Real Contact - The Good Old-Fashioned Way

This was on WETS.org, the Public Radio for East Tennessee, Southwest Virginia, and Western North Carolina:

Why Local Radio Is Vital
In 2002, a train carrying hazardous chemicals derailed just outside Minot, N.D., spilling roughly 240,000 gallons of anhydrous ammonia. The resulting toxic cloud enveloped the homes of approximately 15,000 people. Thousands of Minot residents turned on their radios to get public warnings and instructions on how to stay safe. Yet no such information was available. Minot’s six nonreligious commercial stations, all of which were owned and operated by the nation’s largest radio company, Clear Channel Communications, were broadcasting prerecorded programs engineered in remote studios. Police dispatchers couldn’t reach anyone in Clear Channel’s local offices: the town’s new emergency-communications system failed to automatically issue an alert, and no one answered the phones at the stations. What ensued was horrific: as one man died and hundreds became ill from inhaling the poisonous gas, the airwaves were filled with canned music and smooth-talking D.J.’s.

From WETS station's main page

It was part of a longer article in the NY Times which refers to that fact that all modern forms of communication are useless during a power failure. The best source of information in such instances is a battery powered radio. Old technology, but the best for such circumstsances.

It also stressed that live communication is important to have at all times for those moments when sudden emergency arises.

Real contact with real people. Old-fashioned, but the most reliable.

NY Times article (requires free log-in)

We Did Contribute To This Nation. And Still Do...

"If it weren't for the Chinese we could not be building this railroad."
I have heard too many times to ignore European-Americans voicing that Asian-Americans aren't really American because they didn't contribute to the building of this country.

Here's just one piece of evidence that this is a mistaken assumption ingrained from lies presented as truth seeped in insidiously by self-serving propagandists.


Here's is evidence of Asian-American contribution in the building of America:

The Transcontinental Railroad. Starting around 1865, approximately 11,000 Chinese men were recruited in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, mustered into work-gangs at the docks, and then ferried to the California Sierras to shovel and haul away dirt and rock. As the railroad magnate Leland Stanford wrote at the time, "If it weren't for the Chinese we could not be building this railroad."

From the PBS special Becoming American: The Chinese Experience

Words from a key maker of the railroad that connected the expanse of this nation. This is just the broad sweep of it. To know the details of the brutal conditions of this work is to really know just how much of a contribution was made. An intimate story of one of these individuals needs to be told.

Why Are You Doing What You Do?

This is from an interview of Maya Lin by Bill Moyers. It caught my attention immediately upon reading it:

I try to understand the "why" of a project before it's a "what."

This resonates with what I've been thinking about lately while talking to Open Door. It relates to my pursuit of things with purpose. Of making a living doing something that has meaning. Of doing things beyond just making money or gaining recognition. It's all about finding 'the path with heart.' About doing things that make a worthy contribution to the world.

She goes on to say:

There is a definite need for something. So, then you have to say, "What is it? What should that be? What do I wanna do here? What would I like to accomplish? What are the goals?" I tend to almost sketch an idea sometimes with text.

I'll write. I'll sit down and I'll just write what I think I wanna say here, what needs to be said, how to do it. I try not to second-guess it by finding a form and then trying to apply meaning or function to the form.

If you have the pre-conceived idea of what you think it looks like before you really shape it verbally, then you're trying to stuff function into a pre-existing form. What I love doing in a lot of my works is to write about it because you can get a conceptual sketch of what you think you want without any form. And then usually, the form finds me.

From the transcript of the PBS show - Becoming American

Take Care Who, What, Where You Share

This was a timely quote to come my way out of the blue. It seems too opportune to the moment to be coincidental. It comes as an answer to a question running through my mind.

"Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat at a place called Mum's. And never go to bed with a woman whose troubles are greater than your own."

- Nelson Algren

Found in the TTBOOK show titled 'Outsiders.'

I will not act immediately, but will keep the bit of advice in mind as I deal with the often confounding ways of folk. I am generous in sharing myself to others, but there's a point when people take advantage and take for granted. I can't allow that in order to take care of myself. That must be of primary importance, for it is something that no one else can be relied on, which I guess is how it should be, even must be.

