A new week, a new chance...

"Be not the slave of your own past. Plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep and swim far, so you shall come back with self-respect, with new power, with an advanced experience, that shall explain and overlook the old."

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Today is the beginning of a new week full of promise and opportunities better than the last.

Last week ended with Chrysler making headlines around the world by announcing it is laying off 12,000 people. You can imagine why the news is all over the place.


The news plays on people's own fear and uncertainty. Twelve thousand people are going to be out of work. That could be me. Twelve thousand people are going to have less money. Money is tight. Twelve thousand people are agonizing, wringing their hands and wondering just what in the world are they going to do with their lives. What will I do if my company does the same?


Not exactly a happy thought for anybody -- especially if you work at Chrysler. Still the Chrysler 12 are not alone. On the same day of the Chrysler announcement, the news also reported....

• 12,000 people sought charity medical service... http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/10/27/state_boosts_effort_to_reach_the_uninsured/


• 12,000 people fled their homes in a tropical storm... http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/html/20071031T200000-0500_128872_OBS_TROPICAL_STORM_NOEL_GROWS_AFTER_LEAVING_CUBA.asp


• 12,000 people got ready to walk off their jobs in Hollywood... http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1573241/20071101/da_brat.jhtml

The mighty 12,000 rolls on from storms to strikes. Twelve thousand captures our attention. Twelve thousand is huge. It's big. That is why its news.

But really it is nothing compared to the number one.

"Be not a slave to your own past."

When that one is you, the power to change in a sea of common circumstance is in your hands. See the power of one as...

• One paraplegic man competes and finishes a 1400k iron man contest... http://www.cyclingnews.com/mtb/2007/oct07/croctrophy07/?id=results/croctrophy0710


• One inner city, high school dropout, earns his MBA and makes people like Kayne West, Mariah Carey and Melissa Etheridge stars... http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071008/ENT03/710080383/1086/LIFE

There are hundreds of examples citing the ability of one person to make a difference. Companies and organizations have adopted this belief as seen here... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOXOImxK0NA

"Plunge into the sublime seas...

We can break free of the past by changing the way we think about the present.

I will do better. Today.

Say it to yourself.

I will do better. Today.

Now decide what that one thing is that you will do better today.

No matter how big or small you make the one thing you will be better at today, it is important that you believe it.

Be optimistic about it.

Be happy about it. Be really happy about it.

Now do it.

The week is already better.

Bush, Hillary, the Dalai Lama and You!

Smile! And get ready to climb the Himalayas of your life as it unfolds in ways worthy of being remembered.

There have been some amazing stories this week. One, in fact, is about you.

But your story has some stiff competition...

President George W. Bush attends a ceremony where the Dalai Lama receives the Congressional Medal of Honor. Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton polls show her with support of 57-percent of the women vote in the democratic primary. And Mischa Berlinski, a reporter for Harper's Magazine, uncovers the story behind the story of a woman from India who reportedly married a snake.

And you, dear reader, are happy.

All of this may seem like news to you. Even the last story about yourself. But it is just as interesting and just as important as the others.

Oh you had not heard any of these stories? Not even the one about you?

Let me give you a quick recap...

President Bush defied the wishes of China - one of the U.S.'s largest trading partners and rival super power - and attended a ceremony this week where Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, received the Congressional Medal of Honor. This is no small feat. Tibet is struggling to be free of Chinese rule. The Dalai Lama is recognized as the leader of the Tibetan people. To honor him with our nation's highest honor basically says that the U.S. supports their struggle.

Now Bush could have shrugged the entire affair off. He could have simply blamed the episode on an unruly Congress that does not understand or appreciate the delicate dance of super powers armed with nuclear weapons and competing global interests. But he didn't. Nope. Not only did he attend but he met with the Dalai Lama before the event. And he told the President of China that he was going to do it before it happened. He was very bold in standing up for the principals of freedom.

Then Bush went on to veto a bill that would have extended healthcare to millions of poor children. Go figure.

During the same week, there was news showing that New York Senator and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was leading in polls among women voters. That is simply amazing. Up until now, the conventional wisdom has been that women won't vote for another woman to be president -- especially educated ones.

Why? Well, cause some people seem to think that women just don't trust another woman to do the job.

