the reason that we are here this evening
to talk about Joe versus the volcano and
so what I wanted you to do was to really
experience this now what is it when
you’re near a volcano that’s that’s
boiling over and about to explode what
is it that you feel that lets you know
you were in the area of a volcano what
is it you feel oh I know I do you feel
heat right so you’re going to experience
this volcano because we have things in
our lives ladies and gentlemen and
because we don’t handle them because we
don’t deal with those things they begin
to get kind of hot you know you’ve heard
the expression for I’m in hot water have
you ever heard that before and that
means that there’s something that you in
that some dilemma that you’ve got to
handle something you’ve got to deal with
so let’s begin to look at this guy
called Joe versus the volcano and let’s
see what’s in it for us I took the
liberty of changing some things to
enable them to be symbolic for us and
Tom Hanks plays his role and for those
of you that have not seen the movie it’s
about a guy who were going to work every
day it was very depressing I mean when
you see it I mean the photography is
very dingy looking and gray and very dim
lighting and the people are going and
looking drab doing the same old thing
every day in the same hallway some of
you work with people like that their
faces that you wish you never ever
thought about right I mean if you never
saw him again it’d be too soon I am I
right I’ve gone right now this is what
was going on this guy was going into
this job where it was a dead-end job he
wasn’t happy he was miserable and many
of us can identify with that he knew
that he was capable of doing more but he
had really given up on himself he had
really sold himself out yeah some of us
have done that he made a trade off for
whatever reason he decided to do this is
why we can identify with and the volcano
is symbolic of the challenges that we
invariably face in life the problems
that many of us run away from handling
and he had to handle this and how did he
come in contact with this volcano well
what happened was he was going to this
doctor constantly he’s a hypochondriac
because he wasn’t living his purpose his
dream had not found his life work he
would create illnesses for himself and
so what happened in the process this
doctor decided he set him up really when
you’re not living your goal you go
through life living like a victim if
people can set you up for anything they
can run any kind of game on you and you
go for it I had a thing when I was in
radio stand-up what you believe in
because you can fall for anything well
Joe didn’t believe in very much
including himself in his dream see so he
was very vulnerable and so Joe was set
up by this doctor this doctor told him
that he had a rare disease in the edge
six months to live
this disease was called a brain cloud
Uncle Joe went boy he believed it but
you know something it changed his life
it changed his life and so he was so
look at you you know you don’t have long
to live anyhow the guy said why don’t
you do this I’ll give you all my credit
cards in this way you can live like a
king and there’s something I want you to
do live the catch there’s a volcano on
an island that’s about to erupt and and
unless somebody jumps in that volcano
sacrificed their life these people on
this island will perish well your life
isn’t worth much as you don’t have that
low guilty huh so why don’t you take my
credit card while Mike remarks American
Express master charge all take all them
go live like a king and die like a man
joe said okay what do you have to lose
he’s going to die any huh and if I can
have any meaning and value to it as it
was so this was no big sacrifice on
Joe’s behalf now that said something
about up people human beings that when
you have not structured your life so
that it can have some meaning and value
for you that you’ll be willing to throw
your life away into anything see the
volcano could be alcohol it could be
drugs it could be a job
it does not mean who you are that you go
through life you’re doing it so long you
you’re operating in this and you’re
acting out that role of mediocrity for
so long you think it’s you it could be a
relationship that’s no longer giving you
what you want and creating disease in
your body it could be any kind of
circumstance like in his work
environment it was toxic it wasn’t good
for him but he didn’t have the guts to
do anything about it to act on it so
therefore it was making him miserable
and as a result he couldn’t see the
beauty of life in fact in the movie they
had in the concrete that was a daisy
growing up through the concrete but
people were so caught up in the
depression in the gloominess of life
they could even see the daisy when
somebody just stepped on it one day it
couldn’t see the beauty in life so
that’s what can happen to your life that
you can get so caught up in the misery
of it pain and the sickness and the
depression and playing a victim and
blaming everybody and everything rather
than taking responsibility it will blind
you from seeing the stuff out there
that’s really beautiful that’s what
Henry David Thoreau meant when he said
that most people go through like a quiet
desperation a miserable I have friends
in America years live in two different
rooms why would you do them like that
how many men don’t even talk to each
other grumble oh I think I was fooling
me good morning miserable just making
each other miserable everybody live like
that people gonna work like that’s a way
even sure I need to work with a guy like
that you couldn’t say good morning to
him before nine o’clock he lacrosse it
does you know me anybody know me no you
don’t talk to me before nine o’clock I
don’t play that all right oh is that the
people like let me ever work with people
that are just grumps raise your hands
just miserable I show up come and
complaining every day the best day on
the job is when they’re absent
am i right
so this is where Joe was so this doctor
told Joe hangman you got to dive with
his brain cloud you know something all
of Joe’s other illnesses left Joe
decided to live Joe decided to live his
life now that is interesting
a psychiatrist did a study and he was
talking about how his patients reacted
when they got information that they were
going to die immediately he said that
many of these patients that had gone
through years of therapy that should
have been making decisions about their
careers about their marriage or about
their circumstances and somehow another
they were stuck and didn’t have the
personal power the wherewithal or the
willpower to act in their own best
interest but when they were told listen
you’ve got three months to live
or you got six months to live all of a
sudden these people who were initially
victims or powerless all of a sudden
they started acting in their own best
interest they started living their lives
