Pint-size giants...

The bon mots and common sense wisdom spouted by small children can make them seem like mini-Buddhas to adults. Their miniature statures and simplistic worldviews can sometimes mask the fact little children are capable of doing big things.

Ten year-old Joey McGuire is perhaps the youngest successful CEO I've ever heard of. Inspired by one episode of "The Celebrity Apprentice", McGuire started not one but two businesses. He runs a shoe-shine venture that employs three part-time people, pays for his cell phone AND has allowed him to save $500 for college so far. Not content with the corporate world, McGuire is a budding media mogul as well. He writes and produces his own super-local news gazette. The original article on McGuire in the Chicago Sun-Times caught "The Donald's" eye, and while in town on business Donald Trump took time out to meet with the little boy he inspired.

This next story from AOL is definite evidence that children hear and digest what you say, even if you think it's over their heads. After her father accidentally took an incompatible combination of medicines at home, three year-old Alesaundra Tafoya toddled two blocks to the fire station to tell the firemen her father was "frozen". The reason she knew to do such a thing? Her parents had pointed out the fire house as a place to go in an emergency...

Nine year-old Logan Hearn took similar initiative when his mother found his younger brother floating face down in the family's backyard pool. According to JEMS.com, two year-old Brendan had sneaked outside and fallen in. When mom Tabitha tried to do CPR while on the phone with 911, Logan realized his mother was doing it wrong. He stepped in, used his life guard training skills and saved his little brother.

(Photo courtesy of the Chicago Sun-Times)

Happy Anniversary!

Hi...I didn't manage a post yesterday (sorry about that) as I spent the day in the kitchen crafting my parents' anniversary cake - 10 layers of Smith Island cake goodness sandwiched with strawberry mousseline buttercream and frosted with chocolate buttercream.

But I will return next week with a new post full of fun, good news. :) Until then!

A world of good...

In an effort to counter-balance all the bad news from around the world of late (mudslides, earthquakes, floods, etc.), I've found three good news stories that span the globe.

MSNBC reported on "Crazy Bake", uniquely located in the Beijing Chaoyang District Mental Health Service Center. Six patients work with one instructor to churn out loaves of bread and bagels which are sold to area residents. The bakery was formed five years ago by two foreign volunteers who had also started an organic farm project. The bakers work every Friday to produce their wares; originally begun as a way to provide structure and activities for patients, all six workers have shown marked improvement in their health and are now able to live in assisted living facilities off of the health center's campus.

London's Daily Telegraph found a glimmer of hope amidst the tragedy literally flowing through Pakistan. Nearly 1600 people have died in the massive flooding there, but a mother and grandmother to 30, Zainab Bibi, was saved from flood waters by, of all things, her cow. Sleeping in the farmyard, the waters picked Bibi up and carried her away, but from out of nowhere, Bhoori the cow floated up beside her. The two were carried along until they found higher ground.

MSNBC also has this last story - hope for Haitians. The island nation is still suffering from the effects of that devastating earthquake this past January. But the LA Galaxy and the Tony Sanneh Foundation brought smiles back to the faces of some 14 and 15 year-old boys through the world's game. A Haitian boys team was brought to Minnesota to participate in the largest youth soccer tournament in the country. Welcomed into host families, the boys were able to find happiness both on and off the pitch.

(Photo courtesy of MSNBC)

Faster than a speeding bullet...

When you hear the word "hero", what immediately springs to mind? A figure in a military uniform, standing strong against the enemy? A man in a cape and tights, ready to take on the world with super-human powers? Well, today's post has both of those with a healthy dash of the world's most un-disgruntled postman thrown in there. Although "Un-Disgruntled Postman" sounds more like a band name then a member of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen...

CBS News told the story of a group of heroes recently reunited after a stint in Iraq. However, this isn't your usual Army buddy story. National Guardsman Chris Duke befriended three Afghan mutts during his last tour of duty. But the dogs did a whole lot more than help him fend off homesickness. Serena, Rufus and Target set off a ruckus and attacked a suicide bomber when he tried to break into the barracks one night last February. Serena had to be be put down after suffering severe injuries, but Rufus and Target were nursed back to health and received tickets state-side to be reunited with Duke.

Asylum reported on the real-life rescue of a family by Superman. Well, a Superman comic, anyway. After the bank foreclosed on an anonymous family, it began to pack up its belongings for the move. Buried in the basement was an original Action Comics #1 issue - the first appearance of the Man of Steel. Expected to fetch $250,000 at auction, the family will now be able to keep the home which they have had since the 1950s.

