We have to understand clearly the type of life that would make us happy and then sow the seeds to get us there where we can reap the goods later on. It takes more work and it generally takes longer but it sticks, it's not fleeting. So forget going for it and instead sow for it!
Some people "go for it" when they should consider an alternative and that is "sow for it." More and more people are living their lives making choices to obtain instant gratification but it's not an effective strategy for long-term happiness.
We have to understand clearly the type of life that would make us happy and then sow the seeds to get us there where we can reap the goods later on. It takes more work and it generally takes longer but it sticks, it's not fleeting. So forget going for it and instead sow for it! It's a fact that we're all biased about various topics and in various degrees as it's human nature. Because of this we need to realize that fake news isn't just generated by the media but it's also generated by our minds. The trick to limiting the impact of our bias is to never believe everything we think.
I chose to write about Tom Cruise because he’s considered one of the most powerful people in Hollywood.
Cruise grew up in Syracuse, New York and lived in near poverty. Throughout his life he’s shared a tremendous respect for educators as his mom was a special educations teacher. He had a strict Catholic upbringing. His dad was mentally and physically abusive to Tom. His relationship with his father was volatile until the end when his dad died of cancer in 1984, one year after Tom’s hit movie was released called: Risky Business. Tom’s mom divorced his father when he was in the 6th grade and they moved around a lot. He attended on average about one new school every year so making friends was always a tough struggle as he was always the outsider. Tom loved performing in school plays but he also loved sports. He was playing linebacker his senior year in high school but was kicked off the team for getting caught drinking beer before a game. His devout Catholic faith led him to attend the seminary with the intent of becoming a priest but he quit after a short period of time and decided to try to become an actor. His good looks and passion for acting paid off as he was quickly recognized for his talents via a video his agent put together. A lot of actors are lucky to get parts in commercials or maybe television shows but Tom’s career started off with a bang in 1981 by first getting a bit part in the movie: Endless Love then more importantly landing a large role in the popular military movie: Taps. The next couple of years he got lead roles in the movies: All the Right Moves and Risky Business both great box office successes. Girls were going wild and the movie studios had a superstar on their hands. This was only cemented when the phenomenal hit: Top Gun was released in 1986. Besides the movie becoming number one the soundtrack from the movie also reached the top of the charts. The hits kept coming as Tom really stretched himself acting and he took on a variety of roles. As a reminder here are some of his movies: The Color of Money (1986), Rain Man (1988), Born on the Fourth of July (1989), A Few Good Men (1992), The Firm (1993), Jerry Maguire (1996), Vanilla Sky (2001) Minority Report (2002), The Last Samurai (2003), Collateral (2004), War of the Worlds (2005), Valkyrie (2008) and he’s also starred in the Mission Impossible and Jack Reacher franchises. Both of these are produced by Tom’s own movie studio that he started with his acting agent in 1996. If you think about some of the above roles you’ll recognize his diversity. He’s known for several things in movie industry: 1) He’s a workaholic and is always prepared. 2) He respects everyone, fellow actors and all the support personnel. 3) He’s fearless. He prefers doing his own stunts whether it means dangling from the highest building in the world or jumping off a roof on his motorcycle in a chase scene. By the way he’s a riding fanatic so it’s hard to find a movie that he’s in where he isn’t riding a motorcycle at some point. He also likes to do his own fight scenes and is trained in a variety of martial arts. Besides producing his own films he still had a working relationship with Paramount Studios and would star in some of their productions but they dropped Tom after 14 years due to the scandal regarding Scientology. He shared views about a variety of topics like depression that wasn’t accepted mainstream. Also his behavior at times seemed to be erratic so Paramount wanted to avoid a potential public relations disaster. Rumor has it as well, that Paramount was mad about the money Tom’s studio was making off of all the Mission Impossible films as they had a chance to film them before Tom cut his own deal (he didn’t do anything unethical). Much to Paramount’s dismay, it got even worse as Tom and his business partner purchased the movie studio United Artist, which was a tough competitor. People think