and it’s amazing to me that that what a
paradox that once people are told
they’re going to die all of a sudden
they start seeing the daisies in life
they start seeing the beauty in life I
remember it’s a monologue and it’s
called the last mile and so it’s a
monologue about a guy who was sentenced
to die in the electric chair for a crime
that he did not commit and he was
pleading to the jury to understand his
case and I remember one of the parts of
the monologue where this guy talking to
the jury and talking to himself and
going the whole gamut of emotion and I
remember something he said that struck
me right now he said you know he said
it’s Queeny how even though life is done
you’re wrong somehow you still want to
live if it you never get find me
complaining about life about life has
given me a a short deal no I just want
to live I take the apartment as the
crown
by anything I just I just want to bin
they’re not going to let me hobby all of
a second this guy who before from slow
corner Indiana never really care about
life all of a sudden now that he knew
that his life was going to be taken away
for a crime that he did not commit he
wanted to live it was a very passionate
powerful monologue I used to read that
quite often you study that so what is it
that we can begin to do do we have to
get a pronouncement that we only have
six months to live in order to decide to
live in order to live in a spirit of
integrity see most of us go through life
living a lie the platters had a song oh
yes I’m the great pretender what a
beautiful voice oh don’t fade it’s okay
it’s alright so now I hit that note it
just gives me a chill but anyhow let
many of us don’t like being great
pretenders we should get an Academy
Award pretending that we’re happy
pretending that we’re content pretending
that everything’s happy and gay and
carried away and that’s not the way that
it is going to life feeling that we
can’t do anything about our situation
like Joe did but when they told Joe he
was going to die Joe became a new person
went back to work and young lady he’d
been want to talk to for long time he’s
a I want to take you up he wasn’t
worried about rejection Joe had his eyes
on huh if they Lord as myself what I see
what I won’t oh just now I might be gone
but I ain’t dead yet he was a livable
living you hear me I like that Joe don’t
lose that don’t lose that alright so so
here’s what I think that we can begin to
do to live our dreams
to begin to let light take onto new
meaning for some new powers the new
value is to begin to look for the
daisies in your life right now where you
are regardless of what’s happening to
you regardless of what’s going on with
you begin
to look for some beauty in it began to
look for some lessons that you can learn
from where you are and what you’re going
through see the volcano see when Joel
jumped into the volcano and he
eventually did that with a young lady
that fell in love with him they were
thrown out of the volcano and they
survived think about that now see I
think that when you decide to take a
leap and you handle the challenges that
you’re facing with something about fear
that’s one of the things that keeps us
from beginning to live life here’s what
happened
this guy John Rogers wrote they say when
people take the courage to journey into
the center of their fear they find
nothing
it is only many layers of fear being
afraid of itself and Eleanor Roosevelt
said you gain strength courage and
confidence by every experience in which
you really start to look fear in the
face
you able to say to yourself I’d live
through this how I can take the next
thing that comes alone you must do the
things you cannot do see that’s what the
volcano is it is the thing that we
cannot do and because it is that we must
do that once fear is acted upon the
death of fear is certain to what volcano
you have in your life let me ask you
some questions here if you had six
months to live what would you do
differently with your life what would
you do differently would you have the
same job
would you be worried about things that
you worried about right now would you
have the same relationships would you
have the same people in your life I was
sitting on the house of the Ohio
legislative floor
I just been elected for the third time
as a chairman of the human resource
committee powerful prestigious position
and I was reading a book on how to
manage your time in your life and it
talked about what are your lone wage
goes two to three years from now what
are your short range goals six months
goals minute sets if you have three
months to live what would you spend your
time doing several done I would I would
spend my time I wouldn’t one thing I was
resigned from the legislature I would go
and back to Miami now by my mother home
something I’d promised myself that I was
going to do and I had continued to
procrastinate and put all kind of
reasons why I couldn’t do it and you
know I want to make sure that she was
financially secure my children would be
financially secure and I would do
lectures and I would go around talking
to people and working with kids that’s
what I said I would do then it turns the
next page and said for all you know you
don’t have three months to live you
might die today so whatever you wrote on
the last page you want to spend as much
of your time doing that today so I
looked at mr. Byrne right the Speaker of
the Ohio legislature and I said to the
guy on my right state representative
mike Cynthiana out of the Ohio State
district as its tensley twenty five
years from now who would care what
legislation we passed he said nobody
would care one year from now
now here’s what was happening with me I
came to the Ohio legislature with great
expectations there things I wanted to do
I want to make a change in society I
wanted to make an impact but I was just
disillusioned after being there for a
while I introduced some legislation that
I’d work to get this legislation passed
got it out of subcommittee vote it to
the major committee and went from there
to the reference committee and then they
introduced it on the Ohio legislative
floor
and this legislation was designed to
provide protection for senior citizens
and for people who bought money orders
people buy many orders thinking that
it’s cash but what they did not know
that there is no bond or insurance
security in the event that the money
order company files bankruptcy and so
this company filed bankrupt and just
left a lot of people just holding
worthless paper so I wanted to introduce
some legislation so that senior citizens
would not be victims of this anymore
after months of hard work after
introducing the bill and having the
boats lined up God raises and Mr Speaker
this right said yes they likely
introduced amendment for mr. Brown’s
bill he said we will hear the amendment
because I like to amend it and change
the word shell to me as excuse me mr.
