One of the BIG signs that you’re getting older - Grampa!

I recently found out that I am going to be a grandfather for the first time. I know that I am of the age to be a grandfather, but until certain events happen, you really don’t think of your life in a particular phase. Life’s events are what mark our feelings of age, more so than the actual numbers. Feeling older is really an aspect of the mind but life events are the awakenings that bring the realization of new phases.

Early youth is all about waiting to be old enough to make your own decisions....like running with scissors, or staying up as long as you want to. We have no idea at all at that early stage how incredibly lucky we are!

As we become teenagers, we still want that independence, and we long for it, but we have a decided goal of that twenty-first year. Perhaps it’s the legal drinking age thing, but I think it’s more than that. It’s the time when you think you will be living by most of your own decisions. You will begin to say no to older and wiser people. It is really when we only begin to learn about real life.

While we speed along through our second and third decades, we begin to feel some hints of maturity, especially as we discover our physical bodies begin to react differently to things we used to do without thought. This may be the very first signs to us that we are aging, but we tend to dismiss the aches and pains, unless we push ourselves to far and have some real physical issues.

When we hit the phase of our fourth decade, we begin the age of enlightenment, when we actually start to use our brains, before we act and react without thinking. We begin to think of our mortality and plan for a possible longer life of responsibilities. We start to think about things we could have done differently and wonder how and what we will face in the future. We still don’t take old age very seriously, as we tend to think we still have time to deal with that.

My current phase of life is the last that I can practically give a perspective of, as one of the things I have come to know is what my mother often said to all of us, “You don’t know what it’s like!” We knew what she meant, but as I approach the end of my fifth decade, I am beginning to feel what she meant, and that you REALLY cannot know what any age is, until you reach it and live it.

I used to think when I would be approaching my 60’s, I would actually be old. What I am discovering is, that I don’t know what old is and I won’t know that until I reach it, whenever that may be. I find that I am beginning a phase in my life when I finally have the courage and confidence to do things that I didn’t think I would ever be able to do. Now, I’m not talking about jumping out of planes, but I am realizing that the only thing that ever has held me back from my pursuing dreams, was myself. It wasn’t all of the things I blamed, such as I don’t have time, I don’t have that much money, or I’m only daydreaming.

There are many who find this confidence at earlier ages, or perhaps they are just being foolish due to immaturity, but their passion made them succeed. Who knows? I do know that I have found that the secret to success is not actually becoming wealthy or powerful, but that it is the “knowing” that you can and have a true purpose to follow. You may not know how to make it happen, as that is still something to learn and work at. What you find is that just about anything is possible, if you have the will to keep on going, as long as it involves your best capabilities and your true passions. Success or failure are only challenges to find solutions to or work around.

Now, my oldest daughter is pregnant, after she worked hard to achieve an excellent start to life, by finding her passion as a teacher, working hard to make that happen, without giving up along the way, and is now entering her phase in life as a mother and beginning her family. The aspect of becoming a grandfather, along with the “knowing” of pursuing my dreams, is making this phase of my life, perhaps one of most exciting yet!

So although I am fully aware that my becoming a grandfather is a sign of growing older, what I “know” is that it is only a sign of a new wonderful phase of life that I am blessed to enjoy! I’ll be sure to let you all know when I “know” that I am old...whenever that happens!

New Christmas CD soon to be released!!!

I have been working on a Christmas CD for a few months now, off and on, among my many other projects in this "career change" phase of my life. My first CD, "Thoughts of Home", release in July 2008 was all original instrumentals of music for relaxation and stress relief. One of its songs, "Western Sky" won the month of May 2008 for the instrumental category in the international song writers contest, "Song of the Year", making it eligible for entry into the song of the year. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed.

I had to get really busy to finish production and get copyrights and publishing rights approved as this new CD has some traditional Christmas songs on it. There are also two original songs on this album. One is an instrumental winter song titled, “Snowy Mountains” and the other is a vocal and is the title of the CD, "At Christmas Time"

It will take a few weeks for all of the on-line stores have the CD available for purchase. I will make announcements when it's officially released and at least available on my Official music site: www.davidlindbergmusic.com

I have to thank my best friend, who just happens to be my wife, Anita, for all of her support of my efforts of making music "what I do"! Without her consistent love, encouragement and support, (especially working her incredibly difficult job which is stressful beyond belief on her) I would not be "Who I Am"!

