I Did It All By Myself.

In this 2009, “For Better or For Worse” comic Strip by Lynn Johnston, we have three panels with no dialogue. Simply a young boy of 5 or 6, coming out of his house door; with his mother peeping through a window. Then he is walking blithely down the street; with his mother’s head peeping out from behind a tree. Then we have him walking up to another house happily; with yet again his mother peeping from behind a bush. Then in the final panel, we have this dialogue to his young friend: “Guess what Lawrence… My mum let me walk all the way here by myself." And there, right at the bottom of the panel, is mum collapsed in a heap from worry and just glad he got there safe.
Ever felt like you had to do similar? I did and have. Many moons ago, back in the day when we had an afternoon paper, I was in the habit after work of going down to the local Milk Bar, about 400 metres, actually yards in those days, which would also be little shorter than 400 metres!
Regardless, I used to walk a short distance to the local milk bar with the Dog and my two oldest children. But this day we were expecting a visitor for tea and I was concluding that I didn’t really have time to go get a paper then, when my son, about 5 then, volunteered to go down the street and get it himself and even take the dog with him, as he knew what to do as he always accompanied me when I went.
Not too happy about that, but not wanting to dampen his enthusiasm, I let him go and so off happily he went with good old Daisy to get my paper for me by himself. However I was also like the mother in this cartoon and followed him behind. Actually our visitor arrived just then, so both of us followed behind out of sight, while he bought the newspaper without much trouble.
In fact what trouble he did have, was caused by me just when he came out of the shop and was untying the dog, and she caught either sight or smell of me, and wanted to come to me, so I had to beat a hasty retreat while he regained control of her and returned happily home, proud that he had done it all by himself.
Funnily enough after having done it the once, he never volunteered to do it again for quite some time for which I was also very happy then. But now wonder why I can’t get him to go down the street and get a paper for me some quarter of a century later!
Anyway, the point of today’s ramblings is, that sometimes we have to let our children and even our colleges, have a go at things, even if we don’t think they are quite ready, so as not to dampen their enthusiasm . Of course, as in the two above examples, that doesn’t mean we should always leave them completely unsupervised, but that we should supervise them in such a way that they can both do it all by themselves, but also have help on hand if needed!
So as we close now, is their anyone you need to allow the space and opportunity to allow them to find out whether they really can do it all by themselves yet? Again over to you now.

Jerry Lewis & Muscular Dystrophy.

Read in the paper the other day that Jerry Lewis, no not Jerry Lee Lewis, but Jerry Lewis, Comedian, actor, writer, producer and director who turns 83 this Year, has been doing Annual Telethons for the Muscular Dystrophy Association since 1952. Thus in this, his 58th occasion of doing so, has raised over 2 Billion, yes 2 billion dollars for the organization.
Which is very, very commendable but some people wonder why? You see nobody remotely connected to him, that they know of, has suffered from this hereditary muscle wasting disease, and he certainly doesn’t and so people wonder what it was that attracted him to it originally and still does. And Jerry won’t tell! He says, “It is not important why, just that I do.”
I know that it does seem strange to us for someone to be so committed to some cause without any real personal interest other than to do something good for someone that would not be otherwise helped. But I do agree with Jerry’s philosophy that when it comes to doing good deeds for others, “It is not important why, just that I do.”
Now again we may never be able to raise over 2 billion dollars in 580 years let alone 58. We may not even be able to raise more than a few thousand at best, if we are very lucky, but we can all do something if we want to and are prepared to be in it for the long haul, can’t we?
So in closing, what good deed or association can you help in some small way starting today? Not because you have to, but because you can: and because you want to for no other reason than you actually can?

Somebody In Puerto Rico loves Steve Forde.

Writing Blogs is one thing; coming up with an appropriate Name that attracts people’s attention is another. Thus I often check not only what blogs attract people, but also where they attract people from. For instance if you write about an Australian Country Singer, you are not surprised to find that you get many hits from Australia, and when you hear that he had spent some time in America on both the Rodeo and Country Music Scenes, one is not too surprised to find a few hits from there either.

