.
Her most recent book, a New York Times bestseller, is The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot, published in 2007 by Chelsea Green.
Is America still America if millions of us no longer know how democracy works?
When I speak on college campuses, I find that students are either baffled by democracy's workings or that they don't see any point in engaging in the democratic process. Sometimes both.
Not long ago, I gave a talk at a major university in the Midwest. "They're going to raze our meadows and put in a shopping mall!" a young woman in the audience wailed. "And there's nothing we can do!" she said, to the nods of young and old alike.
I stared at her in amazement and asked how old she was. When she said 26, I suggested that she run for city council. Then she stared at me-- with complete incomprehension. It took me a long time to convince her and her peers in the audience that what I'd suggested was possible, even if she didn't have money, a major media outlet of her own or a political "machine" behind her.
This lack of understanding about how democracy works is...
Read the rest of the article! Click here.
Don't Get It Confused
Have you ever reached a point where you've just got to "go there"? Do you know what I mean? I mean -
that point where you just have to let somebody know who they're dealing with.
If you are a basketball fan then you know who Bill Russell is - one of the greatest basketball players of all time. If you are a hardcore basketball fan then you know that Red Auerbach was one of the greatest basketball coaches of all time.
Red Auerbach coached Bill Russell when he played for Boston Celtics.
In the early stages of Russell's NBA career, Coach Auerbach recognized the unlimited potential that Russell possessed. Auerbach also saw that Bill Russell would compromise his ultimate potential if Russell continued to allow players to physically punish and push him around on the court. Russell was a rookie and the veterans were taking full advantage of that fact.
Red coached Russell that:
If you want to be a great player in the NBA you're going have to let the rest of the league know. You're going to have to let them know that you can get aggressive, take a stand and fight back - if you have to.
Bill Russell was known as a nice guy. It was not his nature, necessarily, to demonstrate aggressive behavior on the court. But, he took the coaching anyway, because that's the kind of player he was.
In a subsequent game, played on national television, Bill Russell understood what he finally had to do. During a heated moment, Russell threw a forceful elbow, just as he was coached to do, that sent a message loud and clear - on national television, letting everybody know that he could "go there"
Nice guy, only now people were clear about who they were dealing with.
That's my two cents (for whatever it's worth),
Auguste Roc
auguste@danaroc.com
Read more of Auguste's Two Cents! Click here.
Public Enemy
(Perhaps he thought that no one was looking. It’s more likely however, that he just didn’t care)...
Dressed in his offical postal blues complete with the courrier jacket and the hat with the flaps lined with synthetic fur, he raised his fingers to his face, pinched his nostrils and then proceeded to launch the contents of his nose into what had been brisk and beautiful morning air — not once but twice and in two different directions!
Isn’t there some kind of code of behavior for Uinted States Postal Workers that forbids this sort of thing? Shouldn’t there be some kind of code of behavior for United States Postal Workers that forbids this sort of thing?
Without thinking I held my breath even though I was a good 50/60 yards away from where he committed this offense because —
a) He had better not be my mailman touching all of that mail with the same fingers that pinched those nostrils
and
b) I had decided that any air, any where around this guy, was now unfit for other human consumption
Fifty yards past him and relieved that he was not our mailman after all, I decided it was okay to breathe again and that’s when it hit me:
You know those times when you’ve come down with a horrible cold or flu and for no apparent reason because you don’t know anyone who has been sick, you haven’t been around anybody whose been sick and you’ve been really disciplined about washing your hands?
Mystery solved!
It’s the mailman...
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Why I am recommending this website:
Eating locally means eating healthy and responsibly. Although it might require a little effort at first, it's just smarter and tastier. Plus, what you might sacrifice in convenience, you will more than make up for in developing a quality of life and community that will continue to pay huge dividends.
From the Website:
The richness, variety, and flavor of our communities, food systems, and diets is in jeopardy. The exclusive focus on economic efficiency has brought us low prices and convenience through large supermarkets chains, agribusiness and factory farms, while taking away many other aspects of our food lives, like our personal relation with our food and with the people who produce it. More and more people are realizing this and actively working to turn the tide and to preserve a food industry based on family-owned, small scale businesses. They are our best guarantee against a world of styrofoam-like long-shelf-life tomatoes and diets dictated from corporate boardrooms.
The Buy Local movement is quickly taking us beyond the promise of environmental responsibility that the organic movement delivered, and awakening the US to the importance of community, variety, humane treatment of farm animals, and social and environmental responsibility in regards to our food economy.
LocalHarvest is America's #1 organic and local food website. We maintain a definitive and reliable "living" public nationwide directory of small farms, farmers markets, and other local food sources. Our search engine helps people find products from family farms, local sources of sustainably grown food, and encourages them to establish direct contact with small farms in their local area. Our online store helps small farms develop markets for some of their products beyond their local area.
» Visit LocalHarvest.org
Browse the web sites archive! Click here.
Our America: Life And Death On The Southside Of Chicago
Why I am recommending this book:
Because it takes extraordinary courage to survive the kind of conditions that these kids had to survive.
Because we can learn a great deal from their strength and from their willingness to see the world as it might be.
Click here to purchase this book.
Amazon.com:
This heartbreaking and inspiring book goes a long way toward fulfilling the wish one of its authors, LeAlan Jones, makes in his epigraph: "You must learn our America as we must learn your America, so that, maybe, someday, we can become one." Based on hours and hours of taped interviews that Jones and Lloyd Newman, two high school students, conducted for two National Public Radio documentaries they prepared in 1993 and 1995, Our America is a no-holds-barred look at the devastatingly poor Chicago neighborhood in which they live. It's a world where elementary school students learn about sex and drugs before they learn how to read, and where many boys do not expect to live to be 20. You finish the book marveling not that so many of those who people it are trapped, but wondering that anyone survives at all.
Click here to purchase this book.
Browse the book recommendations! Click here.
Greatness is the direct result of sacrificing one's personal comfort for the possibility of honoring a commitment far greater than ones self; of making one courageous choice after another.
In other words -
Gandhi wasn't born Gandhi. Gandhi became.
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