If you want to build a ship, don’t gather people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather, teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery.
This quote encompasses a lot of the theory behind my Overview Trip idea (a birthright trip to outer space for low income students).
We have the tools to end poverty. Now, we need to distribute these interventions. Make it happen with the D-Prize.
The analogy I sometimes use is…the Batman movie. It’s pretty freaking awesome. You’ve got incredible special effects, great script, multiple takes, amazing actors, great sound, and it’s very engaging. But even if you were to have the same script, and you say now…we are going to have that script performed by the local town troupe in every small town in America, they would then have to recreate the Dark Knight with home-sown costumes, jumping across the stage, not getting their lines quite right, not really looking like the people in the movie, and no special effects. That would suck. It would be terrible. That’s education.
Elon Musk illustrating how much the education system needs to be disrupted in this video.
Mind. Blown.
I call myself a Republican because I am one. I believe in market solutions and common sense realities and the necessity to defend ourselves against a dangerous world and that’s about it. The problem is now I have to be homophobic. I have to count the number of times people go to church. I have to deny facts and think scientific research is a long con. I have to think poor people are getting a sweet ride. And I have to have such a stunning inferiority complex that I fear education and intellect…in the 21st century. But most of all, the biggest new requirement, really the only requirement is that I have to hate Democrats.
- Newsroom’s Will McAvoy
A new political party may not be a feasible first step for catering to people who feel the same way. But what if there was a rating system for politicians similar to the NRA’s Grades & Endorsements system but based on conservative fiscal policy AND liberal issues?
What if there was a birthright trip to outer space for all human beings? We’d live in a more peaceful, sustainable, and intelligent society.
That’s why they invented ColaLife
dreamy sunset outtake from my shoot with Everly yesterday.
a colorful company
searching for adventure in nashville
Dreams don’t work unless you do.
"Time changes everything." That’s what people say. It’s not true. Doing things changes things. Not doing things leaves things exactly as they were. - Dr. House
Don’t settle. Find your sweet spot.
Creating Our Own Happiness
by WAYNE COYNE
from NPR’s Special Series: This I Believe
I believe we have the power to create our own happiness. I believe the real magic in the world is done by humans. I believe normal life is extraordinary. I was sitting in my car at a stoplight intersection listening to the radio. I was, I guess, lost in the moment, thinking how happy I was to be inside my nice warm car. It was cold and windy outside, and I thought, “Life is good.” Now, this was a long light. As I waited, I noticed two people huddled together at the bus stop. To my eyes, they looked uncomfortable; they looked cold and they looked poor. Their coats looked like they came from a thrift store. They weren’t wearing stuff from The Gap. I knew it because I’d been there. The couple seemed to be doing their best to keep warm. They were huddled together, and I thought to myself, “Oh, those poor people in that punishing wind.” But then I saw their faces. Yes, they were huddling, but they were also laughing. They looked to be sharing a good joke, and suddenly, instead of pitying them, I envied them. I thought, “Huh, what’s so funny?” They didn’t notice the wind. They weren’t worried about their clothes. They weren’t looking at my car thinking, “I wish I had that.” You know when a single moment feels like an hour? Well, in that moment, I realized I had assumed this couple needed my pity, but they didn’t. I assumed things were all bad for them, but they weren’t. And I understood we all have the power to make moments of happiness happen. Now, maybe that’s easy for me to say. I feel lucky to have fans around the world, a house with a roof and a wife who puts up with me. But I felt this way even when I was working at Long John Silver’s. I worked there for 11 years as a fry cook. When you work at a place that long, you see teenagers coming in on their first dates; then they’re married; then they’re bringing in their kids. You witness whole sections of people’s lives. In the beginning, it seemed like a dead end job. But at least I had a job. And frankly, it was easy. After two weeks, I knew all I needed to know, and it freed my mind. The job allowed me to dream about what my life could become. The first year I worked there, we got robbed. I lay on the floor. I thought I was going to die. I didn’t think I stood a chance. But everything turned out all right. A lot of people look at life as a series of miserable tasks, but after that, I didn’t. I believe this is something all of us can do: Try to be happy within the context of the life we are actually living. Happiness is not a situation to be longed for or a convergence of lucky happenstance. Through the power of our own minds, we can help ourselves. This I believe.