However I was surprised to find that Somebody In Puerto Rico loves Steve Forde enough, even if they didn’t spell his name properly, to look him up under the query, “ Steve Ford Australian Country singer”. Thus proving that they didn’t just stumble across my blog by accident but was looking for something on Steve Forde/Ford.

Although not overly well known in his own country outside of the Country music scene, Steve’s reputation has still managed to cross the world and into its remoter corners.

As with Steve Forde, so often with us too. We may not think our name or reputation, or lack thereof has spread precedes us very far but often it does and by strange and unexpected ways too sometimes. Sometimes, maybe even most times this may not be that far out of our expected circles but on others, our fame or often, our infamy, may spread far and wide indeed and even to some remote, strange, or as in this case some unexpected places too, in some obscure corner of the world.

Sometimes we use this belief of us not being well known, to hide behind and excuse some lax or sloppy behaviour too, in the belief that nobody of any importance will hear of us anyway.

Please don’t ever be like that. No matter how isolated you may feel or how little you may feel that your message is not really getting out there, don’t be discouraged, and don’t do things, half-heartedly either. Things have a habit of getting out and about, whether good or bad, even from remote Australia to remote Puerto Rico.

So don’t ever give up or put in half measures either. For you never know, one day you too might have a fan in Puerto Rico or Tobago & Trinidad or even down town Umtata, South Africa.

Kirk Douglas Plays Up at 91.

There was a picture in our Newspaper recently of Kirk Douglas stretched out on a Kiddies slide in a Playground in a Los Angeles School. It turns out that Kirk and His wife had just donated a playground set to this School. Something his wife and he have been doing for schools there since 1997.

A lovely gesture don’t you think of giving something back to the community? But what makes this really special it seems, is that this is the Four Hundredth that they have donated since they started. It appears that they have spend some $8 Million to build or refurbish play areas since they started to do this in 97.

Now I don’t really know about you but I am fairly confident that I will never have $8 million, let alone $8 million to give away to the community, but I am also equally sure that all of us could give something of worth to our own local communities if we truly wanted to, either in work or in Kind, if not in outright monetary gifts.

What say you? What can you do to benefit your local community right now and will you do it? Over to you for now.

Once a Tiger, always a Tiger. (John Northey)

Although not as keen a follower of the Richmond Football club as I was back in the later 60’s, I still keep an eye on them and their progress. (Which of late hasn’t been that much although they did win their last game this week!)

Anyway, although not a great "footie tragic" I like to read about "my Tiges” if I see something in the Newspaper, especially like last Sunday when it was on one of the players of “my era” of the late 60’s. It was a long article on one, John “Swoopy” Northey, who after playing one hundred games for Richmond and becoming a legend of his era, went on to coach 300 Games at 4 of the top clubs, including the Tigers.

Now at 65 he is coaching a country-side at Ballarat. He says that he had no idea of continuing as a coach, as he thought his days as a coach were behind him, but was persuaded to do so again in 2005 for Ballarat.

In his interview John mentioned a couple of players who, when he took over were full timers in the Reserves but now are champions of the club, because of the training that they put in. John went onto say, “ Until people put the work in, they don’t often realize the ability they have.”

What about you? It doesn’t matter if you are a young footballer or an “old timer” coach, you too can be successful, if you are prepared to give it one more go and put in the preparation work, the training, the practice and the old boring grind, that is often all that is required to take you to the next level!

Unfortunately most of us want the glory and the success, but we are just not prepared (or willing) to put in the extra work and effort required to go from being a full-time second stringer, to a full-time stalwart of the team.

Sometimes we use our age as an excuse to just not try, saying that we are past that stage, but in fact we are not but need the motivation to continue on.

What is there that you need to put in the extra miles of training and preparation the will take your from fulltime mediocrity, to fulltime success? Over to you for comment, but maybe you need to go back to what you started and see it through to the end by giving it your all?

Paul McDermott.

Paul McDermott is well known on Australian TV as a live wire host of such shows as Good News Week, Strictly Dancing and The Sideshow. Before that he came to public awareness as part of “the Doug Anthony All Stars” on the music scene.

Anyway just recently he has gone behind the camera and directed an animated film starring Pia Miranda and Hugo Weaving based on a Children’s book (The Girl who Swallowed Bees) also written by him.

