now let me tell you what this is
symbolic we set it up just this way 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 let you know
you were in the area of a volcano what
is it you feel oh I know I don’t 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
began to get kind of hot you know you’ve
heard the expression well I’m in hot
water have you ever heard that before
and that means that there’s something
that you’re in that some dilemma that
you’ve got to handle something that
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 was
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 and
the people are going in 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 saw am i right I
mean if you never saw him again it’d be
too soon I am I right so 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 see 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
saying 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
end six months to live
this disease would call a brain cloud he
believed it but you know something it
changed his life it changed his life and
so he was told look at you you know you
don’t have long to live anyhow the guy
said why don’t you do this I don’t 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 tear whoa 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
blog anyhow so why’d you take my credit
cards on Mike Rowe Mike’s American
Express master charge all take all them
go live like a king and die like a man
joe said okay what did he have to lose
he’s going to die Annie huh and his life
didn’t have any meaning and value to him
as it was so this was no big sacrifice
on Joe’s behalf now that says something
about us people human beings that when
you have not structured your life so
that it can have some
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 that does not
meet 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 see
they had in the concrete there was a
daisy growing up through the concrete
but people were so caught up in the
depression and the gloominess of life
they could even see the daisies lost
somebody just stepped on it one day they
couldn’t see the beauty in life see
that’s what can happen to you in life
that you can get so caught up in the
misery of it and the 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 life and quiet
desperation and miserable
I have friends in America years live in
two different rooms why would you live
like that I mean nezam don’t even talk
to each other grumbles oh I think I was
bullying me good morning miserable just
making each other miserable everyone
live like that people go to work like I
said why even sure I used to work with a
guy like that you couldn’t say good
morning to him before nine o’clock he
look around sit does he know me anybody
know me no you don’t talk to me before
nine o’clock I don’t play that all right
people like let me ever work with people
that are just grumps raise your hand
just
miserably show up come in complaining
every day the best day on the job is
all right so this is where Joe was so
this doctor told Joe hey man you got to
die with this 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 or the wherewithal or the
willpower to act in their own best
interests 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
interests 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 Quinn how even though life is done
you’re wrong somehow you still want to
live is that you never again find me
complaining about life about life has
given me a a short deal
I just want to live I take the apartment
just the crumbs buy anything I just I
just want to be there not good to let me
hobby all of a sudden this guy who
before from slopes corner Indiana never
really cared about life all of a sudden
now that he knew that his life was going
to be taken away for crime that he did
not commit he wanted to live it was it’s
a very passionate powerful monologue I
used to read that quite often and 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 all right
oh and I hit that note it just gives me
a chill but anyhow let many of us go
through life 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 him for a long time he say hey I
he wasn’t worried about rejection Joe
had his eyes on huh he said Lord as my
stuff what I see what I won’t be gone
but I ain’t dead yet he wanna live it
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
life take on some new meaning for some
new power and some 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 begin to look for
some lessons that you can learn from
where you are and what you’re going
through
see the volcano see when Joe 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 stopped to look fear in the
face you’re able to say to yourself I’ve
lived through this horror I can take the
next thing that comes alone you must do
the thing 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
depth 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
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 long-range
goals two to three years from now what
are your short range goes six months
goals and then I said if you have three
months to live what would you spend your
time doing so I wrote down and I would I
would spend my time I wouldn’t one thing
I would resign from the legislature I
would go and back to Miami and I’ll buy
my mother home something I promised
myself that I was going to do and I had
continued to procrastinate and put all
kind of reasons to 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
turned to next page and it says 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 spin
as much of your time doing that today so
I looked at mr. Verne life the speaker
the Ohio legislature and I said to the
guy on my right state representative
mike stanziano out of the Ohio State
district that’s ten Z 25 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 are 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 worked months to get this
legislation passed got it out of
subcommittee vote it to the major
committee then 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
autos people buy many orders taking that
it’s cash but what they did not know
that there’s no bond or insurance
security in the event that the money
auto company files bankruptcy and so
this company filed bankruptcy 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
votes lined up got raises and mr.