Thanks also to all of my friends and family who have always complimented me on my music abilities and gave me the reason to perform and keep my love for music going!

Here is a sample of "At Christmas Time".

Halloween 1938, Orson Welles radio broadcast "War of the Worlds" classic

Occurring before the Baby Boomer birth years, Orson Welles' grand hoax radio broadcast, "War of the Worlds" remains an all time Halloween classic. 
 
Orson Welles is an icon to boomers from many classic movies of our time, such as "Citizen Kane", which has been hailed as one of the best movies ever made.

On October 30, 1938, Welles, the host and creator of a drama based radio program called, The Mercury Theatre on the Air, broadcast a live dramatic adaptation of the H.G. Wells' novel, "The War of the Worlds", about the invasion of planet Earth by creatures from Mars. The event was taken seriously by thousands of people all over the country and caused a great deal of panic. Of course much of the panic was over-hyped, but as many may have not heard the introductions of the show, they thought it was real. The program did not have commercial interruptions, making it seem even more realistic. 

The next day, the New York Times article explained the radio broadcast as a hoax and it made Orson Welles famous.

You can listen to the actual radio broadcast via my fellow Associate Content writer friend, Michael Segers' article,

War of the Worlds: Free Old Time Radio for Halloween

 

  (Photo from The New York Times Source: microfilm archives of the New York Times © Wikimedia Commons)

Michael's article has some great information about archives of historic radio programs, so please read all of the article, but you can click here for the "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast. (You can even right click on the program link to save the mp3 to your computer)

Although Baby Boomers were the television generation and radio drama began to fade in popularity, there is something about listening to stories on the radio, where the listener has to use their imagination, that makes it all the more dramatic and enjoyable.

Give a listen to this classic radio show this Halloween with the family.

Baby Boomer innovation continues to affect all things

Just because boomers are growing older doesn’t mean their affect on everything is diminishing. It’s not like the younger generations are going to have more impact, as their numbers just are not there. As boomer ideals and ideas changed culture from their previous generation as they became adults, so are they continuing to change what the words retirement, death and funeral mean.

There are many articles written about how the number of boomers will put unprecedented strains on our economy in the future, but one article from Reuters.com, the international multimedia news agency, is about how boomers will change how we have traditionally held funerals. In the article, Baby Boomers to inject new life into funeral industry, one boomer is planning her funeral pre-arrangement celebration. She does not want the typical somber and sad church funeral service. She is planning her favorite music to be played during event, as a celebration of her life.

Funeral companies have also felt the recession, as more and more people are requesting less expensive cremations. The funeral business should have no fears of a bleak future, as boomer numbers will more than compensate for this temporary loss of business. Just as Baby Boomers will find new meaning for the word funeral, with parties and life memory videos, etc., they will also become funeral business owners and will look at the future with that same innovation, if they are smart.

The video is from an innovative site called MemoryOf.com

an online memorial website.

A Seinfeld Reunion?

It's being billed as "It's not a reunion show, but it's the closest you'll get".


If you are a fan of the "Seinfeld" series, you will love HBO's, "Curb Your Enthusiasm", especially this year! Larry David co-created and co-wrote the Seinfeld episodes, that we all know and love as one of television's best comedies ever, with Jerry Seinfeld. 




Many fans of "Seinfeld" still watch the reruns every day and yet are not aware that Larry David was an integral, if not the key factor in that series. "Curb Your Enthusiasm" is now beginning its seventh season and has the exact same flavor of comedy that made us love "Seinfeld", with the exception being that it is on HBO, which allows it to have a mature audience theme. 
  
"Curb Your Enthusiasm" has a reality aspect, as it stars Larry David as himself, the co-creator and writer of "Seinfeld" who lives in L.A. and shows us his daily life, seen through the same twisted viewpoint that George, from Seinfeld would. The character, George Costanza, on Seinfeld was actually Larry David. 