Many people have been surprised by this change of direction and considered it so not like him at all. However, Paul who graduated from Art school, considers this to be so him and the other, (the public performance persona,) just so not him in his inner being.

The artwork and directing etc is what really moves him and the other is what paid the bills and in essence actually initially at least, sidetracked him from what he really wanted to do. But now this then distraction, is actually now allowing him the real freedom, finances and opportunity to again do what he really wants to do.

What about you? Have you, over the years allowed yourself to be sidetracked from what you wanted to do by something that paid the bills, but are now in a position to change that. If you want to that is? What say you now? Is what y0ou are currently doing, “So you!” or “so not you!” in your inner being? And what can you do about it now? Over to you for your say.

Are you becoming another Robert Mugabe?

Although I have only passed through Zimbabwe, (very briefly) a couple of times and not actually lived in (only the country next door), I thus cannot speak as an expert on the subject of Robert Mugabe. However, I have followed his and Zim’s fortunes a bit in the last 20 years or so, and it would appear that although he has been President for the last 28 years, it seems that he has hung around about 20 years too many.

From what I have gathered over the years, his first couple of terms as President were fairly good and had he left the Presidency then and retired to a quite life, somewhat like Nelson Mandela in next door South Africa did after one Term, Mugabe would probably still be remembered today with much affection and may be even missed. However by staying on too long, he has blotched his record irretreivablely now.

What about you? Are you in a similar situation where it is really time you moved on for everyone’s sake, but you are reluctant to do so because you like the perks of the present situation? I truly believe that each one of us has unique and important gifts that we can bring to a group or organization; but also that there is a time limit as to how long the group or organization benefits from our contributions and sometimes, like in Zimbabwe’s situation with Robert Mugabe, everyone starts to suffer.

What about you now? Have you contributed all that you can and now it would be to everyone’s advantage for you to leave the scene gracefully and not have to be dragged kicking and screaming like seems to be the situation in Zimbabwe?

What say you? Will you leave at the right time and leave a lasting legacy of your time there, or will your time there be remembered, not for all the good that you initially achieved, but for the hardship that you caused, all because you stayed past your prime time for them? What say you?

Monkees revisited.

I mentioned that I recently watched a program called, “The Making of the Monkees”, in my blog, Don Kirshner & The Monkees. There I mentioned that Don Kirshner believed in the Bubble Gum formula of selling millions of records. That is music that was light and almost meaningless lyrics* with fluffy beats to it, and that was why he was giving the commission of creating what is now regarded as the first “Boy Band” ever, the Monkees. A good looking group put together of 4 young wannabe actors almost off the street, with the sole purpose of looking good on TV and selling lots and lots of records and other merchandise. Which they did for a while until their final acrimonious parting form Kirshner, where the Monkees and Don each went their own separate ways.

It seems as well as having an eye for a formula that sold millions of records to Teenagers; Don Kirshner had one other talent too! That of keeping the Monkees united. Sadly, it was only united against him, and when he left and the boys were left with their own creative freedom, freedom that they had fought so hard for, they started to turn on each other.

Up till then, they had been united within themselves against a common enemy. Yes, while Don was still around, they had a common enemy and they united around one of them in the fight against him, but when that common enemy was finally dispatched, they started turning against one another.

Sounds very typical of life in general doesn’t it when you get a group of diverse people together, for a common purpose? As long as there is a common enemy or a single prominent goal, there is no problem and all are united. But without a common goal or focus, the once united group starts to, (usually slowly at first,) disintegrate, unless another common goal can be found and fast it seems.

Is that how it is with you at the moment? You have lost your focus or common goal and have become somewhat bitter and in danger of fragmenting? I have no quick and easy solution for you. Only for you to just stop for a moment and rethink things through again. Maybe you can regain that common goal and focus again and continue on. Maybe you can’t and you have to go your separate ways. But if so, just remember not all of the Monkees were able to quickly find their focus in life. Some did immediately and some only just recently nearly 30 years down the track, and at some great personal cost too! Are you prepared to pay that cost, or are you really far better off where you are now? Only you can answer that question. Consider carefully and wisely: Walter.