speaker mr. wife said yes so they likely
introduced amendment for mr. Brown’s
bill he said we will hear the amendment
he said 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 high
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 no Mr Speaker I
just think that he’s taking it a little
too far this is an honourable gesture of
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 money order
companies to provide for the protection
let’s have the vote and they had the
votes and I lost and I sell away this is
not why I came here and then all of a
sudden this job that at one point had
meaning to me and value and no longer
had that for me and all of us have had
some experiences where you went to a job
and you were excited about that job
what had so much promise and then you’ve
got they’re so much you want to do you
thought was an opportunity for upward
mobility and growth and development
expansion and all of a sudden after you
got there you found out it was nothing
but up glorified cubbyhole o grave with
no dirt on so if 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 my headache stop throbbing on
Sunday afternoon after the Sunday
afternoon football game a basketball
game I just hated to go to work some
days I just drive by just for nothing
just driving by I came back though I
came back because I had bills I came
back you know many of us stay in
relationships like it had friends
talking to she said she was so miserable
in her marriage that one day she went
home I said when did you get your
divorce number
she said les she’s that one 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 dropped to my knees she that had
to crawl in I had to crawl in the house
because it I just couldn’t she said I
knew then I had to get a divorce so that
was happen to Joe and Joe 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 had been doing that
for like 15 or 20 years and that’s that
was my specialty but because I was so
controversial and 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 send off my audition tapes
the other radio stations program
directors would hear it and they
wouldn’t bring me and I was a seasoned
veteran so you have that experience if
you
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 gonna 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 mean time in
between time I start focusing on my
flowers how I got into flowers see let’s
say when I was kid that an idle mind is
the devil’s workshop yeah that’s true
see if you don’t have anything on your
bad you know your mind can play okay
it’s over you know
see when I wasn’t busy sometimes I want
to call birch house and said where can I
get my job back my mind was saying well
if you all you had to just keep your
mouth shut now you heard him for running
your mouth walk walk walk walk walk why
don’t you just shut up they told you to
shut up Matt talk you’re gonna get fired
no you had to keep on target oh he go he
go you go now you’re unemployed what
about high you got your mouth too big
mouth you big stop beat myself up why
not shut up for you right you’re right
you know they’ve all you ever talk to
you separate here you know heard 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
him hello how are you today oh you’re
beautiful I want you to write people to
bring the flowers over to me the work
we’re dying and willing I would speak to
say rise those house straighten up like
that up that was phenomenal all right
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 real true 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 he’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
shake somebody’s hand on you write it up
now here’s something else fear of change
see the reason that I think the Joe
stand as long as he did
Joe fear change most people fear change
a lot of people stand jobs for their
miserable or send 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 change relationships
change jobs 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 Joe so Joe
was resisting change and as a result of
resisting change Joe made some
trade-offs see this psychiatrist talked
about the fact that 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 dying 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 Les
Brown go home go in your drawer pull out
your check stubs and see how much you’ve
sold 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 a week
I sold my soul for $300 a week when I
look at Joe ladies and gentlemen I know
that I’ve sold out her 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 if I sold my soul remember that
song 16 tongue what do you get another
day older and deeper in debt saying
Peter don’t you call me cuz I can’t go I
owe my soul to the company store oh no
last time my son Nupur car my hotel and
made a bomb threat no no that song is
depressingly it’s the gentleman that
many of us have sold our souls for home
in the suburbs or a brand new car or
three meals a day and a roof over our
heads
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’s
not going to agree with that there’s a
price to pay
am i right see what 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 stay in 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 more 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 volunteer not to be in charge
of our destiny we volunteer we willingly
do it if you’re gonna sell out don’t do
it
when we do it slowly let somebody have
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 it 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 through 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 the
doctors they looked at him examined him
from head to toe and said there’s
nothing physically wrong with him
get up John come on get up he couldn’t
get up
he stayed like that from months had to
take therapy see because there was
disease there was conflict in his body
many times when life calling on us to
change and to grow and to expand we said
no not here no no no no we resist that
so we can go back to that lifestyle of
mediocrity we resist that that change
that grow we go back so we can go back
to sleep
Winston Churchill said the truth is
incontrovertible malice may attack it
ignorance may derided but at the end
there is Carlisle said truth crushed to
earth shall rise again and we know
scriptures say ye shall know the truth
and truth shall set you free but the
truth that will set men free it’s the
truth that 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 need to get your
life together we don’t want to hear that
we want to talk about the circumstances
we’re going to talk about how bad things
are why we can’t do it so that’s where
