They Aren't Coming Back

They are gone and they aren’t coming back.  Did you hear? 

Yes, they are gone.

~John F Kennedy

~Ronald Regan

~Mother Theresa

~Martin Luther King, Jr.

~Winston Churchill

~Henry David Thoreau

~Mark Twain

~Madame Curie

~Victor Frankl

(And we could add millions of influential, life-as-we-know-it giants of mind and moral fiber who have also passed on.)

Yes, they are gone.  Their voices are silenced, except through books and videos, recordings and examples.

They have left quite a void.  There is a gap that needs filling. 

Is it, perhaps, your turn and my turn to step up and fill the gap?  Is it our turn to do whatever we can to turn this world in a new and good direction?

Is it our turn?  And are we ready?

There are still many discoveries yet to be made.

There are cures yet to be unlocked for dreaded illnesses.

There are volumes of books yet to be written that will change mankind for good.

They aren’t coming back, you know.

So, who is going to fill in the gap? 

Will you take a swipe at it? 

Will you step up and try to do some good in this world?

We need leaders like never before.  We need men and women of integrity, of strong moral courage, of determination, of accurate thinking.  We need men and women who see the difference between politics and poppycock.

We need statesmen and women.  And we need the next wave of leaders in every industry, in every government in the land, in every religion, in every university, in every business. 

We need people of moral responsibility, of sound mind, of strong heart.

Many great individuals have fallen and they can’t get up.  They are done in.

The gap is wide.  

The need is great.  

The time is now.

Who will step up?

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Who Has Pushed You Lately

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about some people who have pushed me in my lifetime.  These are not bad individuals – they are good, even great men and women.  Let me tell you about a few.

Mr. Seay was my high school typing teacher.  He was eccentric, with odd ways, but he taught me typing.  Do you realize how much I use this skill EVERY DAY?  I touch a keyboard every day of my life – 24/7. 

He drilled into us the keyboard – a s d f ; l k j and on and on.  Thank you, Mr. Seay.

Mrs. Jones, my sixth-grade teacher, read an excerpt from a paper we had to write for our English class.  She READ two sentences from my paper, out loud, and made a very favorable comment about my writing.  She pushed me that day, in ways I could never understand until now.  What a great thing.

Jim Tharp & Bob Rist are two of my all-time favorite bosses.  They taught me some critical leadership skills and ways of managing people under their charge.  I’ve never forgotten them.

Two band directors who inspired me were Clifford Fuller and Howard Laurie.  They inspired me to pursue a musical career and saw some potential in me when I couldn’t see it for myself.  Thank you, gentlemen.

Jim VanHook was a college professor whom I tried my best to emulate, AND he taught me a relationship skill that I have never forgotten – “Love the people.”  I distinctly remember the day he planted that seed of an idea into my mind and heart.  Thank you, Jim.

Who has pushed you?  Who has taught you a skill, or said an appropriately timed word at the precise moment you needed it the most?  Who has given you a chance to prove yourself in a dream that you always wanted to pursue.

These are the heroes of our lives who have pushed us. 

Now, perhaps it is time for all of us to go and do likewise.

That is all for now.

Morning Notes Blog Site

Words of Hope

Encouragement Inspiration

One Word at a Time

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Can You Hear Me Now

We each have been handed a microphone.  We can broadcast just about anything we want our world to hear, and so we “let it all hang out” as we used to say in the sixties and seventies.  We spew, we proclaim, we broadcast, we announce, we show, we give our opinions, we blab and blabber, we repeat, we opinionize (I just made that word up), and sometimes we condemn.

This “microphone” of which I speak takes a few forms of which I’m sure you yourself use.

World-wide web

Internet

Email

Online video / YouTube

Meetup

Twitter

Facebook

eBay

Wikipedia

LinkedIn

Snapchat

Skype

And the list goes on …

Our world is forever changed because of these ‘microphones’. 

When using these ‘microphones’ we can …

dispute

 we can argue

  we can proclaim

   we can pontificate

    we can pronounce

     we can call out

      we can incite

       we can intensify

        we can lie and cheat

         we can miss-shape the truth

          we can put people in their proverbial places

We can also …

Say a kind word

Say hello

Say I love you

Say I appreciate you

And a ton of other esteem-building thoughts.

I think we’re onto something now. 

There are two comments that I never get far from.  Here they are.

On Oprah Winfrey’s last show, she said this:

“I’ve talked to nearly 30,000 people on this show, and all 30,000 had one thing in common – They all want validation.  They want to know this:

     Do you hear me?

     Do you see me?

     Does what I say mean anything to you?”

That wakes me up at night. 

Those thoughts are what keep me writing and cause me to get up early most days to see what I might possibly say to help combat this “lack of validation” issue. 

Do you see what we might be able to do with all these microphones starring us in the face?  We could turn them on for good.  We could say kind and encouraging words to our friends, our web-world of connections. 

I have opinions.  You have opinions.  We all have opinions.  And that is just what they are – opinions.  Don’t threaten me with your opinion just because our opinions clash.  Don’t threaten to cut me off on social media, don’t call me ‘stupid’ or ‘uninformed’, and don’t threaten to ‘leave America’ if a certain candidate doesn’t get elected. 

Rather … allow for the different view, the different slant on things.  And by all means … find the words that build esteem, words that enhance the situation, and words that encourage a fellow citizen on this globe.

There is one more thought that is significant for today.  Mary Kay Ash said it this way.

Pretend that every person you 

meet has a sign around his or 

her neck that says, 

"Make Me Feel Important."

That’s what Oprah heard from her 30,000 guests.  That’s what I see and witness through these blogposts that I write.  The posts that get the most responses are ones of esteem building, hope-giving words.

You’ve got a microphone – several microphones at your disposal. 

Make the world better.

Make a difference.

Tell us something helpful – something inspiring – and something to build us up.

Can you hear me now?

The idea for this post

is from Seth Godin’s book

What to Do when it’s Your Turn

Pg 132

Morning Notes Blog Site

Words of Hope

Encouragement Inspiration

One Word at a Time