Bob Dylan-It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)

A song that is more than 40 years old and it's giving us the exact same message today. What a shame.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

The History of Father's Day

Sonora Dodd of Spokane, Washington, conceived the idea of Father’s Day while she listened to a Mother’s Day sermon in 1909. Dodd wanted a special day to honor her father, William Smart, a widowed Civil War veteran who was left to raise his six children on a farm. A day in June was chosen for the first Father’s Day celebration - June 19, 1910, proclaimed by Spokane’s mayor because it was the month of Smart’s birth. The first presidential proclamation honoring fathers was issued in 1966 when President Lyndon Johnson designated the third Sunday in June as Father’s Day. Father’s Day has been celebrated annually since 1972 when President Richard Nixon signed the public law that made it permanent.

My father loves telling this story…

“When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.” – Mark Twain

Happy Father’s Day, Dad. I love you. And I never thought you were ignorant. Granted, there were times in my teens when I thought I knew better (especially when it pertained to fashion or to boys), but I always knew you were a smart guy.

This is a photo of my dad, Maurice "Mo" Leyrer, with my niece and nephew, Anna and Jackson Percy.

My :30 High

Damn government...they had me excited for all of 30 seconds today.

On the way home I found myself thinking about my lovely economic stimulus check and that I’m supposed to get it around the 13th of this month. Of course, I’m hoping it would get here early. The gears start clicking in my head: today is the 8th -- 5 more days -- Friday! So I get home, grab my mail from yesterday and see an envelope from the IRS. On the back it says in big red letters “stimulus payment”. Hey Dubya…nothing like alerting potential mail thieves that there may be a check inside. I’m so excited that I stand there at the counter across from the bank of mailboxes and rip it open. What do I find? A letter. A f***ing letter. What does this letter tell me? That I’m getting a check. And the check will be here on or before June 13th. Talk about a huge let down, I was on a high for approximately 30 seconds. You don’t know all the happy thoughts running around my head for those 30 seconds.

This is the second letter I’ve received in the past month announcing that I will indeed receive a check. The magic check that is going to cure the mess our economy has become. Right.

I can’t help but think…if they didn’t spend so much money sending out all these notices about the check we’re to receive, they could have actually given us all more money.

Randy Pausch Inspires Graduates

Randy Pausch is such an amazing and inspiring person. If you haven't seen his original video titled "The Last Lecture", please watch it. It was originally made for a group of his cohorts that were unable to attend a lecture he gave. But, as what always seems to happen, someone found it on YouTube. And the rest is history. What did we ever do before YouTube?

Randy is a relatively young man, not yet 50 years old, who was told last summer that he has pancreatic cancer and it's terminable. Since that time, he gave a lecture about living that has inspired millions of people and has led to a book, "The Last Lecture". And now this graduation speech at Carnegie Mellon. Each time I watch this man talk it sends chills throughout my body and I realize how much more I need to do in my life. It comforts me to know that I, too, have found a lot of the passion that he found. And that feels really good.

History has been made...

History was made just a few minutes ago. Barack Obama has been named the nominee for the Democratic party for President of the United States of America. And on August 28th when he makes his nomination speech, it will be the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. Amazing.