Joe was
so what we have to do is decide to live
with integrity and our relationships and
the things that gives our lives some
meaning stop pretending and decided to
come real decide that we’re not going to
trade off because we don’t realize what we have in our hands
symbolic we set it up just this way 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 let you know
you were in the area of a volcano what
is it you feel oh I know I don’t 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
began to get kind of hot you know you’ve
heard the expression well I’m in hot
water have you ever heard that before
and that means that there’s something
that you’re in that some dilemma that
you’ve got to handle something that
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 was
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 and
the people are going in 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 saw am i right I
mean if you never saw him again it’d be
too soon I am I right so 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 see 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
saying 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
end six months to live
this disease would call a brain cloud he
believed it but you know something it
changed his life it changed his life and
so he was told look at you you know you
don’t have long to live anyhow the guy
said why don’t you do this I don’t 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 tear whoa 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
blog anyhow so why’d you take my credit
cards on Mike Rowe Mike’s American
Express master charge all take all them
go live like a king and die like a man
joe said okay what did he have to lose
he’s going to die Annie huh and his life
didn’t have any meaning and value to him
as it was so this was no big sacrifice
on Joe’s behalf now that says something
about us people human beings that when
you have not structured your life so
that it can have some
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 that does not
meet 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 see
they had in the concrete there was a
daisy growing up through the concrete
but people were so caught up in the
depression and the gloominess of life
they could even see the daisies lost
somebody just stepped on it one day they
couldn’t see the beauty in life see
that’s what can happen to you in life
that you can get so caught up in the
misery of it and the 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 life and quiet
desperation and miserable
I have friends in America years live in
two different rooms why would you live
like that I mean nezam don’t even talk
to each other grumbles oh I think I was
bullying me good morning miserable just
making each other miserable everyone
live like that people go to work like I
said why even sure I used to work with a
guy like that you couldn’t say good
morning to him before nine o’clock he
look around sit does he know me anybody
know me no you don’t talk to me before
nine o’clock I don’t play that all right
people like let me ever work with people
that are just grumps raise your hand
just
miserably show up come in complaining
every day the best day on the job is
all right so this is where Joe was so
this doctor told Joe hey man you got to
die with this 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 or the wherewithal or the
willpower to act in their own best
interests 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
interests 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 Quinn how even though life is done
you’re wrong somehow you still want to
live is that you never again find me
complaining about life about life has
given me a a short deal
I just want to live I take the apartment
just the crumbs buy anything I just I
just want to be there not good to let me
hobby all of a sudden this guy who
before from slopes corner Indiana never
really cared about life all of a sudden
now that he knew that his life was going
to be taken away for crime that he did
not commit he wanted to live it was it’s
a very passionate powerful monologue I
used to read that quite often and 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 all right
oh and I hit that note it just gives me
a chill but anyhow let many of us go
through life 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 him for a long time he say hey I
he wasn’t worried about rejection Joe
had his eyes on huh he said Lord as my
stuff what I see what I won’t be gone
but I ain’t dead yet he wanna live it
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
life take on some new meaning for some
new power and some 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 begin to look for
some lessons that you can learn from
where you are and what you’re going
through
see the volcano see when Joe 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 stopped to look fear in the
face you’re able to say to yourself I’ve
lived through this horror I can take the
next thing that comes alone you must do
the thing 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
depth 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
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 long-range
goals two to three years from now what
are your short range goes six months
goals and then I said if you have three
months to live what would you spend your
time doing so I wrote down and I would I
would spend my time I wouldn’t one thing
I would resign from the legislature I
would go and back to Miami and I’ll buy
my mother home something I promised
myself that I was going to do and I had
continued to procrastinate and put all
kind of reasons to 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
turned to next page and it says 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 spin
as much of your time doing that today so
I looked at mr. Verne life the speaker
the Ohio legislature and I said to the
guy on my right state representative
mike stanziano out of the Ohio State
district that’s ten Z 25 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 are 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 worked months to get this
legislation passed got it out of
subcommittee vote it to the major
committee then 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
autos people buy many orders taking that
it’s cash but what they did not know
that there’s no bond or insurance
security in the event that the money
auto company files bankruptcy and so
this company filed bankruptcy 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
votes lined up got raises and mr.
