If not you, then who?

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we
are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant,
gorgeous, talented and fabulous?
Actually, who are you NOT to be?
You are a child of God. Your playing
small doesn’t serve the world.

As we are liberated from our own fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.”

Nelson Mandela-1994 Inaugural Speech

Following my first operation, I shrank. I did as I was told. I was terrified everyone would leave me to flounder, and quite frankly, as fabulous as I am, I couldn't afford that. I was bald. I couldn't walk well. I couldn't hold my head up. My mother was there every moment. My daddy strapped a brace on my ankle.

I was a little hardheaded prior, but with Dr. Bogaev's titanium, that increased exponentially. Best wishes, Mr. Kennedy.

Today, I'm hardheaded and my head is up, with my eyes straight ahead.

I resolve that 2008 is the Year of Action.

The living room floor is getting wood laminate. The patio's getting French doors. The kitchen's getting painted.

Tonight, I raked the yard. When I was a kid, I was a good raker. There are a lot of trees in the yard back home, and raking was plentiful yearround, from hot, mushy crabapples to crispy, autumnal majesty.

During my efforts in raking this evening, in my front yard in Texas, fireants found me. Through my CROCS. There are no fireants in North Dakota.

TEAM PATCH Coming Soon!

As I furiously clean the house on Saturdays, I enjoy the noise of the television or a good custom mix tape. This morning, after all of the home improvement Make-Yourself-Feel-Bad-About-Not-Being-Able-To-Renovate-In-Thirty-Minutes-Television was over, some program about looking ten years younger began. So now, people can go back to their early twenties and elect whether to make those same mistakes.

Life is Round.

State Bank & Trust in Fargo, ND, gave each full time employee a thousand bucks, and each part-timer, five hundred, to Pay It Forward. This was on top of their Christmas bonuses. I think that is wonderful.

Some people sneer that those folks will probably just pay their heating bills.

I believe there are going to be a lot of Random Acts of Kindness out there soon. I know there are rules in place. After all, with great power, comes great responsibility.

I love it. I just love it.

How else can we change the world?