Bee hive got its biting sting
But bark or bite it don't mean a thing
Just a Who-Suff'rin Sibo
High on tide
Sweat it out
Salaam, momb
The rough part of the ride

Once Transformation Takes Place, It Is Impossible To Return

An inspiring short tale on transformation.

There is a beautiful story about a caterpillar that lived much of its life believing that it had come into being only to eat and sleep and do what the rest of the caterpillars did. However it was unhappy. Somehow it sensed that its life had another dimension not yet experienced.

One day, driven by a strange longing, it decided to become still and silent. It hung from the branch of a tree, weaving a cocoon around itself. Inside the cocoon, although constrained and uncomfortable, it waited, sensing and aware. Its patience bore fruit, for when the cocoon burst open, it was no longer the lowly worm that went in, but a beautiful, resplendent, winged butterfly which dazzled the sky. It soared and flew, no longer limited to its worm-like existence, but free and unbounded. The caterpillar had been transformed into a thing of air and lightness, magic and beauty.

Once the transformation had taken place, it was impossible for the butterfly to return to being a worm. In the cocoon, the caterpillar had become one with its inner being and in this union it reached its ultimate nature. What happened in the cocoon can be described as yoga. Yoga is the path towards being boundless.

From Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev's Isha Foundation site

It is uplifting to think that when we transforms our lives, we make a change that is permanent. We can't go back. It is just as Joseph Campbell spoke of in the universal story of the Hero's Journey. In order to change, the old self must die in order for the new self to be born. There is a birth and death that goes on in order for us to grow. It happens every time we grow. The thing that stops us from growing is fear. Fear of that death. But on the other side of it is growth into a new and greater self. This is our purpose here. To grow just as all other life does. Then we die, and new self is born. This is the part we don't fully understand, try as some might.

You Can Always Pursue Your Dreams

Another bit of inspiration that added a boost to my life unexpectedly. Looking for one thing and came across another. (I was looking for images of the word 'abundance' to share. I came across this blog and noticed the title of the next post which was about pursuing your dreams.)

Don't ever think it's too late to pursue your dreams in art (or anything else!)

Margaret Mee, considered the premier female explorer of the Amazon rainforest, first began her Amazonian journeys in 1956 at age of 47 and completed 15 expeditions over the course of three decades.

From the blog: Changing Places - Holding On to the Jewel in Your Heart

Here's proof that more can be done than most can imagine. Forget the naysayers. They are the ones who don't do anything because they judge things by what's already been done. As the Booseman shared, 'There is a lot more waiting to become than there already is.'

Every time I come across examples of others pursuing 'dreams deferred', I feel fired up to pursue my own. I feel it all over. It's an energy that is so envigorating. I feel a surge of power flow through me. And there is a push to do. Something. Anything. Right now!

It is a high that is natural and nourishing.

Di-Pangkaraniwan

More encouragement to find your niche by doing what you know, by combining the unique variety of things that only you know as a singular indentity.

"All I was trying to do was make ends meet," Adams said.

Adams continued to pick up work - everything from organizing homes to conducting market analysis, mainly for entrepreneurs whose businesses were not large enough to take on employees.

She had been working for nearly a year when she came across a list of ideas for home-based businesses. Included on the list was "virtual assistant."

"I said, 'Hey that's me!'" I was jumping up and down in my seat when I saw that," Adams said.

Suddenly, Adams found she was in an industry, complete with its own Web site. That external validation made her realize she had begun a viable business.

Her sole proprietorship, Adams Enterprises, uses the varied skills she honed during nearly 20 years in the corporate world.

"That's the problem - my experience is so diverse, you can't market me in any one direction," Adams said. "I've been in everything and I've suffered every corporate circumstance."

From KnoxNews Business: Building a Business.
Going out on your own can be rough or rewarding, but many who have tried it say self-employment worth the risk.


An article that includes Catrina Adams, a reviewer on Amazon on the book, 'Common Sense Business: Starting, Operating, and Growing Your Small Business - In Any Economy' by Steve Gottry.

Do what you love and the rest will follow. Take all that you know and put it together. There you will find a unique service to create you own business from. This is because no one has lived life quite like you and so your knowledge and experience is unique to you and only you. This is true for every person on the planet ... including you. Follow this path and you will provide something to the world that only you can.