And finally, the postal service has had its share of poor press with bankruptcy looming and unhappy employees - the latter of which inspired the phrase "going postal." But Keith McVey, a postal worker in Akron, Ohio, is both a model employee and human being. Over the last 20 years, McVey has saved three lives while on his route and each time, he has simply continued on with his day afterwards and delivered the mail. According to MSNBC, the most recent example of his derring-do was last week when he performed CPR on a man who wasn't breathing and didn't have a pulse. Improbably, the man came to before the ambulance arrived.

(Photo courtesy of Asylum.com)

Sources of inspiration...

Best-selling author Elizabeth Gilbert once gave a talk on the concept and history of "the muse." It was pretty eye-opening for me, and while it didn't inspire me to paint a masterpiece or churn out the Great American Novel, it did make me examine things from a new perspective. Which I suppose is a type of inspiration.

Today's blog examines a couple different sources of inspiration. The first is poverty. The San Francisco Chronicle reported on the partnership between Tim Jahnigen, his wife Lisa Tarver and Sting to create One World Futbol after Jahnigen was dismayed by a CNN report on the children of Darfur who played soccer with anything but a real ball since those quickly went flat. One World Futbol produces soccer balls made out of the same stuff as Crocs. For each $39.50 ball sold, another goes to a child in need around the world. The couple's goal is to give out 1 million balls in the next three years.

The other theme is the wisdom of others. London's Daily Mail posted a story on its 10 most inspirational speeches. It, of course, skews heavily toward British politicians, but it does reference the great speeches from Mahatma Ghandi, Dr. Martin Luther King, and Winston Churchill. You will have to Google for the full text, but the story gives a nice abstract of each one. On a less world-beating note, each year colleges and universities bring in famous, infamous and everyday speakers in one last effort to propel their graduates to greatness. My own university's graduation speaker was more embittering than emboldening, but other schools do better. Harvard, for example. The following link is one speech that manages to be both entertaining and energizing.

(Photo courtesy of The Daily Mail)

Happy birthday, Mr. (former) President...

I'm always a little slow to get on the bandwagon for things, particularly movies. I don't really go to the theaters anymore ($11 for a ticket, really?), so I have to wait for the movies to come out on Netflix.

So I just saw "Invictus" last night. Matt Damon is genius. That he can be a leading man and a character actor at the same time astonishes me. But what that movie really did for me was re-introduce me to a man I'd only been dimly aware of - Nelson Mandela.

I wasn't even in double digits when he was released from Robben Island, and really, the West's coverage of African news is pretty bad. So despite what a fantastic man and leader he is, Mandela made little impact on me. Clicking through stories for today, I found an article in The Guardian marking Mandela's 92nd birthday, which co-incided with Mandela Day - a day set aside to celebrate "Nelson Mandela’s life and a global call to action for people to recognize their individual ability to make an imprint and change the world around them."

As I'm sure everyone is aware by now, the movie title invokes the poem in which Mandela found inspiration during his 27 years of incarceration. He used the poem to survive prison, but I think it can be applied to anyone in need of inspiration for anything, particularly when trying to change the world.

I've pasted it below and linked to the original site (so I don't get sued). :) It's short but does pack a powerful punch...

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

- William Ernest Henley

(Photo courtesy of The Guardian.)

Thursday round up...

My mind has been a little scattered with all the changes going on in my life lately, so I thought it was the perfect time for a round up post. Much like my thoughts, these stories have nothing in common other than I thought they were interesting. :)


MSNBC reported on what it is calling “the biggest fundraising drive in history.” Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have joined their considerable forces to convince their fellow gazillionaires to give half their fortunes to charity. Begun as a secret dinner with the Buffetts, the Gates', George Soros, Oprah, Ted Turner, David Rockefeller and Michael Bloomberg, the Giving Pledge has now been extended to any of the other mega-rich members of society thought willing to explore charity of this magnitude.


This next story from the Belfast Telegraph is super-cute. The real-life story of Belfast zookeeper Denis Austin, who kept a baby elephant in her backyard during the blitz of 1941 has become the inspiration for a new children's story. Austin used to sneak nightly into the zoo to bring Shiela to the relative safety of her garden after the elephant escaped a ministry order to euthanize large animals who may wreak havoc should the city be attacked. Even after the arrangement was discovered, Austin used to visit Shiela every night during the Luftwaffe raids to rub the baby's ears to keep her calm.


And lastly, CNN posted a story on Palestinian female race car drivers. The story is a semi-profile of Noor Daoud, a 20 year-old woman who has been driving since she was 11. Daoud was one of seven women who recently raced in a field of 50 in Ramallah in the West Bank. She has the moral support of her male friends and has even fooled other men who think she's a man until she takes off her helmet.


(Photo courtesy of The Belfast Telegraph)