I tell wonder-filled stories about hope and healing
The most important example of your work, your art, your craft, and your passion is your life. You plan, design, build, and test it every minute of every day. You try, learn, and recalibrate. You keep what works and you change what doesn’t. Let your life tell your story and let it be an example of what happens when you use your time to work on what you love.
Yesterday, CNN reported that Russian authorities are poisoning stray dogs in Sochi, Russia leading up to the Olympics. My friend, Amanda Hirsch, sent me the link asking me to speak out about it and of course I did. As an animal lover and proud pet parent to Phin, I couldn’t let that story pass without saying something. There’s been a lot of coverage on the horrific human rights violations in Russia and now we know that same violence and injustice extends to innocent animals, too.
Phin and I decided to record an open letter to Mr. Putin asking him to help, not hurt, the stray dogs of Sochi and uploaded it to YouTube. Phin sat on my lap and is the narrator of the letter. He shares some of his personal background as a former stray dog and directly asks Mr. Putin to put an end to this heinous behavior. Here is the text of the letter and the video is below:
Dear Mr. Putin,
Mahatma Gandhi said, “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” If that’s true Mr. Putin, you and your nation are stuck in the moral dark ages and I want to help you evolve.
I love everyone. People, canines, felines, and just about every animal there is. But you’re making it really hard for me to love you. I heard about what you’re doing to stray dogs in Sochi. I was reading CNN.com and I saw that you’re rounding them up and poisoning them before the Olympics begin. This issue is personal for me because I used to be a stray dog. A policeman found me alone, scared, and starving in the woods. He rescued me, brought me to the local animal shelter, and that’s where my mom adopted me. We’ve been together for 3 and a half years. She rescued me, and I rescued her right back.
The Olympics is a sacred event, one you should be honored and humbled to host. It’s an event where the very best athletes driven only by talent, passion, and raw determination come together to compete and celebrate. This is a time to rally your people, to rally people all over the world in support of Russia, as a spotlight shines on your nation and its rich heritage.
It’s no secret that the Olympic games bring a wealth of funds to the host nation, especially to the host city. You’ve built beautiful new resorts. You’ve constructed incredible venues to host these games. This is a time to use that money and attention to fix things in the community that need fixing. You’re wasting it by putting a veneer on the stray dog issue in Sochi rather than using it to actually fix the problem.
You can do better than this. You have to do better than this. Establish shelters, educate people on how to treat and care for their animals, and create spay / neuter programs as well as affordable veterinary care. Pass laws that make animal abuse a crime.
We can’t speak up for ourselves. We need people, people like you, to stand up for us, to protect us, and to take care for us. Please, Mr. Putin. Poison’s not the answer. Love and compassion and concern. Those are the answers. Those are always the answers. We’re remarkably forgiving, grateful, and loyal creatures. I promise you, once you show a dog love, compassion, and care, he or she will give it all back to you, and then some. I know you’ll do the right thing and help all the dogs of Sochi so thanks in advance for your cooperation and your future efforts to give all of them a chance at a long, happy, and healthy life. This issue is worth your time and attention, and so are we. You’ll see. Just give us a chance. We won’t let you down.
Love,
Phineas
If you need to reach me for the next two weeks chances are I’ll be immersed in all things Sochi. I’m an Olympics freak because every athlete in every event is there for one reason: raw passion for their sport. It’s an incredible testament to the power of focus, commitment, and determination. If you need a shot of inspiration over the next few weeks, flip on the TV to NBC and you’ll find all the motivation you need to reach for your own dreams.
A lotus can’t grow in clear pristine water. It needs the nutrients from the mud to bloom and thrive. Our lives are like that, too. Life is messy. People and tasks compete for our time and attention. We wrestle with the tension between what we think we have to do and what we want to do. Choosing how to spend our time is the toughest thing we will ever do and the answer won’t always be clear.
And that’s okay. We need the obstacles, the adversity, the challenges to show us what matters most to us, to help us build skills, to make us strong and resilient. Everything that is happening to us now, everything, is preparing us for the road that lies ahead. Embrace it and don’t give up.
“Throw me to the wolves and I will return leading the pack.” ~ Unknown
This is how we need to look at obstacles. Confront them head on, give them a good hard look dead in the eyes, and commit to rising above them. I don’t let them take me down. I decide to let them do their work to make me stronger and more capable. They are there to teach me something. I will discover what lessons they hold and I will master them. Resolve to be this strong, this determined, this brave, and nothing will stand in your way.
Russell Wilson, the quarterback for the champion Seattle Seahawks, was told he wasn’t tall enough, fast enough, talented enough, nor capable enough to play professional football. The people who told him that are feeling pretty foolish right now that he is basking in the glow of his Super Bowl win only two years after he joined the NFL. There are a lot of things we could learn from him and the most important lesson is this: You. Are. Enough. No matter what you want to do, where you want to go, or who you want to be, know that everything you want is within your grasp. You just need to work like hell and reach for it. Get after it!
The year of the horse began Friday night as the world ushered in the Lunar New Year. What’s in it for you? Fasten your seatbelt – it’s going to be exciting and fast-paced for everyone!
International Business Times offers this prediction:
“For those born on the year of the horse, they will encounter the Year of Birth (Benming Nian). It is believed they will offend Taisui, the god in charge of fortune, so their finances may fluctuate. In terms of career, it is advised to keep the peace between colleagues.
For those not born on a horse year, the year ahead will bring health and prosperity. It is said to be an excellent time to travel, as the next 12 months will bring good luck. You are advised to mingle with the locals, savour authentic cuisine and discover somewhere you have never been before.”
Luck, travel, good health, prosperity, and authenticity. Sounds good to me!
Arthur Miller gave up the theater after his play, The Man Who Had All the Luck, flopped horribly on Broadway. It ran for only 4 performances in 1944. He attempted to write novels after that, and they flopped too. So he went back to the theater and several years later finished the Tony Award-winning play All My Sons, one of the most beloved, heart-wrenching, and successful in theater history. It took him 5 years to write it and was his first successful production. At the time of its debut, it was panned critically save for Brooks Atkinson’s review in the New York Times. Mr. Atkinson is often credited with rescuing the piece from failure. 2 years later, Miller wrote Death of a Salesman in 6 weeks and it won the Pulitzer.
Miller said this about watching All My Sons for the first time with an audience:
“The success of a play, especially one’s first success, is somewhat like pushing against a door which is suddenly opened from the other side. One may fall on one’s face or not, but certainly a new room is opened that was always securely shut until then. For myself, the experience was invigorating. It made it possible to dream of daring more and risking more. The audience sat in silence before the unwinding of All My Sons and gasped when they should have, and I tasted that power which is reserved, I imagine, for playwrights, which is to know that by one’s invention a mass of strangers has been publicly transfixed.”
It would have been very easy for Mr. Miller to give up writing after his early string of failures. At that point, there was no reason to believe he would ever be successful. And yet, he kept going. He kept trying as he worked menial jobs to make ends meet while remaining passionate about his craft. All he had was raw determination.
Maybe you’ve tried to do something and it wasn’t as successful as you wanted it to be even though you gave it everything you had. Maybe you’re thinking about throwing in the towel and getting a new dream. You’re in good company. At many points, Miller considered giving up. How could he not? But he didn’t. He started again. He took the second step, and it’s that step that made all the difference, for him, for us, and for the American theater. Follow that lead.
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Christa Avampato 