Take Back Your Life!

A friend suggested I watch Enlightened, an HBO series starring Laura Dern. She thought the half hour format and Laura’s character Amy would be right up my activist ally.

I’d never watched an HBO Series and didn’t know what to expect. Regular TV series all seem to be about folks working like dogs or folks solving murders or folks getting horrible surgeries or folks doing forgettable things. I’ve often said to others, “Why do most TV characters work and not do anything else?” Sends a weird message. (more…)

Hey fun readers,

This week’s post is a guest gig at the wonderful Angie Mizzell’s. Am working on a post about the movie Bill Jack and its theme for next week! So, stayed tuned for that. In the meantime, please check out my post and consider leaving a comment over there. Thanks, G.

You Must Do The Things You Think You Cannot Do.

Always fascinating how column/blog topics enter the psyche.

Was listening to one of my singing idols — Julie London — do her sultry rendition of The Door’s Light My Fire. It’s terrific. Listen to it here on You Tube.

The time to hesitate is through
No time to wallow in the mire

(Lyrics to live by.)

Just my kind of karaoke song. Unfortunately for my higher vocal range, they only seem to offer the original by The Doors. So, I re-listened to The Door’s version and learned from the CD jacket how the band got its name. (more…)

Hi loyal readers,

It took many months of researching,  percolating and writing to finish my educational piece on education, standardization, creativity and imagination. A special thanks to the fabulous commenters who suggested books and shared their own experiences with the world’s educational systems.

Here’s the link to The MetroWest Daily News if you’d like to read it. For those that prefer to stay on this site, I’ve pasted a few choice paragraphs:

“America does not need to standardize its youth. It needs to encourage creative risk-taking and self-reliance. Our economy has stalled because adults do not have enough imagination to visualize new ways way to solve old problems. Our compulsory educational system asks us to don blinders and fixate on answers.

It’s time for America to birth a new educational adventure, one that releases children from age-segregated confinement so they can contribute in a meaningful way to their communities.”

(more…)

I’m constantly dreaming up new life shops. It’s in my creative blood. Sometimes I offer the same life awakening experience twice. More often, I take the “best of” material along with me to a new gig and give it a twist of creative lime or lemon.(Interestingly enough, I do the same thing at karaoke. The thrill of doing a new song, get’s my adrenaline pumping. And travel. Like to keep going to new villages and sites. Almost like I’m a modern day Lewisitta and Clarkitta). (more…)

If you’re old enough to remember Get Smart, then you may recall that when Maxwell Smart and the Chief wanted secrecy they buzzed down the transparent Cone of Silence. Ironically, the Cone louded up their conversation to the point they couldn’t hear each other while inside the cone and often had to communicate through a bystander outside the cone who easily heard everything they said. (more…)

I’ve been doing quite a bit of research for my upcoming newspaper column on education or rather what we call education — it’s really schooling. Two very different concepts. Didn’t even know there was a difference until six years ago when I stumbled on my first book by John Taylor Gatto, “Dumbing Us Down.” Since then I’ve read tens more. (more…)

Hey rebels,

I spent all of my twenties and much of my thirties sleepwalking through my life. Obediently placing my shoes in the impressions of the shoes that preceded me. Never questioning where the hell I was going.

Didn’t realize I was on autopilot until a new colleague assumed the desk behind me at my then research job. At one point after professing my boredom, she said, “read The Women Who Run With The Wolves.”

Her prose slapped me into an awakened state. The first one I’d been in since a child, when I constantly roamed my world with senses open and engaged. (more…)

Dear rebellious ones,

It takes a bit of living to figure out that the life you’re living looks remarkably similar to the life everyone else seems to be living. Many of us are dancing to the same beat and it may not be a song we even like.

After a few carefree childhood years, most of us are slowly molded into a semi-generic person that’s conditioned to believe she or he needs to keep jumping through an endless series of conformist hoops (while teetering on the treadmill) to find happiness and success. The problem? As soon as you jump through one hoop, a new one appears in front of you, often higher. It’s always the next hoop you’re promised that will bring you the life you desire. (more…)

Hey thinking ones,

I used to watch tons of TV in my twenties. Somehow I got involved in the usually miserable lives of the folks in the sitcoms and dramacoms and mini-series — to the point where I wasn’t involved in my own life. I’d refuse to go out on certain nights to ensure I didn’t miss an episode. I swear my brain started to get numb. If you recall the movie Repo Man, Otto’s parents sit like automatons in front of the TV set whenever the camera pans into the home. Not convinced it’s a stereotype anymore.  (more…)