This morning a friend and I were discussing in e-mail my article of my bands song Roses are Red.  While I was glad she liked it, I was commenting that the song actually had more “drive” when we were able to polish it etc...  Then she replied,

You should be proud of what you were able to accomplish.  Not many people get to live out their dreams...lord knows I have many of my own that will probably never see the light of day, but you got to experience it - even if it was a short period of time.  And now you will always have those memories and something to actually show for it...

This all made me think.  Yes, I’ve tried to live.  I did perform on stage, I did make the semi-pro football team, I did work on the cruise line, I did finally learn Kung Fu, I did really go for it and found a wife from Europe (could have went better but oh well), I have two children that I’ll share a lifetime with and I’ve done so many little things in between.  This year has been that time for me to go out there and do the things I couldn’t do before.   Life is for living.

So if you are reading this, I hope if you are recently graduated from school, or just divorced or in some way find yourself able to come and go with the wind... you need to live.  Life is not a test drive.  Some dream, some do.   Hang on to your dreams.  But even more, go after them.  I am. 

Later this year I’ll stun so many of you as I’m just not done yet....   more »

Today I read a great article in Men’s Health magazine and had to sound off on my own.  It was about men being the “P” word around women.  What I’d like to discuss is more specific.  What are you afraid of?

This is not a men's only article today.   

Is it wrong for any of us to be afraid of anything?    When you were young what were you afraid of? Was it the bully in your neighborhood or school?  Perhaps it was being hit by a pitched baseball, or worse yet, someone lying about you.  For me it was two out of those three. 

PRINCIPALS

I had a kid in my neighborhood named Tommy.  He was much older and he always rounded up everyone to play games or sports in the neighborhood.  I didn’t like him for being such a bully and I rebelled at every turn.  He in turn beat on me.  I recall one time in a sandlot baseball game a ball was hit by me and he snapped at me.  I felt like... "he’s not my father or brother, he can’t talk to me like that."  So I threw my mit down.  He was pissed.  Tommy ran to the outfield and punched me out. I went crying home and my father was soon at his house and boy was he pissed.  I had not one but two black eyes and a swollen cheek.  In today’s world Tommy would have been arrested.   But back then, Tommy just continued to be an ass and I remember later being assaulted by him and four others; another story never to be spoken of.  I always stood my ground ...   more »

Power brings out the best in people and the worst of people.   -Lars H.

Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of menDream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men - Goethe

Never work just for money or for power. They won't save your soul or help you sleep at night - Marian Wright Edelman

I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be. - Thomas Jefferson.

I love Jefferson's quote the most. Words to live by.

THIS IS SERIOUS ROAD MAP TO HAPPINESS AFTER DIVORCE OR SEPARATION

This is a man’s guide to happiness after divorce.  Women need not read one word of this as it is something that may cut at your very core. No, that doesn’t mean this is mean spirited.  It is truly a man’s article for survival after divorce. There is NO woman bashing here, and although divorce requires separation of  a man and woman, this article is for men to understand your solution is NOT a woman.   And only if you use my solution, will you be able to return one day to the dating scene and make a good woman part of your life again.  Because the world is full of great women.   You simply, and unfortunately are separated from one you didn’t belong with.  And in time, you’ll learn how good it is for you to NOT have been with the woman you are now apart from.  However I cannot be any more clear to you men, and Emerson seems to agree with me, "We must be our own, before we can be anothers."

Ready to read this complete 5 page article?

Every hero becomes a bore at last.  Who said this?  Emerson, Sachin and Saurav?  It doesn’t matter; what matters is it is true.

What stimulates my interest is that upon hearing this quote for the first time I thought back to my youth.  I was fascinated with becoming better than other men, wanting to be someone’s hero, a hero to girl.  It was such a silly notion, so romantic and needlessly wanted.  Because in time, somewhere between the time I thought of it first and the time I began penning poems I grew to understand that heroes fail too.  I wrote those very words to a young girlfriend I had lost to her own selfish desires. 

I asked myself what I had done to lose her interest, and I thought of my hero complex (for lack of better description), and what I had determined the answer.   I came to understand that if I were a hero, as hard as I tried even heroes fail.  The verse comes to mind, “heroes fail too, you know now they do.” 

Of course she didn’t know that.  My poem was meant to reveal that fact.  Perhaps it was too deep, she never gave me another thought.   If you are curious, I did in fact see her again.  It was 15 years later.  It was non-eventful for me, and I could tell it was embarrassing for her.  The girl I knew at 16 (I was 17) was now a grown woman.  I had my son, she had hers.  We exchanged pleasantries and I walked away from the moment thinking back at how I didn’t want to lose her those many years ago....   more »