speaker may I speak please yes I said
ladies and gentlemen of a higher
legislature this legislation is not
something we wanted to make it optional
to provide protection for high ones and
senior citizens we want to make it
mandatory
and then this guy said nah Mr Speaker I
just think that he’s taking it a little
too far this is an honorable gesturing
on behalf of the state but he’s taking
it too far let’s make it optional and
leave it up to the goodwill of these
buddy auto companies to provide for the
protection let’s have the boat and they
had the votes and I lost and I smell
wait wait this is not a lackey knee and
then all of a sudden this job that at
one point had meaning to me and value in
the longer hair that form and all of us
have had some experiences where you went
to a job and you were excited about that
job boy it had so much promise and then
you got there so much you wanted to do
you barbers an opportunity for upward
mobility and growth and development
expansion and all of a sudden after you
got that you found out it was nothing
but a glorified cubby hole o grade with
no dirt on so it became very depressing
going to work and so that’s what
happened to this guy Joe and a lot of us
have done that before I used to get my
headache stop throbbing on Sunday
afternoon after the Sunday afternoon
football game a basketball game
I just hated to go to work some things I
just drive by just with nothing just
driving by I came back though I came
back because I had bills I came back you
know we never stay in relationships I
can have friends talking to she said she
was so miserable in her marriage but one
day she went home I said where did you
get your divorce number two she said
left she’s a twin won’t put the key in
the door and she said I couldn’t go in
she said I was so depressed had so much
pain in my body she said I couldn’t just
walk in she said I drop to my knees you
had to crawl in I had to crawl in the
house because it I just couldn’t she
said I knew Ben I had to get at the ball
so that was happened to Joe and you
decided to act on that so what can we do
well here’s what we can do wherever you
are decide that that you’re going to
focus your time I lost my job in
broadcasting and it was a major blow to
me because broadcasting was all that I
had that’s all that I knew I’d been
doing that for like 15 or 20 years and
that’s that was my specialty but because
I was so controversial we couldn’t keep
my mouth closed I lost my job you know
and so it was a depressing time for me
and I could not find a job immediately
no one would hire me locally and because
I was good and I would spin off my
audition tapes the other radio stations
program directors wouldn’t hear it and
they wouldn’t bring me and I was a
seasoned veteran so you have that
experience if you’re real good
many people will perceive you as a
threat and they won’t hire you because
they want somebody that they can control
and they don’t want anybody in there
that’s going to outshine them see
sometimes being good can be a liability
to you am i right sometimes women have
to scale down their ambitions and drive
it what they can do in deference to
man’s ego
so what I did was in the meantime in
between time I stopped focusing on my
flowers I got into flowers see they say
when I was kid that an idle mind is the
devil’s workshop
that’s true see if you don’t have
anything on your bed you know your mind
Cleo guys kick so do you though
see when I wasn’t busy sometimes I want
to call birch house and sit where could
I get my job back
my mind was busy why you all you had you
just keep your mouth yet now you hooded
foot running your mouth what
why don’t you
just get up they told you to shut up man
coke you don’t get I know you had to
keep on talking Oh ego ego ego now you
want to pause what about high you
because you’re about to be bout to be
stopped beat myself up why not shut up
for you right you’re right
you know they’ve all you ever talk to
you separate hey no one’s Howard ever
talk is that so I just kept busy I start
working on flowers I got it really into
flowers I knew my flower had names for
my flowers grow real good I talked to
hello how are you today
oh you’re beautiful I want you to write
people to bring the flowers over to me
well we’re dying and willing I would
speak to say rise those powers
straighten up like that oh that was
phenomenal alright then the other thing
is I did a lot of volunteer work I’d go
to a hospital not to read the Bible to
people and I would go to friends whose
parents perhaps were ill or facing a
challenge not talk to them I became
involved in all kind of community
volunteerism so I’m saying that if
you’re going through a challenge not
that you’ve been laid off but the
universe has given you an opportunity to
find your will to making on the planet
then use that time wisely volunteer give
yourself away my high school teacher
Charles L Williams said something I love
he said love and happiness are like
perfumes
you can’t sprinkle it on others without
getting a few drops on yourself it’s not
beautiful see what you give is what what
you get all right repeat after me please
I’m going to give my life away
because what you get is what you get
take somebody’s hand on your right
enough of this share some half now
here’s something else
fear of change see the reason that I
think but Joe say that long as he did
Joe fear change most people fear change
a lot of people stand jobs where they’re
miserable or say in relationships where
they’re miserable sometimes in order to
begin to see the day’s is in life you’ve
got to be willing to change cities
change friends Chay’s relationships
change job say after while you get bored
doing the same old thing in the same old
way day in and day out
human beings were designed to achieve
and when you are not on a path of
developing your greatness and growing
and being more productive and being more
effective than your life literally
becomes depressing just like joke so Joe
was resisting change and as a result of
resisting change Joe made some
