in your book you you quote George
Bernard Shaw mm-hmm and say you haven’t
overcome the fear of death until you
delight in your own life believing it to
be carrying out the universal purpose
that is my favorite quote of all quotes
of all time so to start with a simple
question what is the universal purpose
well it defines it pretty well that
won’t you read that again yep
you haven’t overcome the fear of death
until you delight in your own life until
you delight in your own life believe it
believing it to be a part of carrying
out the universal purpose and the
universal purpose is loving one another
is understanding that we are all my
bumper sticker reads just another
version of you that’s why the
documentary they did on my life was
that’s the title of my bumper sticker
because we are versions of one another
and you know I think understanding that
truly understanding that it ends racism
[Applause]
I’m thinking of that that universal
purpose and and delight your own life I
read that you experienced joy in waking
each day thinking of the coffee you’re
gonna have and this is what Mihaly
Csikszentmihalyi had once identified as
a key to successful and creative life I
was thinking about that I loved your
talk by the way and thank you for that
but as you were talking I was thinking
about something I wish to convey and
that would be I don’t wake up to be an
old man I wake up for all kinds of
reasons I have coffee I love the taste
of coffee anymore
as you just mentioned where my kids are
around I can’t wait to see their faces
my wife sleeps a bit later than I do so
and I wake up to go to work one day at a
time is on the air it’s doing well I
want to tell you about another show
that’s taking me something like 35 years
to do will interest this crowd in this
conversation a good deal I wanted to do
a show 35 or so years ago about aging
and about the elderly and so forth
everybody over 55 or 60 and the other
way I thought I could get it done at the
time what I was led to believe I can get
it done was animation so I did I still
have I couldn’t we sure could have run
it this morning a six-minute film that
took my title was till the fat lady
sings and Kirk Douglas was in it his
voice he was a little character in a
wheelchair who only had one thing to say
and anytime that little wheelchair and
he was saying he said you ever have a
stroke that came off of his just having
had a stroke is that per stroke and
bancroft her voice anyway it was just it
was I loved it couldn’t sell it
seven years ago I tried it again not
animated but a live show and this title
is ask me the title
yes who dies but guess who died two
weeks ago NBC said let’s do it just
click slow hi the director casting
director we’re just getting started
and it will be a retirement village
where people are still running around in
golf carts visiting each other where
there was plenty of stuff going on and
and anybody in America could be on the
phone with an uncle or an aunt like that
part of it I just got the biggest kick
out of when I wrote this particular
script the Tsugumi and I had a firm idea
how old it is Charlie Sheen was in all
that trouble Charlie Sheen wasn’t and I
thought oh my god it just was on the air
now he’d have an uncle that he was
calling for some advice right off the
headlines so I couldn’t be more excited
about just who died
[Laughter]
we’re all looking forward to it you want
to know yes ever I’m looking for a shed
for a 75 76 year old Jew oh we got a
volunteer already yes yeah there may be
a few you know you know it’s interesting
you you always surprised me and that’s
that’s another thing that she sent me
how he associated with creativity was
one of his recommendations was to
surprise someone every day and to
surprise yourself every day and I just
wonder it struck me reading some of your
own autobiographical material that was
true for you and I wonder you can tell
us what surprise to you today and and
what else you gonna do you already
surprised us at least once but well it’s
surprised I think it’s great to think
about surprises I’m not saying that I’ll
think about it more now but here’s a
surprise that I think are blossom the
fact of this moment is I just did this
it took me every split second of my life
95 years some months some weeks some
days some minutes hours to do this and I
just did it again
and I’m gonna do it again it took me the
rest of my life to do that so I think
about and it took every split second of
your lives to get to see me do this
there’s that you can’t contradict that
that so you know what are those
statements we don’t think enough about
that’s 1000% it’s all together true that
all of you are here by the way the
reason you got up this morning was
because I got a the reason I get up this
morning is because each of you got up
this one you know we were gonna be at
this moment so living in the way you
know I I often think of two little words
that we don’t honor enough over and next
something’s over it’s over
we’re always on to next and if there was
a hammock in the middle that would be
what we cook the best definitely not the
definition I would have for the
expression living in the moment and you
know it cost us all a little bit more my
life to get to this split second but
well worth it and there’s so many great
examples your book I get to experience
this I think it really amplifies that
that ideal of being in the present
living for and enjoying what is loving
what it loving would if it’s really an
amazing thing but I have some questions
that come from I’m a neuropsychologist