The final bit of interesting news competing for the story about you, dear reader, arrived in the mail this week. Billed as "a peculiar love story," Haitian author Mischa Berlinski penned an article in Harper's Magazine about an Indian woman who married a Cobra snake. An odd story to be sure. But it was one that reportedly spread via the news media from the east Indian state of Orissa to Fox News in the U.S.

Once the story hit Fox News, it was christened as the foil for conservatives to bash supporters of gay marriage by none other than Daniel Henniger, an opinion page editor of the Wall Street Journal, who wondered aloud on national TV if the "next movement is not going to be allowing people to marry their pet horse, dog or cat."

You got to laugh about this stuff. Marry a dog or cat? Marry a snake? Who in the world would take that as true?

Apparently, millions of people do. Except maybe one and he decided to do what thousands of news people didn't do before they spread the story around the globe -- check it out at the source. Had Henniger, Fox and others done the same thing as Berlinski did they would have probably found the same thing -- a shy, reclusive 30 year-old Bimbala Das living in a hut and oblivious to the new found fame as a global news item.

What they would not have found is a snake-as-groom.

It is a very interesting piece that speaks volumes about who we are as a global community, what different people believe and how they express those beliefs. I encourage you, dear reader, to explore the piece for yourself. After all, the story and thousands of other bits and pieces, are your competition.

Yes you dear reader. Your life, your happiness and all that is unique about you as a person is a worthy story.

You live. You love. You dream.

And all of that is the lead story of your life with the bold headline, I AM HAPPY.

Or at least that could be the bold headline. If you want it.

What will you do with the news of your life unfolding today? Decide right now how you, as the scribe of your life, will tell the world your amazing story.

Will you be bold and extend the hand of friendship in the face of the disapproving China in your life? Will you defy the conventional wisdom and make friends in an unlikely quarter? Will you seek the truth when others just accept what is being said?

Dear reader, will you do the things that make you truly happy?

Then do it.

Think of one, small thing that will bring you joy. Just one. And let your life today unfold in ways that are worth being remembered by you and those around you.


Enjoy.

Red Sky in the Morning and Al Gore Nobel Peace Prize

"Red sky in morning, sailors take warning. Red sky at night, sailors delight. "

I thought about this old saying today when I saw the news that former U.S. Vice President Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on the environment.

Why?

Well, several years ago I remember the heart breaking presidential race that Al Gore conceded and then had to cast his vote in the senate to essentially declare our current president as the victor.

It was a time of political chaos. Republicans were protesting -- protesting -- in Florida over the hanging chad confusion. Normally, it's the Democrats taking to the streets about voting irregularities. But as I remember it, polo clad kids were raising a ruckuss and everyone was scratching their collective heads in amazement as they watched a Gore victory slipping away.

Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning.

The temptest of a storm grew out of Florida and swept across the country. People questioned the very essence of our democracy as the confusion over mis counted votes continued. Lawyers from the four corners of the country and both parties descended on the courts in Florida. Time to count the votes was ticking away. Many people anxiously waited and looked to the Supreme Court for a miracle to set things right. They didn't. They couldn't meet the expectations of every American voter. And there was deep dissappointment in the electoriate. Democrates felt cheated. Republicans walked away with a tarnished victory.

In the end, Al Gore did one final, grim duty as vice president and affirmed his loss from the chamber of the U.S. Senate.

That had to be hard for him.

So what happened next? Well, Mr. Gore grew a beard and left Washington. Next thing you know, our former vice president and defeated presidential candidate was front and center in the media again. This time he was doing his duty as a citizen of the world rising to prick the conscienous of a global community.

Red sky at night, sailors' delight.

Al Gore was everywhere on tv, in the press, on the big screen. He was not defeated. He was not beaten. He was up and he was moving like a man on fire. And his message spread. People listened. People watched. People understood.

And now the world has validated him in a way that no election could ever do. He has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work -- not as a senator, not as a vice president.

But as Al Gore, the man.

We could all take a lesson from Mr. Gore on this one.

The red sky in the morning of a difficult time in our lives does not have to mean that our ship is going to sink. As Mr. Gore has shown with his own post political life, keep at it and we will all find our red sky at night to our own delight.

Congradulations Mr. Gore.

Well done.