trade-offs see the psychiatrist talked
about the fact but these people who had
been on his couch for months and years
not being able to make decisions about
things but when they found out that they
were done they got up and start making
all kinds of decisions they decided no
longer to sell out and you know what
happened to me when I lost my job you
know what I think it was what life said
to me more or less Les Brown you know
you can do more than what you’re not
doing Les Brown you have sold out
let’s brown go home go in your drawer
pull out your check dubs and see how
much you know your soul for see one of
the things that got me about the movie
is what Joe said to his boss after the
doctor told him he was going to die he
went back to work and he confronted him
he said because I was afraid too afraid
to live my life I sold it to you for 300
dollars a week I sold my soul for $300 a
week when I look at yo ladies and
gentlemen I know that I’m so loud for
myself at different points in my life
and when you go home and you look at if
your life is not what you want it to be
if you’re not living the way that you
want to live if you’re not experiencing
what you want to experience if it’s not
giving you what you want you’ve got to
ask yourself what have I sold my soul
for remember that song
16 times what do you get another day
older and deeper in debt saying Peter
don’t you call me because I can’t go oh
my soul to the company store oh no this
is not Luther Vandross tonight no last
time I saw Cooper call my hotel and made
a bomb threat no no that song is
depressingly he’s a gentleman but many
of us have sold our souls for home in
the suburbs or brand-new car or three
meals a day and a roof over our head or
because we want to be popular with our
friends see when you decide to make a
change it’s challenging but there going
to be some resistance everybody is not
going to agree with that there’s a price
to pay
am i right see when I had to think about
getting a divorce it was time for me to
grow and sometimes you stay in a
situation too long many times you say
well I need to do it for the kids well
see staying there too long can be
harmful to the kids that a friend of
mine who finally got a divorce after
agonizing it she said I stayed there as
long as I did for the kids she said but
if I had it to do over again I would
have left sooner because it wasn’t
healthy for them and it wasn’t healthy
for me many of us saying jobs where it’s
no longer good for us to be there but
because we can’t see ourselves having
the capacity to do more to achieve war
and can’t see life after that job we
stayed there as victims volunteer
victims because nobody’s making us do it
we volunteer to be victims we’ve
fear not to be in charge of our destiny
we volunteer we willingly do it if you
know fella don’t do it in a hurry do it
slowly let somebody who come and have to
take it from you don’t just give it up
willingly and that’s what you had done
think about a guy who he had everything
going for went to Harvard became a
lawyer joined a large prestigious law
firm merit the perfect life had children
and guess what
he was going through the motions day in
and day out but it wasn’t giving him
what he wanted out of life he was going
for an act he was acting on a roll and
one day he couldn’t get out of bed he
was just there in bed couldn’t get up
paralyzed they got to doctors they
looked at him examined him from head to
toe is that there’s nothing physically
wrong with him get up John come on get
up he couldn’t get up
he stayed like that from us had to take
therapy see because there was this ease
there was conflict in his body many
times when life calling on us to change
it to grow and to expand we said no not
over here that no no no no we resist
that so we can go back to that lifestyle
of mediocrity we resisted that changed
that goal we go back so we can go back
to sleep
Winston Churchill said the truth is
incontrovertible malice mere tacit
ignorance made you ride it but at the
end there is Carlisle’s the truth
questionnaire shall rise again we know
Scripture – you shall know the truth and
truth shall set you free
but the truth that will set men free is
the truth men don’t want to hear so we
don’t want to hear you got to change you
got to take responsibility for your
stuff
you got to clean your act up you are not
your act you’re going to get your life
together we don’t to hear that
you
to talk about Joe versus the volcano and
so what I wanted you to do was to really
experience this now what is it when
you’re near a volcano that’s that’s
boiling over and about to explode what
is it that you feel that lets you know
you were in the area of a volcano what
is it you feel oh I know I do you feel
heat right so you’re going to experience
this volcano because we have things in
our lives ladies and gentlemen and
because we don’t handle them because we
don’t deal with those things they begin
to get kind of hot you know you’ve heard
the expression for I’m in hot water have
you ever heard that before and that
means that there’s something that you in
that some dilemma that you’ve got to
handle something you’ve got to deal with
so let’s begin to look at this guy
called Joe versus the volcano and let’s
see what’s in it for us I took the
liberty of changing some things to
enable them to be symbolic for us and
Tom Hanks plays his role and for those
of you that have not seen the movie it’s
about a guy who were going to work every
day it was very depressing I mean when
you see it I mean the photography is
very dingy looking and gray and very dim
lighting and the people are going and
looking drab doing the same old thing
every day in the same hallway some of
you work with people like that their
faces that you wish you never ever
thought about right I mean if you never
saw him again it’d be too soon I am I
right I’ve gone right now this is what
was going on this guy was going into
this job where it was a dead-end job he
wasn’t happy he was miserable and many
of us can identify with that he knew
that he was capable of doing more but he