speaker mr. wife said yes so they likely
introduced amendment for mr. Brown’s
bill he said we will hear the amendment
he said 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 high
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 no Mr Speaker I
just think that he’s taking it a little
too far this is an honourable gesture of
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 money order
companies to provide for the protection
let’s have the vote and they had the
votes and I lost and I sell away this is
not why I came here and then all of a
sudden this job that at one point had
meaning to me and value and no longer
had that for me and all of us have had
some experiences where you went to a job
and you were excited about that job
what had so much promise and then you’ve
got they’re so much you want to do you
thought was an opportunity for upward
mobility and growth and development
expansion and all of a sudden after you
got there you found out it was nothing
but up glorified cubbyhole o grave with
no dirt on so if 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 my headache stop throbbing on
Sunday afternoon after the Sunday
afternoon football game a basketball
game I just hated to go to work some
days I just drive by just for nothing
just driving by I came back though I
came back because I had bills I came
back you know many of us stay in
relationships like it had friends
talking to she said she was so miserable
in her marriage that one day she went
home I said when did you get your
divorce number
she said les she’s that one 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 dropped to my knees she that had
to crawl in I had to crawl in the house
because it I just couldn’t she said I
knew then I had to get a divorce so that
was happen to Joe and Joe 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 had been doing that
for like 15 or 20 years and that’s that
was my specialty but because I was so
controversial and 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 send off my audition tapes
the other radio stations program
directors would hear it and they
wouldn’t bring me and I was a seasoned
veteran so you have that experience if
you
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 gonna 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 mean time in
between time I start focusing on my
flowers how I got into flowers see let’s
say when I was kid that an idle mind is
the devil’s workshop yeah that’s true
see if you don’t have anything on your
bad you know your mind can play okay
it’s over you know
see when I wasn’t busy sometimes I want
to call birch house and said where can I
get my job back my mind was saying well
if you all you had to just keep your
mouth shut now you heard him for running
your mouth walk walk walk walk walk why
don’t you just shut up they told you to
shut up Matt talk you’re gonna get fired
no you had to keep on target oh he go he
go you go now you’re unemployed what
about high you got your mouth too big
mouth you big stop beat myself up why
not shut up for you right you’re right
you know they’ve all you ever talk to
you separate here you know heard 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
him hello how are you today oh you’re
beautiful I want you to write people to
bring the flowers over to me the work
we’re dying and willing I would speak to
say rise those house straighten up like
that up that was phenomenal all right
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 real true 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 he’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
shake somebody’s hand on you write it up
now here’s something else fear of change
see the reason that I think the Joe
stand as long as he did
Joe fear change most people fear change
a lot of people stand jobs for their
miserable or send 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 change relationships
change jobs 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 Joe so Joe
was resisting change and as a result of
resisting change Joe made some
trade-offs see this psychiatrist talked
about the fact that 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 dying 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 Les
Brown go home go in your drawer pull out
your check stubs and see how much you’ve
sold 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 a week
I sold my soul for $300 a week when I
look at Joe ladies and gentlemen I know
that I’ve sold out her 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 if I sold my soul remember that
song 16 tongue what do you get another
day older and deeper in debt saying
Peter don’t you call me cuz I can’t go I
owe my soul to the company store oh no
last time my son Nupur car my hotel and
made a bomb threat no no that song is
depressingly it’s the gentleman that
many of us have sold our souls for home
in the suburbs or a brand new car or
three meals a day and a roof over our
heads
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’s
not going to agree with that there’s a
price to pay
am i right see what 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 stay in 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 more 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 volunteer not to be in charge
of our destiny we volunteer we willingly
do it if you’re gonna sell out don’t do
it
when we do it slowly let somebody have
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 it 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 through 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 the
doctors they looked at him examined him
from head to toe and said there’s
nothing physically wrong with him
get up John come on get up he couldn’t
get up
he stayed like that from months had to
take therapy see because there was
disease there was conflict in his body
many times when life calling on us to
change and to grow and to expand we said
no not here no no no no we resist that
so we can go back to that lifestyle of
mediocrity we resist that that change
that grow we go back so we can go back
to sleep
Winston Churchill said the truth is
incontrovertible malice may attack it
ignorance may derided but at the end
there is Carlisle said truth crushed to
earth shall rise again and we know
scriptures say ye shall know the truth
and truth shall set you free but the
truth that will set men free it’s the
truth that 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 need to get your
life together we don’t want to hear that
we want to talk about the circumstances
we’re going to talk about how bad things
are why we can’t do it so that’s where
Joe was
so what we have to do is decide to live
with integrity and our relationships and
the things that gives our lives some
meaning stop pretending and decided to
come real decide that we’re not going to
trade off because we don’t realize what we have in our hands
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