of Tom as an actor but the fact is, he turned out to be a great businessman as well. Although one of the most successful men in Hollywood, Tom hasn’t been successful when it comes to personal relationships. His first major Hollywood romance was with Cher who was 16 years older than him. They split and then he married Mimi Rogers (actress), in 1987 but divorced in 1990. Rogers was the person who introduced Tom to Scientology. The same year they divorced, Tom married Nicole Kidman who he had met on the set of: Days of Thunder. They adopted two children then after 11 years of marriage Tom filed for divorce. Kidman said she was still in love with Tom years after they had split. Per my wife (Maggie), Nicole made out as she ended up marrying Keith Urban. Tom dated around for a while after his divorce but met and fell in love with Katie Holmes who he married in 2005; their daughter Suri was born the next year. In 2011, Holmes filed for divorce and they handled things quickly out of court. Tabloids said the split was due to Tom’s obsession with Scientology and the negative affect it was having on Suri. This is kind of strange but Cruise has been involved in several lawsuits over the years of claims by individuals and various tabloids that he’s gay and that his marriages have been shams. He’s won every case and the defendants have had to pay millions of dollars to him. When you’re as intense a person as Tom Cruise, there’s going to be haters and he has plenty. I even get a little wigged out about his obsession with Scientology. I do know that Tom has been honored on many occasions for his philanthropy so there’s definitely a lot of good in him. As for me, he’s been in so many films that I’ve loved and that’s what really counts. At Central Florida University, a Christian student was suspended for challenging his Muslim professor's claim that Jesus' crucifixion was a hoax. I don't know if there was anything more to the suspension but the bottom line is it sure seems like Christian professors operate under double-standards.
Could you imagine what would happen to a Christian professor if she made the claim that Mohammed wasn't a profit? Besides the school firing the professor the professor would also be in danger because of Islamic radicals. Then there's the fact that whether or not you believe Jesus was the Son of God, there's absolutely no doubt from a historical perspective that someone named Jesus was crucified. So regardless of everything else, the professor is an idiot and misleading her students. Shouldn't this alone be considered in reference to a potential suspension? It absolutely blows my mind that the famous author H.G. Wells wrote "Time Machine" and "War of the Worlds" in the late 1800's. Think about how much of a visionary he was to imagine such things.
Wells thought that because of where technology can take us that we'd eventually experience a world of Utopia (his words), but he was wrong because he forgot to take into consideration the creation of mankind. No matter the amazing technology something bad comes out of it for example the internet which all of us love but it's also responsible because of mankind, to be dangerous. Utopia will never be experienced here on earth no matter how advanced the technology because good and evil will always exist here. He was an amazing man who was certainly optimistic about mankind which I can't knock him for that. I conduct a lot of research and thought I'd share a sight I use that will blow your mind and it is: openthebooks.com. It's a transparency organization that is apolitical. There's a lot of information available.
For example, I recently gathered information on the names and salaries of people in the public sector including the salaries of school superintendents in my area (it took about two clicks), and found that most of them average making around $250,000 a year. That's about six times the salary of an average worker in the private sector and about twice the salary of corporate executives in most small and mid-size companies. Anyhow, a report you should look at just came out and it shows that "Private" Ivy League Colleges get more money from the Federal Government than more than several U.S. states get combined. They make more money off our taxpayer dollars than what they collect in student tuition meaning they could make a good living without having students all together. I know it sounds crazy but everything is clearly documented in an easy to read format. I guess it just goes to show how truly smart they are for using the system (our money), to get mega-rich. By the way, as far as I know, no one from the schools has returned calls from any of the media investigating the story. I'm hoping 60 Minutes will jump in the fray. You might not know his name but his story is worth telling as he is an awesome musical artist (he can play a variety of instruments), who put together several bands while growing up but it was when he formed the famous band Kansas that his career began taking off.
