@ 1964, Norman Rockwell, “The Problem We All Live With”
Thank you for sharing your dream, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. For fighting the good fight. For lifting up the eyes, hearts and minds of millions with hope, peace, perseverance and integrity.
And Norman Rockwell, thank you for your brilliance.
Once in a while things just come together. The pieces fit. Maybe it’s because this is such a great cause, but whatever the reason, I’m feeling real good about this little project. And it has a name: Operation Spread Joy.
It started as an idea over breakfast with a friend. “52 Weeks of Peace” cards to our troops at holiday time. We were pumped about it.
Then months went by, life got hectic and the idea was all but passed over…. until another dear friend had a similar idea all on her own, which was just enough to spark that seed from a few months back and I thought, let’s just do it ourselves.
A couple of calls later, we have the public high school involved, and the card writing has been incorporated into a care package program run by the Silent Warrior Fund non-profit organization.
The whole effort will be delivered to our elite Special Forces men and women serving in the most remote regions of Afghanistan who normally don’t receive civilian packages from home. More icing on the cake? ~ care packages will also be provided to the local Afghan children.
With the help of my daughter (yet more icing on cake), the Silent Warrior Fund, the school administrators, the students and a few of my most supportive friends, we’re making Operation Spread Joy a reality.
Next year, we’ll plan farther ahead. But even in this time crunch, I couldn’t feel more pleased about sharing something from the heart with those who risk everything to keep us safe and free.
Bless them all.
“We don’t get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really excellent. Because this is our life. Life is brief, and then you die, you know? And we’ve all chosen to do this with our lives. So it better be damn good. It better be worth it.” ~ Steve Jobs
Today, the world mourns the loss of Steve Jobs. He was an incredible innovator. He was an original. He was absolutely brilliant.
A chorus of voices sings his praises this day, and rightly so. He changed the way we live. He did what many think is pure pipe-dream: he actually DID change the world ~ and as many of us believe, for the better.
So what can I add to the barrage of conversation? Probably nothing new. Except to say that I was truly moved when I learned of his passing, and part of me thinks none mourns his loss more than the design community.
Sure, his products have exploded around the globe. Every 5-year-old knows what iPods and iPhones are, as previous boundaries of Mac-users vs. PC-users were swept away like beach pebbles with the wave of all things “i”.
But the design community has been there every step of the way. We were there at the beginning with our little Apple SE’s, practically dancing in the streets when released from the shackles of rubber cement and color separations prepared by hand and lines of type precisely cut by t-squares, triangles and exacto blades. Our world shifted dramatically as Macs created this amazing bridge between creativity and productivity.
We’ve been excited by each new development and loyal to a fault. Thrilled with the simple joy, the “fun”, of using our Macs over the years. We’ve loved their cleverness, their cleanliness, their friendliness, their aesthetics and their power. We, in all honesty, don’t understand how anyone couldn’t love a Mac.
And we watched the young man behind the machines grow, fall, rise again and become a giant. We’ve admired his style, his creativity, his leadership, his greatness. We liked him as a person. He had that unusual quality of someone who is inaccessible yet feels like an old friend.
It’s hard to fathom the difference made through this one man’s vision, and the number of lives touched. Steve Jobs was a genius in our midst, and I, one among many, am awed and exceptionally grateful for his incredible mind, his perseverance and his authenticity. His legacy is great, his gifts lasting. What a blessing, taken too soon. But there’s no easy explanation for magic.
“The word spectacular would be an understatement.”
These were the words of Cupertino Councilman Orrin Mahoney after hearing Steve Jobs’ presentation about plans for a new Apple Headquarters.
As an appreciator of everything Apple, this is exciting news. But regardless of your own personal relationship with “everything Apple”, this will be a stunning architectural feat in its own right.
For example, by moving the parking underground, the grounds will lose the asphalt and double the number of trees, including the addition of an apricot orchard. The campus will be efficient, beautiful and of course, state-of-the-art.
Another example of coolness-meets-practicality. Gotta love that!
This is not only entertaining, but smart and quick and worth a watch!
Derek Sivers is best known as the founder of CD Baby. A professional musician since 1987, he started CD Baby by accident in 1998 when he was selling his own CD on his website, and friends asked if he could sell theirs, too. CD Baby was the largest seller of independent music on the web, with over $100M in sales for over 150,000 musician clients.
In 2008, Sivers sold CD Baby to focus on his new ventures to benefit musicians, including his new company, MuckWork, where teams of efficient assistants help musicians do their “uncreative dirty work.”
“Derek Sivers is changing the way music is bought and sold. A musicians’ savior. One of the last music-business folk heroes.” ~ Esquire