Look Who's Talking

On Friday morning, October 17, 2008, Jeannette Walls, author of THE GLASS CASTLE, spoke at the Tulsa Town Hall 74th Season 2008-2009 Lecture Series, and received a standing ovation. The Tulsa audience is a conservative bunch, and they absolutely adored her. The attraction to someone who has overcome adversity and gone on to be a winner is irresistable to this part of the country.

Then on Friday morning, December 5, 2008, Tina Brown, author of THE DIANA CHRONICLES, spoke on the topic of "The Culture of Celebrity in the Tabloid Era," in regard to the paparazzi and the death of Princess Diana. Ms. Brown knew Princess Diana personally, and gave a first class lecture (speaking the King's English, I might add) regarding the events of Diana's life, from childhood, when her mother left the family, to the time of Diana's death in the infamous car wreck in Paris, while being pursued by the paparazzi. Tina Brown received a long round of applause, and it was evident that this audience truly loved Princess Diana and will always remember her and her work, as well as the work of Tina Brown herself, who has a new web site at www.thedaily beast.com, keeping up with current events on the national and international scene today.

The next lecture in the series will be on March 13, 2009, with Rick Steves speaking about "Europe Through the Back Door." I have been intrigued by the Europeans as a teenager, so will attend this event also. Then on May 15, 2009, the speaker David Lampton will give a presentation on "Chinese Power and What It Means to America." With the economy in disarray at this time, it behooves us to discover how other countries are continuing to manage during this global economic crisis.

There was a minister years ago, Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong from Pasadena, California, who had mentioned that there would someday be a global economic and financial collapse that would be worldwide. I believe we are entering that phase at this time. Let me just quote an article in the Tulsa World newspaper on page E4 of the Thursday, December 4, 2008 issue: "Deep Economic Downturns Just Natural Cycle."

According to this article, "there have been 9 depressions spaced about 60 years apart, since the 16th century. The waves in the United States have been 57, 54, and 53 years apart with the depression of 1836-43, 1893-97, and 1929-42, according to a recent report in The Wall Street Journal."

It goes on to state, "So here we are 66 years later with the predictable economic crisis." Here is what I have learned when working in the commercial real estate business as a secretary before going into the Medical Transcriptionist field. A lady business executive who was my boss, Donna, once advised me that "there are booms and there are busts." When it is a boom time, you have to get prepared for the time when there is going to be a bust. What goes up will eventually come down, and a balanced person will be prepared for both the ups and down of the economy.

Now why have our younger generations not been taught that information, in order to be more prepared for the economic times ahead? Nevertheless, it is still necessary to keep things rolling, and to continue to work and persevere. The entire world is facing this crisis, not just the United States, and we will see which countries pull out of it and excel, and which ones will stagnate if unable to rise back up out of the mire of the collapse that is obviously in the future for the entire globe. Let us continue to move forward as we face this challenge in our futures, but let us also look much further ahead so that we can be prepared to be more competitive on the international world scene. It is urgent that we look at the big picture now, rather than our own little small-town views of what we think the world is all about.

The "Get Motivated" Seminar

On Monday, September 22, 2008, (the first day of autumn), it was a privilege to attend the "GET MOTIVATED!" seminar at the new BOK Center in downtown Tulsa. There were 3 speakers who had already given their presentations before 9:30 a.m., so they hit the ground running! The most influential speakers were not all famous, but they all gave excellent demonstrations of their knowledge and beliefs. The ones who were the most well-known included retired General Colin Powell (who spoke in the morning), and then for the afternoon, included the motivational speaker Zig Ziglar, the minister Dr. Robert Schuller, the football star Joe Montana, and for the last speaker of the afternoon,the former mayor of New York City, Rudy Guilliani.

This seminar was one of the best events I have attended in all my years of living in northeastern Oklahoma. When I left that day walking along the streets of downtown Tulsa among groups of other pedestrians, I did leave the event with thoughts of what my hopes and plans were in the future, and Yes! a spring in my step, and a feeling of motivation! Add to that the fact that the BOK Center is fabulous, and can hold a huge number of people all in one colliseum. The rumors floated that this one event was attended by approximately 18,000 people. The seats were full in all 3 balconies of the stadium.

Several of the speakers made it clear during their presentations that even though the economy has gone sour at this time and times are hard, we should look for the positives in life, and find ways to use this downturn to our advantage in some way, which will be a win-win situation for everyone we are dealing at this point in our lives. America is still a great country in which to live, and there is still a lot of opportunity out there.

It was a wonderful event, and for any of you who might wish to attend this event in the future in your area, you may go to the web site of "www.getmotivated.com" and find out more information regarding where the next "Get Motivated!" seminar is to be held. It can help change a life, make a person stop and think about exactly what their dreams, hopes and plans are, what one is planning to accomplish, and how to do so in the future.

At the present time, I am working my way through the recent book by Wayne Dwyer, CHANGE YOUR THOUGHTS, CHANGE YOUR LIFE (Living the Wisdom of the Tao). This is based on the moral and spiritual guidance from the thoughts of Lao-tzu in ancient China 500 years before the birth of Christ. For any information on Dr. Dwyer's teachings, his web site is at www.DrWayneDwyer.com.

The latest WRITERS DIGEST magazine, December 2008 edition, contains an article, "E-Books Rise Again" and discusses the future potential of digital books (E-Books) which are once again on the upswing. For any of those readers who are interested in publishing a book, and do not think they will break into the publishing industry very easily, consider an E-Book as a possible method. My opportunity came when the Tulsa World newspaper ran a story about Ebookomatic and I proceeded to www.ebookomatic.com, and was able to find an answer to my dilemma. There are other E-Book companies that will also help you with your project of becoming published. So do not limit yourself or become discouraged due to the fact that you have not been discovered by a huge publishing company or an editor or agent just yet.

Once again, thank you for those friends who read this blog. May you have health, wealth, and the time to enjoy it.