Kerry grew up in a middle-class family in Topeka, Kansas and loved music as far back as he could remember. When he was just 14, he built his own electric guitar using acoustic guitar parts then he wired it to a cheap amplifier he purchased from Sears. He pretty much taught himself how to play guitar although he had several friends who enjoyed music so they helped each other out. He had a special knack for song writing and it became one of the most enjoyable things he did. They created a band called Gimlet and they played at various places after school and on weekends across both Kansas and Missouri. The band used a lot of Kerry’s original music. After high school Kerry attended Washburn University in Topeka and he kept playing with the band until he left college. Most of the band members had started going different directions for more stable careers. After college he joined a few other bands trying to find the right fit both personally and professionally but didn’t find exactly what he was looking for so he decided to put a band together. He was able to get a couple of his original band members to join along with other artists. They played a lot of Livgren's music and fused experimental rock and jazz. Their new sound began building them a great fan base and concert halls were filling up so a record label became interested in them. The band was struggling financially and then the record label went bankrupt and they never got a contract so in 1973 their band Kansas disbanded. Livgren was devastated but he never gave up and joined with some other musicians who already had a band. In honor of Livgren, they changed their band name to Kansas. It became a tremendous group of talented musicians and due to their success CBS Records signed the group. The band recorded a few albums and toured the country but they never reached the level of success that they and CBS were expecting. Quite frankly, some of the band members didn’t care that much as long as they could continue touring and partying. Kerry was highly intelligent and spiritual and in his band members’ words: “He kept getting more and more religious.” It got to the point where a few band members left because they didn’t feel comfortable having fun on the road anymore. He became a pretty devout Christian and it influenced his song writing. The band still hadn’t gotten that first big hit that would put them on the map but as they were finishing their fourth album Livgren walked in last minute with a song he wanted to include on the record. The band wanted to hear it so he took an acoustic guitar and played the song; they loved it. The song was Carry on My Wayward Son and it became their first smash hit. The band didn’t know until later that it was based on a story from the Bible about the “Prodigal Son.” A lot of fans didn’t know either. Kansas was officially on the music industry’s radar. Their next album called: Point of No Return went quadruple platinum and once again the song that was the biggest hit on the album was Christian-based and it was called: Dust in the Wind. The music video became one of the best of all time. In my opinion the song has some of the most profound lyrics ever written. Here are some of them: “I close my eyes, only for a moment then the moment's gone. All my dreams, pass before my eyes, a curiosity. Dust in the wind. All we are is dust in the wind. It's the same old song, we're just a drop of water in an endless sea. All we do, just crumbles to the ground, though we refuse to see. Dust in the wind, all we are is dust in the wind. Don't hang on, nothing lasts forever, but the earth and sky, and all your money won't another minute buy. All we are is dust in the wind.” In 1983, Livgren left the band and pursued other interests. In 1989 he won the coveted Dove Award in the Christian music industry for Best Album. Livgren began writing for orchestras and sometimes performs as the maestro at various performances. He still lives in Topeka, Kansas and teaches Sunday school. He also has a website that provides insight into his theological views. I've mentioned this issue before but it's too important to not bring up periodically. I'm sure we all feel like our government is out of control and that we have nothing we can do about it. The fact is, what we truly care about is our livelihoods which is mostly controlled by our local economies. We can make a difference.
The solution? Buy from small business as much as possible and not companies whose headquarters are in other states and/or especially overseas. For example, I typically buy from Lowes Hardware because they're headquartered in North Carolina. I like Home Depot but they're out of Atlanta. I take my vehicles for maintenance or to get tires at local businesses. It's a choice. We certainly want the best price for our budgets but there are intangible costs that we don't visibly see but it does impact us. I'll use Wal-Mart as an example. If you purchase from them make sure the product is American made. There's no doubt Wal-Mart is providing locals jobs but if you're buying merchandise from them that comes from someplace like China, a majority of the money you're spending is going to China and providing jobs there. Even if I bought an American made product from a Wal-Mart here in Charlotte, around 15% of the store's profit goes to the corporate office in Bentonville. This creates all kinds of support jobs there (i.e. accounting, customer service, human resources, tech support, etc.), jobs that if I did business with companies headquartered in my area would create these same types of jobs here. I want people in my world to have money to spend. This is the best way I can impact the economy. I can't buy as much stuff as I could because I know I pay higher prices for some things but for me, that's okay, I've got too much "stuff" as it is. We have become a country that often buys "wants" not "needs" like it was decades ago. So don't feel overwhelmed like you can't make a difference because you can. Buy local and make "your" world a better place. Thanks. A professor from Drexel University tweeted out that he almost vomited when he heard that a first class passenger on an airplane gave up his seat to a soldier in uniform.
