Madonna’s Balls

Everyone struggles with time management. We all have too much to do and not enough time in which to do it. Believe it or not, one of the best pieces of advice I ever got about how to deal with it all was from Madonna.

Several years ago the NARAS magazine interviewed Madonna. She had a lot of projects she was working on at the time on from films, a new production company, recording her own records and touring along with I think a clothing line or something of that sort. She clearly was juggling quite a bit. So NARAS asked her, how do you keep all those balls in the air? She said she didn’t. She just makes sure to remember where she drops them so that when she has the time she can pick them up again.

This answer is brilliant. I love that it is so very matter of fact. Here is one of the most powerful entertainers in the world saying it’s ok if you drop something. The important thing is to remember what you dropped and where you dropped it so you can get back to it when you have the time. What a rational approach to a very common problem. So consider this a big shout out to Madonna and the way she handles her balls.

Just Because

a typical image from Wind From Nowhere

I was asked in an interview the other day on Inside the Atheists Studio about what some of my favorite blogs were. I was totally unprepared for the question.  It’s not like I don’t have my favorites, I just had a total brain freeze at the question. To make up for it, here is a list of some of the blogs I follow in alphabetical order, because that’s just how I roll.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

HASSNERS - Humanist Atheist Scientific Secularist Naturalistic Evoluntary Rationalist Skeptics. Caution - this is a British blog. LOL

Humanist Weddings in Scotland - who doesn’t like to read a good love story now and then.

JoachimWorld - from my friend Joachim de Posada - he’s a Humanist and motivational speaker living in Puerto Rico - posts are in English though.

Letters from A Broad - written by an ex-Mormon atheist mom living in France. I also like the play on words in her title.

Little Bit Quirky - written by my friend Cheryl about raising her high functioning Asperger daughter.

Nabeel A Khan - he is a journalist and Humanist writing from Dehli India.

Unscripted - doesn’t fit in a box - always interesting and often thought provoking.

Wind from Nowhere - mostly graphics - but always cool.

Love. Love. Love.

I once had a crazy sociology professor in college. He was fired the semester after I took him. Not because he was unable to refute a claim of bestiality made by Wally George. Nor was it because he came in one day wanting to know if any of us had seen his heroin dealer. He wasn’t even fired because he told us all we weren’t going to heaven because there were only 144,000 spots in it and the little old lady down the street who had never done anything wrong just got spot 143,999. Nope, he was fired because one day he had us chant “f*ck” for 20 minutes. I have to admit, that was a little weird.

Anyway, I loved that class. It was one of the most thought provoking classes I ever took. Our professor would start each day off with a question and depending on how the class answered, he would play devil’s advocate by challenging the majority view. One day the question was - is it better to be loved or to be in love. The majority answered that it was better to be loved. As usual, I was in the minority. I have always felt it is better to be in love.

First, being in love feels great! Seriously, there is nothing that can compare to the feeling of loving another person. But the real reason that being in love is better is because being loved by others isn’t going to help you love yourself.

I realize that many people think having someone else love them will make them feel better about themselves. But it won’t. In order to love yourself, you need to LOVE! The onus is on you. No amount of outside approval will substitute.

The way to learn how to love yourself is by learning to love others. And since love begets love, there is an endless supply; you can love as many people as your heart will allow you to. And the more you love, the more you will love yourself. It is as simple as that. Love is all you need.

Imagine

No song better expresses the feelings of Humanists then John Lennon's Imagine. So powerful is this song, that despite it's heretical lyrics, people of all faiths will gladly sing this at the top of their lungs in unison.  As it's the 70th anniversary of John Lennon's birth, I thought I would share it here.  Imagine.