David is one of the most genius comedians of our time, although he would be the first to laugh and run away from that comment. "Curb" will often make you squirm in your seat as it pushes certain aspects of life to uncomfortable levels, in ways that only Mr. David could. You will have to watch the show a few times to fully appreciate this.

"Curb" also has that same twist of events throughout each episode that intertwines each little occurrence and comes to a genius climactic moment of comedy at the end of the show. One example of this was in the episode "The Marine Biologist", where the golf ball obstructed the blow hole of the "great beast", or whale, as mentioned by George, followed by Kramer asking, "What, is that a Titleist?"



This year will be a great one to check out "Curb Your Enthusiasm" because of at least one episode titled, "It's not a reunion show, but it's the closest you'll get". All the actors of "Seinfeld" are coming to "Curb" to do a Seinfeld Reunion show, brought together by Larry David, but in reality, only on "Curb", so it isn't actually a typical and real reunion show.

Here is a "behind the scenes" clip of the reunion show:

Teachers RULE!!!

Let me start by saying that yes, I know.... I should have been a teacher. I was never motivated by parents or school counselors or any type of testing when I was in high school toward becoming a teacher. In fact, my counselors told my graduating class to forget teaching as there were too many others going into education. In other words, counselors at that time, thought that their job was to guide students toward whatever jobs were available in abundance, most like due to the population explosion of the Baby Boomers. They also did not think of inspiring students toward higher goals. On behalf of counselors of the day, they were probably not schooled to do otherwise, but that shouldn’t have precluded them from thinking out-of-the-box and inspiring students to seek out their passions and not just their abilities and follow that path toward a career, no matter what the job data told them.


I had one, or perhaps two teachers in my lifetime that looked for that light in a child’s eye, that spark of curiosity and quest for knowledge. We have all known that special teacher who was different from the rest. We have also heard how dire our education system is and compares to other countries in the world. There is much work to be done, but there is no taking from the fact that a teacher, which is defined as “someone who shows or explains to someone how to do something” in it’s most basic meaning of the word, is and should be treated as one of our country’s most precious resources. Teachers are not solely persons who make a product or even provide a service. Teachers are persons who dedicate most of their lives to inspiring and yes, teaching our children how to make our world a better place. Many times, teachers take the place of the job that is lacking from parents and family, as role models and mentors of how to respect one’s fellow man. Teachers have too long been thought of as a necessary source of preparing children for the work force. Educators are the source of what human beings possess over most other creatures of the Earth, and that is thought, ideas, and the why’s and how’s. Education and thinking are the only sources of enlightenment to keep us from our deepest and darkest fears, that if left unchecked, bring out the worst in humankind. We need teachers and we need to give them all the resources, funding and support that we can as they are our best hope for a world where humans can live together and respect and care for one another and for those with the most need.


The uneducated promote fear and anger. The educated embrace the unknown with curiosity and help their fellow beings toward a goal of the best state of civility and freedom.


Our world seems to be heading toward some type of major class separation or clash of the wealthy and powerful with the rest of the us, and all other creatures as well. Greed seems to have a clench on our world and is squeezing tighter than ever as a very small segment of humans want to hold on to as much of everything that they can, while the rest of humankind loses more and more. We must remember that greed is really an aspect of fear and ignorance, for as the few take the most, they find that they are in need of the many to survive. Intelligence through education and teaching will empower the many IF, we follow that path. Ignoring our most precious resource, teachers, will only empower us to serve.


As long as there are children like Dalton Sherman, who are inspired by teachers, hope for the best possible future for all of us will survive and endure. Watch Dalton Sherman, the 5th grader and keynote speaker for the Dallas Independent School Districts 2008 Back to School pep rally as he gave this speech in front of 20,000 students and educators. He is a great example of what teachers can inspire in a child.



Thank a teacher the next time you see one, or perhaps seek out a teacher you once knew and send him or her a note of "thanks" for their efforts and inspiration!