had really given up on himself he had
really sold himself out yeah some of us
have done that he made a trade off for
whatever reason he decided to do this is
why we can identify with and the volcano
is symbolic of the challenges that we
invariably face in life the problems
that many of us run away from handling
and he had to handle this and how did he
come in contact with this volcano well
what happened was he was going to this
doctor constantly he’s a hypochondriac
because he wasn’t living his purpose his
dream had not found his life work he
would create illnesses for himself and
so what happened in the process this
doctor decided he set him up really when
you’re not living your goal you go
through life living like a victim if
people can set you up for anything they
can run any kind of game on you and you
go for it I had a thing when I was in
radio stand-up what you believe in
because you can fall for anything well
Joe didn’t believe in very much
including himself in his dream see so he
was very vulnerable and so Joe was set
up by this doctor this doctor told him
that he had a rare disease in the edge
six months to live
this disease was called a brain cloud
Uncle Joe went boy he believed it but
you know something it changed his life
it changed his life and so he was so
look at you you know you don’t have long
to live anyhow the guy said why don’t
you do this I’ll give you all my credit
cards in this way you can live like a
king and there’s something I want you to
do live the catch there’s a volcano on
an island that’s about to erupt and and
unless somebody jumps in that volcano
sacrificed their life these people on
this island will perish well your life
isn’t worth much as you don’t have that
low guilty huh so why don’t you take my
credit card while Mike remarks American
Express master charge all take all them
go live like a king and die like a man
joe said okay what do you have to lose
he’s going to die any huh and if I can
have any meaning and value to it as it
was so this was no big sacrifice on
Joe’s behalf now that said something
about up people human beings that when
you have not structured your life so
that it can have some meaning and value
for you that you’ll be willing to throw
your life away into anything see the
volcano could be alcohol it could be
drugs it could be a job
it does not mean who you are that you go
through life you’re doing it so long you
you’re operating in this and you’re
acting out that role of mediocrity for
so long you think it’s you it could be a
relationship that’s no longer giving you
what you want and creating disease in
your body it could be any kind of
circumstance like in his work
environment it was toxic it wasn’t good
for him but he didn’t have the guts to
do anything about it to act on it so
therefore it was making him miserable
and as a result he couldn’t see the
beauty of life in fact in the movie they
had in the concrete that was a daisy
growing up through the concrete but
people were so caught up in the
depression in the gloominess of life
they could even see the daisy when
somebody just stepped on it one day it
couldn’t see the beauty in life so
that’s what can happen to your life that
you can get so caught up in the misery
of it pain and the sickness and the
depression and playing a victim and
blaming everybody and everything rather
than taking responsibility it will blind
you from seeing the stuff out there
that’s really beautiful that’s what
Henry David Thoreau meant when he said
that most people go through like a quiet
desperation a miserable I have friends
in America years live in two different
rooms why would you do them like that
how many men don’t even talk to each
other grumble oh I think I was fooling
me good morning miserable just making
each other miserable everybody live like
that people gonna work like that’s a way
even sure I need to work with a guy like
that you couldn’t say good morning to
him before nine o’clock he lacrosse it
does you know me anybody know me no you
don’t talk to me before nine o’clock I
don’t play that all right oh is that the
people like let me ever work with people
that are just grumps raise your hands
just miserable I show up come and
complaining every day the best day on
the job is when they’re absent
am i right
so this is where Joe was so this doctor
told Joe hangman you got to dive with
his brain cloud you know something all
of Joe’s other illnesses left Joe
decided to live Joe decided to live his
life now that is interesting
a psychiatrist did a study and he was
talking about how his patients reacted
when they got information that they were
going to die immediately he said that
many of these patients that had gone
through years of therapy that should
have been making decisions about their
careers about their marriage or about
their circumstances and somehow another
they were stuck and didn’t have the
personal power the wherewithal or the
willpower to act in their own best
interest but when they were told listen
you’ve got three months to live
or you got six months to live all of a
sudden these people who were initially
victims or powerless all of a sudden
they started acting in their own best
interest they started living their lives
and it’s amazing to me that that what a
paradox that once people are told
they’re going to die all of a sudden
they start seeing the daisies in life
they start seeing the beauty in life I
remember it’s a monologue and it’s
called the last mile and so it’s a
monologue about a guy who was sentenced
to die in the electric chair for a crime
that he did not commit and he was
pleading to the jury to understand his
case and I remember one of the parts of
the monologue where this guy talking to
the jury and talking to himself and
going the whole gamut of emotion and I
remember something he said that struck
me right now he said you know he said
it’s Queeny how even though life is done
you’re wrong somehow you still want to
live if it you never get find me
complaining about life about life has
given me a a short deal no I just want