you know yes and I read also that in
your book your family legend includes
that your mother dropped you on your
head in the sink when you were three
months old I want to know what how you
think that influenced your brain develop
she grabbed me this by the way it was is
a story that you know one of those
family stories that everybody laughed at
every few years or every you know
whenever the hell that story was told
but my my little love telling it
everybody always laughed and I always
ask the same questions I was a couple of
months old she was washing me in a scent
in the sink in a kitchen sink and and
she dropped me and she ran for help and
as often as I over the years maybe the
first 20 years I never it was a laugh
then I started to think about it at age
thirty or something and I would ask her
often mom you dropped me in the sink and
you ran for help she said yes so I
wasn’t gonna leave you there
why didn’t you pick me up I got I ran
for help I could never I called by the
way I called her I the head of the
National Academy of Television Arts and
Sciences was a good friend many years
ago and he called me on a Sunday and
said you know we were met all day
yesterday the board and decided we were
gonna start a Hall of Fame Norman I just
have to tell you these are the inductees
of the first Hall of Fame of the the
Academy David Sarnoff who invented NBC
William Paley did CBS Edward our Murrow
the greatest of the foreign
correspondents paddy Chayefsky I think
the best writer that ever came out of
China
Lucille Boyle Milton Berle and you me
well my mother
it’s I called my mother in Bridgeport
Connecticut Wow listen to this starting
a Hall of Fame I just got the call these
are the inductees and I breathily love
it and me she says listen if that’s what
they want to do Who am I to say
[Laughter]
and I can’t I can’t let it go while
we’re on the topic of good mothering and
there’s a message out there for all the
mothers but can you tell us about the
the letters that you wrote when you were
flying missions their son is off flying
52 missions over war-torn Europe during
World War two
sends beautiful love letters he
described them as to your mother sure
when I came back she said she showed me
these letters I couldn’t get over I
looked at several of them and they were
love letters I couldn’t believe how
loving they were and I don’t feel that
way about her because we were not close
we I she never told me she cared about
me except when other people around and
she couldn’t stop anyway but that’s that
story I’m not forever
I adore her for it Oh what was I started
to say yeah but those what did she do
with those love letters oh I don’t know
several years later I was visiting her
again in Bridgeport I said mom I’d love
to have those letters she said I showed
them to you sweetheart
anyway she had destroyed that she had
thrown and unbelievable and take me make
a little bit more serious you know some
of those kinds of enough you call them
adversity or formative moments you know
your dad also you described as a
wrathful in a kind way but you described
a moment that you said you realized
something about the foolishness of the
human condition
my father spurred you on I thought it
was flying to Oklahoma when I was nine
years old
was saying Herman I don’t like those men
she didn’t want him to work with these
men whoever the hell they were and he
flew to Oklahoma he was gonna bring it
that maybe the fascination with the
hatch he was gonna bring me back a
10-gallon hat from Oklahoma well when I
was 9 years old
if a plane came along you know in the
sky very really we kids were running
down the street yelling Lindy Lindy
Lindy it had only been 8 or 9 years
since Lindbergh flew and my father was
going to Oklahoma that’s a big deal
he was arrested when he got off the
plane coming home what he had been
trying to do was sell or what it is
about to do was sell some fake bonds and
he served three years in prison
two days after or a day after my dad was
arrested there were three or four
editions of the Boston Globe where are
you going sir what have I said to her
friend stop that man
[Laughter]
so there were newspapers lying around
with a headline and he was he was a the
Hat was over his face and it was manacle
to her detective coming down the steps
of the courthouse and my mother was
selling the furniture because she was
ashamed maybe we couldn’t afford to stay
there I don’t know but she was selling
the furniture there was a crowd of
people I didn’t know and there was one
guy about to buy my father’s red leather
chair
my father’s rather the chair was holy
ground to me because we used to listen
to the fights together Madison Square
Garden nine or ten o’clock on Friday
nights always he used to come home and
listen to The Lone Ranger in that chair
it was so this guy is buying that chair
and he and he sees me standing there
clenching my fist is a roll of paper
Norman Emily or Norman Emiliano and my
mother was going to sew and to show
clothes I was going to take to camp I I
had never been to camp I was going to
camp and I did of course didn’t get to
go but I’m standing there in that
condition he’s buying the red leather
chair puts his hand on my shoulder and
says no you’re the man house now and
somehow as young as I was I understood
what a clown what a fool and that I
later called the foolishness of the
human condition
from that moment on I mean I understood
there wasn’t a moment as tragic as any
one could be any one moment that didn’t
have something