{*For examples, try: “Yummy, Yummy, (I have love in my tummy)” by “Ohio Express”; “Simon says” by “The 1910 Fruit Gum Company” and of course, “Sugar, Sugar” By “The Archies”.}

Don Kirshner & The Monkees.

Recently we went in to the city for our Last-Born’s graduation which I have already told you about in “Graduation again.” In a following blog, “Lost IN Melbourne On A Rainy Night, I told of our trip home. Because of this delay in getting home, we were a little late to watch a show on TV about “ The Making of the Monkees”. However what we did see brought a few thoughts to my mind.

Although not really into the Monkes when they first arrived on the scene, I never did object to a little “Bubble Gum “ music every now and then, including some of their earlier stuff.

However it seems the Monkees themselves were never really keen fans of Bubble gum Music and were often fighting with their producer Don Kirshner as to what music they should release.

Don Kirshner believed in the Bubble Gum formula and selling millions of records, which his formula did. In fact that was why he was giving the commission of creating what is now regarded as the first “Boy Band” ever. A good looking group put together with the sole purpose of looking good on TV and selling lots and lots of records and other merchandise. Even when there was an acrimonious parting of the ways with the Monkees, Don proved his point when he went on to create a purely fictitious group called the Archie’s (who were just then nameless backing musicians,) and had more number One hits with them.

The Monkees however continued on for a while in their own right and way, and performed their own style of music and still had hits but they were not quite as successful. So who was right? Well if you were to ask both parties now, which the program did, you will find that both parities still believe that they were and still are right. And both are. For themselves, just not for each other, that is.

You see unlike most groups, where people come together almost homogenously*, the Monkees were just four guys almost literally picked off the street and given a producer and a formula to follow. They were never given any say or input into what they did or even looked like. At first that was fine but when they became big, they wanted a say in where their lives were heading and some control over how they got there and started to speak out.

It is true that they may have been even bigger or lasted even longer, had they stayed harmoniously with Don Kirshner, but none of the four today are complaining too much how their lives turned out because in the end at least, they had control over where their lives went and why.

What about you? Do you have that control over your life? Are you prepared to pay the price to get your goals but then to walk away and do your own thing? And if you don’t have it now, are you prepared to pay the price to get it? Like with the Monkees, it might cost you loss of long-term financial benefits. It might mean a shortening of your time of fame and notoriety in the public eye, etc. So will your inner peace be worth it or can you exist and be happy the way you are now, without change? What say you?

*Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

ho·mo·ge·ne·ous /ˌhoʊməˈdʒiniəs, -ˈdʒinyəs, ˌhɒmə-/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[hoh-muh-jee-nee-uhs, -jeen-yuhs, hom-uh-] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation

–adjective

1.	composed of parts or elements that are all of the same kind; not heterogeneous: a homogeneous population.

2.	of the same kind or nature; essentially alike.

Credit Where Credit Is Due for Tamsyn Lewis.

Recently I did a blog on Tamsyn Lewis and about how when she was being unfairly treated by some people, that she never gave up, but even now is still being knocked, even when winning!
To which I received this reply: Isn’t it amazing the way we treat our elite? It doesn’t matter what it is, politics, sport, music, anything that gets that person’s name out there in the public eye. I sometimes wonder if it not a gigantic case of envy. Sure Tamsyn is sometimes outspoken and she is not particularly popular with her fellow athletes but she should be given credit for what she does and not knocked all the time. Her feud with Jana (Pittman) Rawlinson was headlines all over the place but at least she is out there competing which is more than most of her knockers are doing.
To which I replied with the following: “Hear, hear!” That was my point exactly. Sure if a person needs a kick up the back-side, then give it by all means, just make sure that the time and place is appropriate, and that you are genuinely doing it to help that person, and not to inflate your own ego or cause. That is the problem with most criticism these days! It is not aimed to help the other person, but to help our own cause or egos.
If criticism or correction is warranted to help the other person, then we should indeed give it if we have a legitimate opportunity, but we should offer it graciously and definitely without any malice or envy.
However, at the same time, where credit is due, give it and don't hold back either. So few ever do that these days do they? But how about you and your Criticism? Why do you give it? To really help build up the other person, or to tear them down so that you can be built up in their place?
Are you a knocker from the grandstands too, or are you out there competing as well? It is easy to give advice from a distance, but it is more meaningful and powerful if it is from a fellow participator rather than from an onlooker. That’s not to say onlookers can’t give good advice too, just that most critics can’t compete, so they complain about those that can. I trust that I am not talking about you here? What say you? Walter

