Jump in with both feet!

When in doubt, punt.  That’s what I’ve heard most of my life from people who use it as a rationalization for not taking a chance.  I suppose if you are considering whether or not you should invest in a particular stock and you just can’t decide, the safest answer would be to not do anything that might possibly mess up your status quo.  Punt, as in let somebody else who is braver than me try.

For a long time, that was how I felt when it came to deciding about life changes.  I didn’t like my life the way it was but I was too scared to take a chance to try to change it.  I am 57 years old, but in my mind I am 27.  Oddly enough, it was in the younger years that I was such a chicken.  As I’ve aged I’ve gotten braver.  Like Smashmouth sings, “You'll never know if you don’t go.  You’ll never shine if you don’t glow.”  So I’ve learned to take a few chances with my life.

The biggest chance I took was when I decided to move from my miserable comfort of Arkansas to Denver, Colorado.  I knew I was about to leave my family and everyone and everything I knew behind to take a chance on love and a better life.  The thing that made me sure was one Sunday morning in Sunday school;  my teacher was telling us about how difficult it was for the Apostle Paul to carry the gospel to the gentiles in Macedonia.  He was afraid to go and leave everything behind.  My teacher, though, was trying to show us that God had opened the door for Paul and told him to go.  The next moment I will never forget.  At that time I was contemplating on whether to leave home or not.  She was teaching along and then suddenly turned to look me straight in the eye and said, “When God opens a door for you, you had better go through it.” Then she paused momentarily as if she was allowing me time to drink it all in.  She had no idea what I was wrestling with that day and I had not let on to anyone that I was considering it. 

I went home and prayed about it.  I knew that God had sent me a message telling me to go.  So I did.  I have found a love like I never knew in Denver and we are very happily married.  I also was able to attend school and find a job in the field that I trained for, and now, just this day, I have finished writing the book that I have been after myself for my entire life to write.  I know that God has sent me here for a reason, just as he did Paul.  He was giving me a chance to do something better with my life and I took it.  I’ve been able to testify too many people here that would not normally go to church.  I’ve seen His message spread to others who were not being reached by normal means.  I’m not blowing my own horn.  I’m just giving credit where it is due and that is to God. 

“I’m tired of pretending like I’m not special” ....Charlie Sheen

I just finished watching the Charlie Sheen interview that was conducted by Jeff Rossen on the Today show.    If you would like to see it I've embedded it here.  

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It is obvious that they didn’t show the entire interview.  There must have been so much laughing in the editing room that they just couldn’t take it anymore.  However, Jeff Rossen did say at the end of the clip that there would be more to come.  First, let me give credit where credit is due.  Jeff Rossen did a good job in conducting the interview.  The parts that are so funny is how Charlie Sheen thinks he is head and shoulders above everyone else.  Mr. Rossen (who for the rest of this blog I will refer to as Jeff) asked Charlie Sheen (who for the rest of this blog I will refer to as Charlie the Tuna) about his demand for a raise to come back to the show “Two and a Half Men.”  Charlie the Tuna made no bones about it in saying that he demands 3 million dollars per episode to come back.   Jeff just looked at him with shock and disbelief and replied, “So you want a raise?”  He then said, “You’re making 2 million per episode now” obviously hoping that Charlie the Tuna would realize that the whole world thinks he is already overpaid.  But Charlie the Tuna didn’t pick up on that and was still trying to sell his point that He had so much star quality that Starkist (CBS) would have to take him back on his terms and his terms were a ridiculous 3 million dollars per episode.  After all, Charlie, you even said so yourself, “It’s not rocket science.”  Any number of actors could play the part that you play.  But then again he may have a point.  He is special.  Just play the interview all the way to the end and listen to him expose himself.  The last thing you hear from Charlie the Tuna is the question, “What are the 3 chambers of my heart?”  Therein lies the answer to it all.  Charlie the Tuna is special, as in rides the short bus.  Obviously, Charlie didn’t pay attention in school because most kids in school know that there are really 4 chambers to the heart.   Maybe you are right, Charlie.  A normal brain can’t understand you and the reason is a normal brain gets plenty of oxygen delivered by the blood.  Maybe your brain, on the other hand, gets more alcohol and drugs than it does oxygen.  I hope that CBS keeps the show without   Charlie the Tuna.  Just write the character out of the show and bring in someone who wants it.   It would still be a big hit.  Sorry Charlie.