This is a perfect example of the danger we now face with the tremendous influence these highly liberal professors have on our youth. If they just stuck to the content of the classes they taught that would be one thing but I don't know about you but I've seen countless videos proving many of these professors push their political and religious ideology in the classroom. It's certainly okay for this professor to not believe in war but this solider didn't send us into war and risks his life in service for his country. If anyone is going to throw up it's going to be me because of the stupid actions of professors like him. Bob Dylan is an extremely brilliant man. He’s an artist, author, poet, singer, and songwriter. His ability to provide insight into the movement of young people in the 1960’s was profound. I’m not sure if any songwriter has had the ability to share philosophical ideology like he has done through his music. His early songs such as Blowin' in the Wind and The Times They Are a-Changin are still iconic anthems for the American Civil Rights and Anti-War movements.
He’s Jewish and was born Robert Allen Zimmerman in Duluth, Minnesota and has a younger brother named David. His paternal grandparents fled Russia because of growing anti-Semitic sentiments. His father, Abram Zimmerman owned an electric appliance shop and they lived in a close-knit Jewish community. When he was six, his father became ill so he closed his business and the family moved to his mother’s hometown of Hibbing, Minnesota and this is where he grew up. He was a bright student but early on his passion was music. When he should’ve been doing homework his ear was often stuck to the radio tuned into blues and country stations in Louisiana. As a teenager he switched to rock and roll music and put together a band. He taught himself how to play several instruments but the guitar and harmonica were his fortes. His band got their first gig at their high school where they played some of Little Richard’s and Elvis’ music. The principal pulled the plug when they began rocking out too loud. The band became good enough to play at various venues around town. Bob was hooked on performing but had to leave his band to attend the University of Minnesota. While in college he began to move away from rock music and towards folk instead. In his words this is why he went the direction he did with his music: “The thing about rock n'roll is that for me anyway it wasn't enough... There were great catch-phrases and driving pulse rhythms... but the songs weren't serious or didn't reflect life in a realistic way. I knew that when I got into folk music, it was more of a serious type of thing. The songs are filled with more despair, more sadness, more triumph, more faith in the supernatural, much deeper feelings.” His comment definitely provides insight into the musician he became. While in college he joined a Jewish fraternity called: Sigma Alpha Mu. He already had written many songs and played them along with other popular songs at a coffee house near campus where he began to play regularly as a solo artist. There was an area in the city called “Dinkytown” which was a business district that had a great music scene so Robert decided to play there and this is when he changed his name to Bob Dylan. He got the name Dylan from some poetry he had read by Dylan Thomas. In May of 1960, Dylan quit college after his freshman year to try and make a living in New York City. One of his music idols, Woody Guthrie, was seriously ill with Huntington's disease and was staying at the Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital so he went to see him. While there he ran into another musician who was a close friend of Guthrie’s named Ramblin’ Jack Elliot. Elliot was instrumental in educating Dylan on the music scene in New York. About a year later, Dylan was doing great playing at various spots in the Greenwich Village. He was loving life because he was surrounded by other musicians. Sometimes they’d mix and match and join each other for performances. For example, Dylan might take a friend and fellow musician with him for a show to play electric guitar while he’d play lead guitar. His big break was when another artist asked him to play harmonica for an album she was going to cut for Columbia Records. Columbia liked Dylan so much they signed him to their label. Two years after he left college he was working on his first album that was titled Bob Dylan and it had blues, folk, and gospel, music. It only sold 5,000 copies so the label was considering dropping Dylan but he had two people in his corner, one was the man who signed Dylan and he loved his music and the other was Johnny Cash, who worked for Columbia Records, and loved Dylan’s sound. Cash told the record label that Dylan would eventually make it big. Dylan earned his keep at Columbia because he played a variety of instruments and took part in many studio sessions so his name was on several albums but not as the main artist. This is strange but he cut a few albums under the pseudo names Blind Boy Grunt and Bob Landy. The intent of the recording studio was to test the music and not get Dylan tied to anything specific until they knew what worked. He got the opportunity to perform at various venues in the United Kingdom where folk music was popular. This was during the time when The Beatles were on fire. It was while over there that he first performed his new song: Blowin’ in the Wind and it became an overnight success in the U.K. and in the United States. After a few months in England, Dylan came back to the United States and Columbia Records wanted him to immediately go to work on his second album called: The Free Wheelin’ Bob Dylan. It included a lot of Dylan’s own songs that were socially