to live I take the apartment as the
crown
by anything I just I just want to bin
they’re not going to let me hobby all of
a second this guy who before from slow
corner Indiana never really care about
life all of a sudden now that he knew
that his life was going to be taken away
for a crime that he did not commit he
wanted to live it was a very passionate
powerful monologue I used to read that
quite often you study that so what is it
that we can begin to do do we have to
get a pronouncement that we only have
six months to live in order to decide to
live in order to live in a spirit of
integrity see most of us go through life
living a lie the platters had a song oh
yes I’m the great pretender what a
beautiful voice oh don’t fade it’s okay
it’s alright so now I hit that note it
just gives me a chill but anyhow let
many of us don’t like being great
pretenders we should get an Academy
Award pretending that we’re happy
pretending that we’re content pretending
that everything’s happy and gay and
carried away and that’s not the way that
it is going to life feeling that we
can’t do anything about our situation
like Joe did but when they told Joe he
was going to die Joe became a new person
went back to work and young lady he’d
been want to talk to for long time he’s
a I want to take you up he wasn’t
worried about rejection Joe had his eyes
on huh if they Lord as myself what I see
what I won’t oh just now I might be gone
but I ain’t dead yet he was a livable
living you hear me I like that Joe don’t
lose that don’t lose that alright so so
here’s what I think that we can begin to
do to live our dreams
to begin to let light take onto new
meaning for some new powers the new
value is to begin to look for the
daisies in your life right now where you
are regardless of what’s happening to
you regardless of what’s going on with
you begin
to look for some beauty in it began to
look for some lessons that you can learn
from where you are and what you’re going
through see the volcano see when Joel
jumped into the volcano and he
eventually did that with a young lady
that fell in love with him they were
thrown out of the volcano and they
survived think about that now see I
think that when you decide to take a
leap and you handle the challenges that
you’re facing with something about fear
that’s one of the things that keeps us
from beginning to live life here’s what
happened
this guy John Rogers wrote they say when
people take the courage to journey into
the center of their fear they find
nothing
it is only many layers of fear being
afraid of itself and Eleanor Roosevelt
said you gain strength courage and
confidence by every experience in which
you really start to look fear in the
face
you able to say to yourself I’d live
through this how I can take the next
thing that comes alone you must do the
things you cannot do see that’s what the
volcano is it is the thing that we
cannot do and because it is that we must
do that once fear is acted upon the
death of fear is certain to what volcano
you have in your life let me ask you
some questions here if you had six
months to live what would you do
differently with your life what would
you do differently would you have the
same job
would you be worried about things that
you worried about right now would you
have the same relationships would you
have the same people in your life I was
sitting on the house of the Ohio
legislative floor
I just been elected for the third time
as a chairman of the human resource
committee powerful prestigious position
and I was reading a book on how to
manage your time in your life and it
talked about what are your lone wage
goes two to three years from now what
are your short range goals six months
goals minute sets if you have three
months to live what would you spend your
time doing several done I would I would
spend my time I wouldn’t one thing I was
resigned from the legislature I would go
and back to Miami now by my mother home
something I’d promised myself that I was
going to do and I had continued to
procrastinate and put all kind of
reasons why I couldn’t do it and you
know I want to make sure that she was
financially secure my children would be
financially secure and I would do
lectures and I would go around talking
to people and working with kids that’s
what I said I would do then it turns the
next page and said for all you know you
don’t have three months to live you
might die today so whatever you wrote on
the last page you want to spend as much
of your time doing that today so I
looked at mr. Byrne right the Speaker of
the Ohio legislature and I said to the
guy on my right state representative
mike Cynthiana out of the Ohio State
district as its tensley twenty five
years from now who would care what
legislation we passed he said nobody
would care one year from now
now here’s what was happening with me I
came to the Ohio legislature with great
expectations there things I wanted to do
I want to make a change in society I
wanted to make an impact but I was just
disillusioned after being there for a
while I introduced some legislation that
I’d work to get this legislation passed
got it out of subcommittee vote it to
the major committee and went from there
to the reference committee and then they
introduced it on the Ohio legislative
floor
and this legislation was designed to
provide protection for senior citizens
and for people who bought money orders
people buy many orders thinking that
it’s cash but what they did not know
that there is no bond or insurance
security in the event that the money
order company files bankruptcy and so
this company filed bankrupt and just
left a lot of people just holding
worthless paper so I wanted to introduce
some legislation so that senior citizens
would not be victims of this anymore
after months of hard work after
introducing the bill and having the
boats lined up God raises and Mr Speaker
this right said yes they likely
introduced amendment for mr. Brown’s
bill he said we will hear the amendment
because I like to amend it and change
the word shell to me as excuse me mr.