The Irish: He was crazy, but they were hilarious together.
A story about my great grandfather Jack Barrett. Narrated by his grandson David Spitznagel and his granddaughter Christy McCollom.
Scroll down to the bottom to play the audio clip while reading along.
[Christy McCollom] Grandpa wanted so bad to enlist because his brothers were. He couldn’t bear the thought that his brothers were going off to war and he wasn’t. He had to have Grandma’s permission, and so she signed some papers saying that she agreed that he could go in. He enlisted as a Seabee during World War II. He was the guy to get cigs from. He was in the black market out there. He acquired things. The skipper would come to him and say I need sheets. Grandpa and his friend would come up with sheets. Or jeeps. Or ships. And he had a monkey. Grandma never believed him, so twenty years later they went out to California to visit his best friend in the Navy. Grandma said to Grandpa, “You be quite, and I want him to tell all these stories.” He had the exact same stories Grandpa was telling - so they were true. That’s where he got his name - The Irish - in the Navy. The Seabees used to build things. He said on a couple occasions the Japanese snipers would shoot at them while they were building.
[Dave Spitznagel] He got in a lot of bar fights in the Navy. He was a little guy. He wasn’t very big. He was about 5’9”. He would make money by betting people at a bar that he could out drink them. He would drink a glass of olive oil. It would coat his stomach, and he would make money that way.
He was crazy. I’d go driving with him, and he was like a little kid half the time - a little shit disturber. He’d roll down the window at a stop light, and he’d hawk a loogie right on the hood of a car next to us and then speed off. I’m like, “That is cool grandpa!” I thought he was so cool because he did stuff like that. Then I thought about it, and I’m like, “What a jerk!”
[Christy McCollom] When Connie was born, Grandma and Grandpa came down to help me because Mom only came for a couple of days and Kyle was out of town all the time. I was a wreck. “How am I going to take care of two kids?” So they came down, and one day Grandpa is in the backyard with KJ. I go back there and they are gone. I look through the entire house and can’t find them. I am that OCD, compulsive, obsessive mom. My baby boy is gone, and I can’t find my Grandpa. I said to Grandma, “Where’s Grandpa and where’s KJ?” And she said, “You can’t find them? He probably took him to McDonald’s.” I said, “Grandma, the carseat is still here! He took him without a carseat!”
So KJ comes back. He’s 28 months old when Connie is born. And I said, “Grandpa where were you?!” He said, “I took him to McDonald’s.” “Without a carseat?!” “Oh ya, without a carseat. KJ, show your mom what I taught you how to do.” [KJ hawks a loogie as a 28-month-old]
[Dave Spitznagel] He told me a story. This was when he was older. He was probably in his 60s by this time. Some long-haired hippie cut him off and Grandpa got all upset. Grandpa was all about respect, and if you didn’t he’d take off after ya. Grandpa was driving slow, and this guy cut him off and flips Grandpa off. Grandpa pulls up behind him at the next stoplight. Grandpa gets out of his car, goes over, grabs the guy by the hair and starts pounding him through the window. Boom, boom, boom. And the guy is going, “What the hell?” And this is when he is 60-something years old. And this guy is probably 20-something, and Grandpa is beating the crap out of him. The cops pull up, and they pull Grandpa off the guy. All the cops know Grandpa because he’s like Senator Barrett. Even though he is retired, everybody always knew Grandpa. All the cops knew him. They loved him. He was the jury commissioner when he was 62, but they still called him senator. There were two or three cops there at the time. This guy is going, “I want that guy arrested!” And the cops are just like, “Jack, go get in your car and drive away right now.” So he went and got in his car and drove away. And the guy is going, “What did you let him go for?” “Don’t worry about it.” He just beat the pulp out of the guy. He’s bleeding.
[Tommy Spitznagel] Was he really strict with you guys? If you guys did something wrong would he hit you at all?
[David Spitznagel] No. He was the sweetest man. The best grandpa anybody could ever have. He was wonderful. Affectionate.
[Christy McCollom] He taught us how to steal cookies out of the cookie jar. Then he got that cow thing. When you opened it, it moo’ed and we got caught.
[David Spitznagel] And you’d always hear Grandma, “Goddamnit, Jack!” They were hilarious together.
