Monthly Archives: October 2011

My reactions to death are never the same and completely unpredictable

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I felt a little foolish posting last night that I cried because Steve Jobs had died.  Actually, I cried when I read what he had written about living life, about letting go of the past, envisioning the future and to not be afraid if you couldn’t see it clearly.  I knew he was a visionary, introducing the masses to things we never knew we even needed.  How much happier are we when we can take a break, put in our earbuds and listen to our favorite tunes?  We can go to iTunes and for a dollar, download Def Leppard’s “Pour Some Sugar on Me,” and be instantly transported back to Junior Prom in 1988.  To watch my Dad’s face when I played “House of the Rising Sun” for him; seeing his expression change as the memories swirled–he was remembering when this song came out.  He said, “1964.  I was 18 years old and I remember listening to this when I worked at the gas station.”  Then he surprised me by singing along. He knew the words.  He was amazed that with a few clicks, I could get any song.  Now.  Steve Jobs made that happen. Continue reading →

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Steve Jobs has died and surprisingly, I cried.

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RIP Steve Jobs. I remember the excitement in the 80s–technologies were going to change our lives. We knew that but really didn’t have to vision to see how it could be. These are quotes for a Commencement speech Jobs gave at Stanford in 2005. Click here to read it in it’s entirety.

“Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked; there is no reason not to follow your heart.”

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future,” Steve Jobs told Stanford University graduates during a commencement speech in 2005.

“You have to trust in something: your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.” Continue reading →

“Be the change you wish to see in the world.” – Gandhi

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“Be the change you wish to see in the world.”  This is one of my all-time favorite quotes. When you read it, it seems big–the change, the world.  You think of people helping the starving in Africa, Mitch Albom building a school for orphans in quake-devasted Haiti.  If you are like me, the closest you will ever get to this is by donating to the Red Cross.

“Be the change you wish to see in the world.”  I found a way to make this small, but with huge impact.  I didn’t really think too much about it or plan it–it just happened.  I refuse to raise my son to participate in this racist, xenophobic world.  He is 13 years old and as you know, it is not an easy task.  Since he was very young, when he would hear something or an issue would come up, we would stop and I would take him to a quiet place and explain how a prejudice was wrong.  As he has gotten older it has been more difficult with TV, movies, Middle School, but I still take him in my room for the talk.

He watched “Bad Boys II” at his Daddy’s house and came home with a new word–the N word.  I was so upset I cried trying to explain to him that people have died over that word.  He was confused because Continue reading →