Along the Way…

“It is not the critic who counts,

not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood;

who strives valiantly;

who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming;

But who does actually strive to do the deeds?

Who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions?

Who spends himself in a worthy cause?

Who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat?”

— Theodore Roosevelt

Walking,

I see nothing on the horizon but the sunset.

It’s beautiful enough to keep me following it.

I’ll find the rest along the way.

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It’s like standing on a hill,

overlooking a limitless number of paths spread out before you,

reaching the horizon.

You take a long look and a deep breath,

put on a blindfold,

and start walking down the hill…

I can see the sunlight behind my eyelids.

When my eyes are closed and the room is dark;

in the dead of night I see the sun.

Behind my eyelids…

————————————

When we can see in four dimensions, with time being the fourth, time travel will be as easy as closing your eyes. You’ll be able to travel to whatever point in your life you wish to experience.

Once people are capable of this, it will give them a greater appreciation for “The Now,” and the people and events occupying it with them.

“I am here” will be a commonly-used phrase to express gratitude for the presence of anyone who hears you say it.

I am present in this moment, chosen from a wealth of other moments, for the sole purpose of experiencing it with you…

2005: I was living in Harrisonburg, and working at a small local radio station that ran talk programming all day and night. I was there to monitor the boards during the day and answer the phones, with various other duties included every so often.

Everyday, at 3pm, The Don and Mike Show would come across the airwaves, with some cool interviews, and a high level of afternoon-drive hilarity generated by a group of close friends getting paid to shoot the shit in a radio studio just outside of D.C. every day.

One afternoon they had Mark Cuban call in for an interview and some radio pub for his recently-acquired television network, HDNet. He sounded like a decent guy, and he kept the guys in a solid bantering mood for a decent-length interview.

At the end of the interview, for reasons I can’t remember, but most likely hoping to generate and gauge the interest in the network, he gave out his email address for anyone who wanted to get in contact with him.

So I wrote him an email.

I had just moved to Harrisonburg, and completely changed my life in every way (new school, legitimately out on my own for the first time). So the email had a “what should I do?” quality about it.

I sent off the email without much hope for a response, but what the hell right?

But here’s the kicker… I got a response.

Within an HOUR.

He wrote back with the one-line response:

find something you love to do and be the best at it.

m

And there it was. The billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks read my email and offered up some advice.

He’s a man of the people.

That’s why I love Mark Cuban. And that’s why I listen to the things he has to say.

I read his blog every now and again (blogmaverick.com) and, while some of the things he writes about are over my head, I’m a sucker for a convincing argument. If you can sell me, hook line and sinker, I’ll believe you until someone else can change my mind with an equally passionate and seemingly informed argument.

And he’s constantly selling me.

I wrote him one more time with a business question, this time at his official Dallas Mavericks email (which is listed on the Dallas Mavericks website, right out in the open), and again I got a response within an hour.

The guy is a decent, solid and smart human being.

So why not ask him to run for President? You think he’d be up for it?

Not saying he should join a particular party or even actively campaign. All he has to do is give the word and, through the genius of social media, we can do the work for him.

What the hell, right? Look at all the interest and support Ron Paul gained just by saying what he felt was right, trumpeting his consistent track record, and miraculously inspiring a seemingly-gigantic, technically inclined type of new demographic. The rEVOLution began.

The problem with The Good Doctor is that he’s not, sorry to say, that fit for live television, which is where most of the world is consuming the bulk of its information, and will for the foreseeable future.

Mark Cuban is.

He’s young enough, rich enough, photogenic enough, and adventurous enough to give it a go.

So why the hell not?

Let’s give it a go, Mark.