speaker may I speak please yes I said
ladies and gentlemen of a higher
legislature this legislation is not
something we wanted to make it optional
to provide protection for high ones and
senior citizens we want to make it
mandatory
and then this guy said nah Mr Speaker I
just think that he’s taking it a little
too far this is an honorable gesturing
on behalf of the state but he’s taking
it too far let’s make it optional and
leave it up to the goodwill of these
buddy auto companies to provide for the
protection let’s have the boat and they
had the votes and I lost and I smell
wait wait this is not a lackey knee and
then all of a sudden this job that at
one point had meaning to me and value in
the longer hair that form and all of us
have had some experiences where you went
to a job and you were excited about that
job boy it had so much promise and then
you got there so much you wanted to do
you barbers an opportunity for upward
mobility and growth and development
expansion and all of a sudden after you
got that you found out it was nothing
but a glorified cubby hole o grade with
no dirt on so it became very depressing
going to work and so that’s what
happened to this guy Joe and a lot of us
have done that before I used to get my
headache stop throbbing on Sunday
afternoon after the Sunday afternoon
football game a basketball game
I just hated to go to work some things I
just drive by just with nothing just
driving by I came back though I came
back because I had bills I came back you
know we never stay in relationships I
can have friends talking to she said she
was so miserable in her marriage but one
day she went home I said where did you
get your divorce number two she said
left she’s a twin won’t put the key in
the door and she said I couldn’t go in
she said I was so depressed had so much
pain in my body she said I couldn’t just
walk in she said I drop to my knees you
had to crawl in I had to crawl in the
house because it I just couldn’t she
said I knew Ben I had to get at the ball
so that was happened to Joe and you
decided to act on that so what can we do
well here’s what we can do wherever you
are decide that that you’re going to
focus your time I lost my job in
broadcasting and it was a major blow to
me because broadcasting was all that I
had that’s all that I knew I’d been
doing that for like 15 or 20 years and
that’s that was my specialty but because
I was so controversial we couldn’t keep
my mouth closed I lost my job you know
and so it was a depressing time for me
and I could not find a job immediately
no one would hire me locally and because
I was good and I would spin off my
audition tapes the other radio stations
program directors wouldn’t hear it and
they wouldn’t bring me and I was a
seasoned veteran so you have that
experience if you’re real good
many people will perceive you as a
threat and they won’t hire you because
they want somebody that they can control
and they don’t want anybody in there
that’s going to outshine them see
sometimes being good can be a liability
to you am i right sometimes women have
to scale down their ambitions and drive
it what they can do in deference to
man’s ego
so what I did was in the meantime in
between time I stopped focusing on my
flowers I got into flowers see they say
when I was kid that an idle mind is the
devil’s workshop
that’s true see if you don’t have
anything on your bed you know your mind
Cleo guys kick so do you though
see when I wasn’t busy sometimes I want
to call birch house and sit where could
I get my job back
my mind was busy why you all you had you
just keep your mouth yet now you hooded
foot running your mouth what
why don’t you
just get up they told you to shut up man
coke you don’t get I know you had to
keep on talking Oh ego ego ego now you
want to pause what about high you
because you’re about to be bout to be
stopped beat myself up why not shut up
for you right you’re right
you know they’ve all you ever talk to
you separate hey no one’s Howard ever
talk is that so I just kept busy I start
working on flowers I got it really into
flowers I knew my flower had names for
my flowers grow real good I talked to
hello how are you today
oh you’re beautiful I want you to write
people to bring the flowers over to me
well we’re dying and willing I would
speak to say rise those powers
straighten up like that oh that was
phenomenal alright then the other thing
is I did a lot of volunteer work I’d go
to a hospital not to read the Bible to
people and I would go to friends whose
parents perhaps were ill or facing a
challenge not talk to them I became
involved in all kind of community
volunteerism so I’m saying that if
you’re going through a challenge not
that you’ve been laid off but the
universe has given you an opportunity to
find your will to making on the planet
then use that time wisely volunteer give
yourself away my high school teacher
Charles L Williams said something I love
he said love and happiness are like
perfumes
you can’t sprinkle it on others without
getting a few drops on yourself it’s not
beautiful see what you give is what what
you get all right repeat after me please
I’m going to give my life away
because what you get is what you get
take somebody’s hand on your right
enough of this share some half now