because of what I call the foolish it
starts with the amount of holes in our
body
[Laughter]
[Applause]
Bernard Shaw mm-hmm and say you haven’t
overcome the fear of death until you
delight in your own life believing it to
be carrying out the universal purpose
that is my favorite quote of all quotes
of all time so to start with a simple
question what is the universal purpose
well it defines it pretty well that
won’t you read that again yep
you haven’t overcome the fear of death
until you delight in your own life until
you delight in your own life believe it
believing it to be a part of carrying
out the universal purpose and the
universal purpose is loving one another
is understanding that we are all my
bumper sticker reads just another
version of you that’s why the
documentary they did on my life was
that’s the title of my bumper sticker
because we are versions of one another
and you know I think understanding that
truly understanding that it ends racism
[Applause]
I’m thinking of that that universal
purpose and and delight your own life I
read that you experienced joy in waking
each day thinking of the coffee you’re
gonna have and this is what Mihaly
Csikszentmihalyi had once identified as
a key to successful and creative life I
was thinking about that I loved your
talk by the way and thank you for that
but as you were talking I was thinking
about something I wish to convey and
that would be I don’t wake up to be an
old man I wake up for all kinds of
reasons I have coffee I love the taste
of coffee anymore
as you just mentioned where my kids are
around I can’t wait to see their faces
my wife sleeps a bit later than I do so
and I wake up to go to work one day at a
time is on the air it’s doing well I
want to tell you about another show
that’s taking me something like 35 years
to do will interest this crowd in this
conversation a good deal I wanted to do
a show 35 or so years ago about aging
and about the elderly and so forth
everybody over 55 or 60 and the other
way I thought I could get it done at the
time what I was led to believe I can get
it done was animation so I did I still
have I couldn’t we sure could have run
it this morning a six-minute film that
took my title was till the fat lady
sings and Kirk Douglas was in it his
voice he was a little character in a
wheelchair who only had one thing to say
and anytime that little wheelchair and
he was saying he said you ever have a
stroke that came off of his just having
had a stroke is that per stroke and
bancroft her voice anyway it was just it
was I loved it couldn’t sell it
seven years ago I tried it again not
animated but a live show and this title
is ask me the title
yes who dies but guess who died two
weeks ago NBC said let’s do it just
click slow hi the director casting
director we’re just getting started
and it will be a retirement village
where people are still running around in
golf carts visiting each other where
there was plenty of stuff going on and
and anybody in America could be on the
phone with an uncle or an aunt like that
part of it I just got the biggest kick
out of when I wrote this particular
script the Tsugumi and I had a firm idea
how old it is Charlie Sheen was in all
that trouble Charlie Sheen wasn’t and I
thought oh my god it just was on the air
now he’d have an uncle that he was
calling for some advice right off the
headlines so I couldn’t be more excited
about just who died
[Laughter]
we’re all looking forward to it you want
to know yes ever I’m looking for a shed
for a 75 76 year old Jew oh we got a
volunteer already yes yeah there may be
a few you know you know it’s interesting
you you always surprised me and that’s
that’s another thing that she sent me
how he associated with creativity was
one of his recommendations was to
surprise someone every day and to
surprise yourself every day and I just
wonder it struck me reading some of your
own autobiographical material that was
true for you and I wonder you can tell
us what surprise to you today and and
what else you gonna do you already
surprised us at least once but well it’s
surprised I think it’s great to think
about surprises I’m not saying that I’ll
think about it more now but here’s a
surprise that I think are blossom the
fact of this moment is I just did this
it took me every split second of my life
95 years some months some weeks some
days some minutes hours to do this and I
just did it again
and I’m gonna do it again it took me the
rest of my life to do that so I think
about and it took every split second of
your lives to get to see me do this
there’s that you can’t contradict that
that so you know what are those
statements we don’t think enough about
that’s 1000% it’s all together true that
all of you are here by the way the
reason you got up this morning was
because I got a the reason I get up this
morning is because each of you got up
this one you know we were gonna be at
this moment so living in the way you
know I I often think of two little words
that we don’t honor enough over and next
something’s over it’s over
we’re always on to next and if there was
a hammock in the middle that would be
what we cook the best definitely not the
definition I would have for the
expression living in the moment and you
know it cost us all a little bit more my
life to get to this split second but
well worth it and there’s so many great
examples your book I get to experience
this I think it really amplifies that
that ideal of being in the present
living for and enjoying what is loving
what it loving would if it’s really an