Tamsyn Lewis: You Go Girl! 12/3/2008
Tamsyn Lewis is an Australian Athlete who unfortunately is very pretty and pretty outspoken when asked her opinions. These two things have caused her some grief during her career particularly as she has not been able to live up to everyone else’s expectations of her athletic capabilities. One coach went as far as labelling here as “A B-Grade athlete and a C-grade Celebrity.”
Despite being disappointed to the point of wanting to quit and just walk away, altogether from Athletics after comments like this, she continued on and recently won the World Indoor Championship over 800 metres. This is not her top preferred distance and yet she still managed to finish two places ahead of the recognised world Champ over that distance.
And so the Compliments are finally flying her well aren’t they? Well not from all it seems.
In the Melbourne Herald Sun paper on the 12th of March, someone wrote in saying,’ She did extremely well in winning the World indoor Championship but, in a tactically ran race, her time was poor. It would be nowhere near good enough to reach an Olympic final.”
Now this person may yet turn out being correct, but at least Tamsyn is winning and not just against lesser runners either. So why is she not getting acknowledged by all for this? Why do we continually belittle people, even when they are winning? Even when Tamsyn runs her best ever time over that distance and wins, someone is still not happy!
Instead of discouraging people all the time, why don’t we try and encourage them once in a while too. Again I am not talking about false platitudes or giving false hope, but do give credit where credit is due.
As for Tamsyn Lewis, my advice to her would be, “Keep plugging away there, girl. You have to be in it to win it and if you are in it, who knows what will happen? Remember Steven Bradbury, coming last in a field of 6 Ice-skaters at the 2002 Winter Olympic Final? What happened? He won the Gold, that’s what happened!”
Oh sure, he only won because those in front fell and brought the rest down, but he maintained his balance and finished the race! That’s my advice to all the Tamsyns, and even all the Walters out there too: “Finish the race. Give it your best Shot and finish the race!” You won’t always win but you will never know if you don’t have a go, will you?

Tamsyn Lewis: You Go Girl!

Tamsyn Lewis is an Australian Athlete who unfortunately is very pretty and pretty outspoken when asked her opinions. These two things have caused her some grief during her career particularly as she has not been able to live up to everyone else’s expectations of her athletic capabilities. One coach went as far as labelling here as “A B-Grade athlete and a C-grade Celebrity.”
Despite being disappointed to the point of wanting to quit and just walk away, altogether from Athletics after comments like this, she continued on and recently won the World Indoor Championship over 800 metres. This is not her top preferred distance and yet she still managed to finish two places ahead of the recognised world Champ over that distance.
And so the Compliments are finally flying her well aren’t they? Well not from all it seems.
In the Melbourne Herald Sun paper on the 12th of March, someone wrote in saying,’ She did extremely well in winning the World indoor Championship but, in a tactically ran race, her time was poor. It would be nowhere near good enough to reach an Olympic final.”
Now this person may yet turn out being correct, but at least Tamsyn is winning and not just against lesser runners either. So why is she not getting acknowledged by all for this? Why do we continually belittle people, even when they are winning? Even when Tamsyn runs her best ever time over that distance and wins, someone is still not happy!
Instead of discouraging people all the time, why don’t we try and encourage them once in a while too. Again I am not talking about false platitudes or giving false hope, but do give credit where credit is due.
As for Tamsyn Lewis, my advice to her would be, “Keep plugging away there, girl. You have to be in it to win it and if you are in it, who knows what will happen? Remember Steven Bradbury, coming last in a field of 6 Ice-skaters at the 2002 Winter Olympic Final? What happened? He won the Gold, that’s what happened!”
Oh sure, he only won because those in front fell and brought the rest down, but he maintained his balance and finished the race! That’s my advice to all the Tamsyns, and even all the Walters out there too: “Finish the race. Give it your best Shot and finish the race!” You won’t always win but you will never know if you don’t have a go, will you?