The story of the three turkeys

Once upon a time there were three turkeys, and though they knew their eventual demise, they all hoped for one thing; to bring love and cheer to others on Thanksgiving Day.

The first turkey ended up on the dinner table at the White House as the center of a prestigious Thanksgiving dinner celebration. He was a gorgeous presentation proudly served on a silver platter with all the trimmings. He thought he must be the best looking Thanksgiving Day turkey in the world. But, when the meal was served to the guests, all they talked about was politics and the economy, no love or cheer like he had hoped.

The second turkey ended up on the Thanksgiving dinner table of a rich and famous Hollywood movie star. There was a ‘who’s who’ of Hollywood peeps in attendance that day, and though he was served on an expensive designer crystal platter and prepared by a world famous celebrity chef, all the dinner guests talked about was money, cars, and plastic surgery, no love or cheer like he had hoped.

The third turkey ended up as the turkey lunch at an elementary school cafeteria. He was served cold on plastic dishes, and looked nothing like a fine Thanksgiving Day turkey, actually he was more like a step up from cheap grocery store lunch meat, and this made him sad. How could he represent the spirit of Thanksgiving and bring love and cheer to others when he didn’t look like the Thanksgiving Day turkeys in cook books and woman’s magazines?

Then all at once it started; teachers trying to keep control of their class, yelling students dressed like Indians, complaining parents trying to fit into the elementary school chairs, and then suddenly…laughter, smiles, and kids happy to be able to spend a little bit of time with their family and friends. And though he had to share a plate with instant mashed potatoes and canned gravy, the third turkey realized that he was bringing love and cheer to others on Thanksgiving Day, as he had hoped.

The End

Two words

We will give thanks this week and I can probably write for hours about what I’m thankful for, yet, it’s easy enough to say in just two words: God‘s grace.

Peace and love through music

Talk about some of my favorite things; Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Guitars In The Classroom, and one of my favorite Samick acoustic guitars all wrapped up together to help raise money for kids? It just doesn’t get any better than that!

So here’s the deal, all these cool musicians like Tom Petty, Jack Johnson and Jon Foreman of Switchfoot autographed and donated instruments to Guitars in the Classroom to raise funds for an 11-day online auction titled Peace & Love Through Music. The auction runs November 18 through the 28.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers signed a solid cedar top Samick Greg Bennett Rio Grande OM15CE guitar for GITC. As a part of the auction, Guitars in the Classroom will also offer a selection of items that include one of a kind artisan gifts, special experiences, celebrity and local music lessons, and wonderful tools for the musician, teacher, and music lover. These are just a few of the treasures that holiday shoppers and music lovers will find at the auction.

What’s all this for? good question, the online event is designed to fund free musical programs, music therapy, training and supplies and is co-sponsored by two other music non-profits, Resounding Joy and the Playing for Change Foundation, along with a charity founded to teach kids to foster peace in the world: Kids for Peace.

Supporters can access the campaign and participate in the auction by visiting www.peacelovethrumusic.com.

Peace and love through music, I just love that idea, don’t you?

Easy or hard? Choose one please

Easy: complaining, blaming someone else, criticizing someone for having a different viewpoint, not trying because you’re afraid of failing, insisting you’re right when you know you’re not, starting a bad habit, putting yourself first.

Hard: Doing something about it, taking responsibility, understanding that someone else may have a totally different reality, trying and failing, admitting you’re wrong, starting a good habit, putting others first.

For the most part, we have two choices as to how we live our lives and the evidence is in the results. Are you getting the results you want?

If today were the last…

I heard an interesting interview recently, where the question asked was “if today was the last day of your life, would you want to go out and do what you’re about to do?” How many times have you heard a similar question? You may not consider what you’re going to do today to be the thing you would want to do on the last day of your life, partially because you don’t really know when the last day of your life is, but also because maybe you don’t know what it is you would want to be doing.

My guess is you would be doing something you love, something you have always wanted to do, or very likely something you’ve always dreamed of doing…but, what if you never identified that dream? What if you had it long ago, but are now so caught up in the rat race that the dream is nothing more than a memory of something you ‘used to think about’ or ‘dream of’. Does life have to be like that?

What if you made a change today? Maybe changed just one thing that would get you closer to doing something you have only dreamed of doing? Do you want to write a book on something you’re passionate about? Sing opera? Skydive? Drive an Indy race car? Travel to Europe? Eat a New York steak in New York? So many things people want to do sound crazy, particularly to those who have never done them. So, what if it’s crazy? What’s more crazy, moving toward something you’ve always wanted to do…or living your last day wishing you would have?

Whatever it is you want to do is more than likely possible, you just have to overcome the fear of stepping off the edge, away from the status quo. Scared? Yes, you will probably fail along the way (all our heroes have), but you will never catch a dream without setting yourself into motion – and FYI, the fear doesn’t go away, it’s always there to prevent you from doing something fulfilling. Oh yes, and be ready for the people that will laugh at you and tell you that you can’t do it (more than likely close friends and family…why is that?).

And what about people whose life dream turned into a nightmare? Whose dream was smashed into a thousand pieces, or someone who gave up on a dream? Yes, that happens, and it leaves you with two options:  find another dream, or live your last day wishing you had.

Life isn’t perfect, so don’t wait for the magic formula or the perfect map, it will not miraculously show up in your mail box.

I’m just a normal guy, but I’ve had dreams come true, that means anybody can do it (Full disclosure, I had God on my side, still do).