progressive especially regarding Civil Rights. The album began receiving rave reviews from critics and music lovers then when George Harrison with The Beatles said the band had worn Dylan’s album out by listening to it so much, everyone had to get it. Because of his unique sound not everyone was a big fan but the fact was, his lyrics were fantastic no matter what music genre someone preferred. What helped get Dylan’s music out is that there was a female version of Bob’s (but a much smoother voice), by the name of Joan Baez who became a famous folk singer in the 60’s. They began an affair and she sang a lot of the music he wrote. Besides Joan other artists to have hit songs that were written by Dylan include: The Association, The Byrds, The Hollies, Peter, Paul, and Mary, and Sonny & Cher. His impact was significant even beyond the music he sang himself. Dylan became known as a political activist after this album hit the stores and he spoke at many Civil Rights rallies. He was asked to perform on the Ed Sullivan Show but walked out on them because one of the producers began censoring parts of the song he was going to sing. He was the wrong guy to try and censure. In the mid-60’s he came out with a confusing album as it was more lighthearted and showed Dylan’s humorous side. By this point a lot of his fans were in the protest business so they kind of felt jilted. He also changed his look and wore sunglasses during the day and night and wore pointy English style boots along with a wild hairstyle. He then came out with another album where it was the first time he used electric guitar on some of the songs. A single from this album was the smash hit Mr. Tambourine Man. He played acoustic guitar and harmonica when they recorded this particular song on the album. The Byrd’s recorded the song in more of a rock version and it made it to number one in the U.K. and the U.S.’s music charts. Dylan wanted to include a song he wrote on the next album but it was over six minutes long and the record label didn’t like the idea. After playing it for some recording executives they were sold on using it. It became the greatest hit on the album and it was called: Like a Rolling Stone. Dylan secretly got married in 1965 to Sara Lownds who was a former model then he left her to go on tour in Australia and Europe. Some of the concerts didn’t go over well because he played half of it in his early 60’s acoustic guitar and harmonica then he’d take his electric guitar and have the band join him for more rock n’ roll type music. Some fans began heckling him for selling out the folk genre and Dylan began getting very angry and upset with the tour. It was during this time when Dylan started overindulging in drugs. He’d use uppers to get him up then take downers to get to sleep. The members touring with him became very worried. He said that when he got back to New York City he became hooked on heroin. Dylan wasn’t necessarily good at handling pressure during his drug phase and was worrying about some major things he had on his plate including another concert tour scheduled for later that year. He was already behind in writing a manuscript of a book of poems that he’d promised but his greatest pressure was coming from ABC because they had already given him an advance for a Bob Dylan television show. Some people say that it was because of these pressures that it was "reported" Dylan had been in a motorcycle accident. I stressed the word "reported" because there was no evidence of him being in an ambulance or in the hospital. He quit touring for eight years but continued working in the studio. Showing his creative side yet again he released his first country album titled: Nashville Skyline and it was an unexpected hit. Dylan softened up his voice and demonstrated a higher vocal range. A duet he did on the album with Johnny Cash became very popular so much so that Dylan was invited to perform with Cash at a few of his concerts. The 1970’s were crazy for Dylan and his fans. It was difficult to figure out who he was because he played all kinds of different music making it challenging for record executives to figure out where to put him in marketing his records. Rolling Stone Magazine had a scathing article about him basically saying he’d lost it. Dylan also decided to take part in a movie by playing one of the characters and also providing music for the film called: Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. The film flopped but one of Dylan’s songs became a major hit called: Knockin' on Heaven's Door. Towards the end of the 70’s Dylan became a Christian and recorded an album that had a Christian/Rock song on it called: Gotta Serve Somebody and he won the Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance. Although they were somewhat friends John Lennon didn’t like that Dylan became a Christian and wrote a counter song called: Serve Yourself. Dylan kept cranking out album after album; he’s produced 37 as of this post. He’s written several books of lyrics and poetry and six books highlighting his artwork and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016. He’s won 12 Grammy’s, one Academy Award for Best Original Song, and one Golden Globe Award. Bob and Sarah had three children together (Jesse, Anna, Samuel, and Jakob), but divorced after 12 years of marriage. Nine years later (1986), Dylan married one of his backup singers and they had one daughter together named Desiree. They divorced after six years. I see Dylan as a diverse and talented artist. He was included in Time Magazine for their publication called: Time 100: The Most Important People of the Century. I agree with them considering his impact on American culture. I love unique artists and Dylan is every bit that. |
Author: John Mann |