here’s something else
fear of change see the reason that I
think but Joe say that long as he did
Joe fear change most people fear change
a lot of people stand jobs where they’re
miserable or say in relationships where
they’re miserable sometimes in order to
begin to see the day’s is in life you’ve
got to be willing to change cities
change friends Chay’s relationships
change job say after while you get bored
doing the same old thing in the same old
way day in and day out
human beings were designed to achieve
and when you are not on a path of
developing your greatness and growing
and being more productive and being more
effective than your life literally
becomes depressing just like joke so Joe
was resisting change and as a result of
resisting change Joe made some
trade-offs see the psychiatrist talked
about the fact but these people who had
been on his couch for months and years
not being able to make decisions about
things but when they found out that they
were done they got up and start making
all kinds of decisions they decided no
longer to sell out and you know what
happened to me when I lost my job you
know what I think it was what life said
to me more or less Les Brown you know
you can do more than what you’re not
doing Les Brown you have sold out
let’s brown go home go in your drawer
pull out your check dubs and see how
much you know your soul for see one of
the things that got me about the movie
is what Joe said to his boss after the
doctor told him he was going to die he
went back to work and he confronted him
he said because I was afraid too afraid
to live my life I sold it to you for 300
dollars a week I sold my soul for $300 a
week when I look at yo ladies and
gentlemen I know that I’m so loud for
myself at different points in my life
and when you go home and you look at if
your life is not what you want it to be
if you’re not living the way that you
want to live if you’re not experiencing
what you want to experience if it’s not
giving you what you want you’ve got to
ask yourself what have I sold my soul
for remember that song
16 times what do you get another day
older and deeper in debt saying Peter
don’t you call me because I can’t go oh
my soul to the company store oh no this
is not Luther Vandross tonight no last
time I saw Cooper call my hotel and made
a bomb threat no no that song is
depressingly he’s a gentleman but many
of us have sold our souls for home in
the suburbs or brand-new car or three
meals a day and a roof over our head or
because we want to be popular with our
friends see when you decide to make a
change it’s challenging but there going
to be some resistance everybody is not
going to agree with that there’s a price
to pay
am i right see when I had to think about
getting a divorce it was time for me to
grow and sometimes you stay in a
situation too long many times you say
well I need to do it for the kids well
see staying there too long can be
harmful to the kids that a friend of
mine who finally got a divorce after
agonizing it she said I stayed there as
long as I did for the kids she said but
if I had it to do over again I would
have left sooner because it wasn’t
healthy for them and it wasn’t healthy
for me many of us saying jobs where it’s
no longer good for us to be there but
because we can’t see ourselves having
the capacity to do more to achieve war
and can’t see life after that job we
stayed there as victims volunteer
victims because nobody’s making us do it
we volunteer to be victims we’ve
fear not to be in charge of our destiny
we volunteer we willingly do it if you
know fella don’t do it in a hurry do it
slowly let somebody who come and have to
take it from you don’t just give it up
willingly and that’s what you had done
think about a guy who he had everything
going for went to Harvard became a
lawyer joined a large prestigious law
firm merit the perfect life had children
and guess what
he was going through the motions day in
and day out but it wasn’t giving him
what he wanted out of life he was going
for an act he was acting on a roll and
one day he couldn’t get out of bed he
was just there in bed couldn’t get up
paralyzed they got to doctors they
looked at him examined him from head to
toe is that there’s nothing physically
wrong with him get up John come on get
up he couldn’t get up
he stayed like that from us had to take
therapy see because there was this ease
there was conflict in his body many
times when life calling on us to change
it to grow and to expand we said no not
over here that no no no no we resist
that so we can go back to that lifestyle
of mediocrity we resisted that changed
that goal we go back so we can go back
to sleep
Winston Churchill said the truth is
incontrovertible malice mere tacit
ignorance made you ride it but at the
end there is Carlisle’s the truth
questionnaire shall rise again we know
Scripture – you shall know the truth and
truth shall set you free
but the truth that will set men free is
the truth men don’t want to hear so we
don’t want to hear you got to change you
got to take responsibility for your
stuff
you got to clean your act up you are not
your act you’re going to get your life
together we don’t to hear that
you
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