What’s your dream? Are you chasing after it? Or have you left it behind…and it keeps chasing after you? If today were the last day of your life, would you want to go out and do what you’re about to do?

No, that’s not how you do it!

I was recently giving my youngest son a guitar lesson (It’s OK if you don’t play guitar, you can still read this and it will make sense in the end). He’s only 7, small for his age, and he doesn’t have a lot of finger strength, but he’s got determination to learn, which is good. So, I was showing him a finger exercise  and he took his left thumb and contorted his hand a little so he was using his thumb on the fretboard rather than his finger (as traditionally taught) and he was doing a better job of making a sound with the string this way. I stopped and said ‘No, that’s not how you do it’, but just as quickly as the words came out of my mouth, I thought ‘why not? why can’t he do it that way? I corrected myself and said ‘I mean, yes! you can do it that way if you want to. I’m going to teach you the way I play, and the way I learned, but you can try your own way too, and come up with your own way to do it’.

It’s the simplest principle really, and I almost missed it while trying to teach what I had been taught to believe was the ‘right way’. Where would music be without Django Reinhardt, Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Van Halen, Tom Morello, and all the others before and after them that decided to try something different, and not do it the way it was supposed to be done? Yes, an educational foundation is good, but once you get going, don’t be afraid to try something different, to come up with a better way that works for you. If you do and you have somebody say ‘No, that’s not how you do it’, that could be a good indication that you’re on the right track.

Musicians, watch this video for a prime example that there isn’t always a ‘right’ way.

Have you ever gone against the grain and succeeded?

Guitars In The Classroom

Ever have a school teacher play guitar and teach reading, writing, and arithmetic through music? Talk about making learning fun, I bet some of us would have made it a little closer to the Dean’s list if we would have had music integrated into the regular school curriculum (I always think about Jack Black in ‘School of Rock’ where he sings the math song, I would have ate that up as a kid…heck, as an adult too now that I think about it)

Guitars In The Classroom (GITC) is an organization that does just that (don’t worry, not exactly the way Jack Black did it). GITC helps teachers teach (and reach) children through music, more specifically, via the guitar.

Today I’m spreading the word to help GITC meet the financial goals that allow them to do what they do, and maybe you can too.

Please support Guitars in the Classroom and make a difference for children in need through music TODAY, Oct 19, at Global Giving!

Your contribution will be MATCHED on this special Bonus Day.

http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/keep-music-alive-in-k8-classrooms-nationwide/

While you’re at it, check out the GITC webpage at www.guitarsintheclassroom.org to learn more about what they do, where they are, and other ways you might be able to help.

One last thing; please remember, you don’t have to be a school teacher to make a positive difference in a kid’s life.

Are you ready for some football?

I was standing outside the house the other day watching the neighbor boys toss a football. My youngest son stood by watching, and even pretending to dodge the ball when it would come his way. As I stood there watching I thought, ‘I’ve never taught him to throw or catch a football…or any ball for that matter’ I started feeling inferior “Am I a bad Dad for not teaching my son how to throw and catch a football?

I played football and some other sports in school with my friends when I was a kid, but even back then I knew that I was just not a real ‘sports’ guy. My oldest son played baseball, and I taught him to the best of my ability to throw and catch a baseball, and realized that through genetic predisposition he naturally does it better than me, which made me happy.

That got me thinking, are my kids missing something? Now, this isn’t to say I’m not a physically active guy, I’m in decent shape, I like to run, work out (even finished P90X last month, not an easy accomplishment for me) and I like Martial Arts. For the most part though, I’m a musician and ‘Arts’ guy, as are my offspring for the most part. So, my kids do have a piece of me, and I am a teacher by nature and try to teach them everything I can. So, why this feeling of inferiority when I see other kids throwing a football? I guess it’s because, like so many Dad’s I want the best for my kids, and I want them to be accepted in certain circles…but then, I’m the first to tell them not to pay attention to what others are doing and to ‘run their own race’.

After pondering this for a while, it dawned on me, “of course! It’s the natural balance of things”, what was I thinking? We can’t all play sports, or music, or be everything to everyone, but its how we teach our kids to develop their natural gifts and talents that creates harmony. After all, what would Monday Night Football be without Hank Jr. singing ‘are you ready for some football? (OK, I know he doesn’t sing it anymore, but I wanted to go with it just for the principle of the point. Though I never watched a Monday night game in my life, I did tune in to watch Hank a couple of times and I thought the pairing was cool!)

Start something…

This is my first blog post. It took a while to actually start it. I kept thinking I had to have everything  perfectly formulated in my mind before I could start…why is that? Have you ever wanted to start an exercise program, learn to play a musical instrument, or some other new skill, but just never got around to it? Seems like it’s always easier to come up with something else that is ‘more important’ or that ‘has to get done’ first. I guess it can be attributed to what Steven Pressfield in his book ‘The war of art’ calls ‘The Resistance’. ‘The Resistance’ distracts us and does anything it can to keep us from starting something, or from doing work that matters.

How many things in your life at this very moment do you wish you could start? Maybe you keep putting it off until ‘tomorrow’, until you can ‘get around to it’, or for ‘just a little bit longer’. Excuses are the easiest thing to come up with when trying to start something, but it’s not the excuse itself that’s bad; it’s the point when you start believing it’s true that you are defeated. Look at it this way, If you don’t start something today, in a year the only thing that will be different is that you will be a year older (yes, I speak from experience…unfortunately).

Today is my birthday and my first entry into the blog stratosphere. Yes, it took a while, but I have officially started. Now it’s your move, what have you been putting off starting?