amazing thing but I have some questions
that come from I’m a neuropsychologist
you know yes and I read also that in
your book your family legend includes
that your mother dropped you on your
head in the sink when you were three
months old I want to know what how you
think that influenced your brain develop
she grabbed me this by the way it was is
a story that you know one of those
family stories that everybody laughed at
every few years or every you know
whenever the hell that story was told
but my my little love telling it
everybody always laughed and I always
ask the same questions I was a couple of
months old she was washing me in a scent
in the sink in a kitchen sink and and
she dropped me and she ran for help and
as often as I over the years maybe the
first 20 years I never it was a laugh
then I started to think about it at age
thirty or something and I would ask her
often mom you dropped me in the sink and
you ran for help she said yes so I
wasn’t gonna leave you there
why didn’t you pick me up I got I ran
for help I could never I called by the
way I called her I the head of the
National Academy of Television Arts and
Sciences was a good friend many years
ago and he called me on a Sunday and
said you know we were met all day
yesterday the board and decided we were
gonna start a Hall of Fame Norman I just
have to tell you these are the inductees
of the first Hall of Fame of the the
Academy David Sarnoff who invented NBC
William Paley did CBS Edward our Murrow
the greatest of the foreign
correspondents paddy Chayefsky I think
the best writer that ever came out of
China
Lucille Boyle Milton Berle and you me
well my mother
it’s I called my mother in Bridgeport
Connecticut Wow listen to this starting
a Hall of Fame I just got the call these
are the inductees and I breathily love
it and me she says listen if that’s what
they want to do Who am I to say
[Laughter]
and I can’t I can’t let it go while
we’re on the topic of good mothering and
there’s a message out there for all the
mothers but can you tell us about the
the letters that you wrote when you were
flying missions their son is off flying
52 missions over war-torn Europe during
World War two
sends beautiful love letters he
described them as to your mother sure
when I came back she said she showed me
these letters I couldn’t get over I
looked at several of them and they were
love letters I couldn’t believe how
loving they were and I don’t feel that
way about her because we were not close
we I she never told me she cared about
me except when other people around and
she couldn’t stop anyway but that’s that
story I’m not forever
I adore her for it Oh what was I started
to say yeah but those what did she do
with those love letters oh I don’t know
several years later I was visiting her
again in Bridgeport I said mom I’d love
to have those letters she said I showed
them to you sweetheart
anyway she had destroyed that she had
thrown and unbelievable and take me make
a little bit more serious you know some
of those kinds of enough you call them
adversity or formative moments you know
your dad also you described as a
wrathful in a kind way but you described
a moment that you said you realized
something about the foolishness of the
human condition
my father spurred you on I thought it
was flying to Oklahoma when I was nine
years old
was saying Herman I don’t like those men
she didn’t want him to work with these
men whoever the hell they were and he
flew to Oklahoma he was gonna bring it
that maybe the fascination with the
hatch he was gonna bring me back a
10-gallon hat from Oklahoma well when I
was 9 years old
if a plane came along you know in the
sky very really we kids were running
down the street yelling Lindy Lindy
Lindy it had only been 8 or 9 years
since Lindbergh flew and my father was
going to Oklahoma that’s a big deal
he was arrested when he got off the
plane coming home what he had been
trying to do was sell or what it is
about to do was sell some fake bonds and
he served three years in prison
two days after or a day after my dad was
arrested there were three or four
editions of the Boston Globe where are
you going sir what have I said to her
friend stop that man
[Laughter]
so there were newspapers lying around
with a headline and he was he was a the
Hat was over his face and it was manacle
to her detective coming down the steps
of the courthouse and my mother was
selling the furniture because she was
ashamed maybe we couldn’t afford to stay
there I don’t know but she was selling
the furniture there was a crowd of
people I didn’t know and there was one
guy about to buy my father’s red leather
chair
my father’s rather the chair was holy
ground to me because we used to listen
to the fights together Madison Square
Garden nine or ten o’clock on Friday
nights always he used to come home and
listen to The Lone Ranger in that chair
it was so this guy is buying that chair
and he and he sees me standing there
clenching my fist is a roll of paper
Norman Emily or Norman Emiliano and my
mother was going to sew and to show
clothes I was going to take to camp I I
had never been to camp I was going to
camp and I did of course didn’t get to
go but I’m standing there in that
condition he’s buying the red leather
chair puts his hand on my shoulder and
says no you’re the man house now and
somehow as young as I was I understood
what a clown what a fool and that I
later called the foolishness of the
human condition
from that moment on I mean I understood
there wasn’t a moment as tragic as any
one could be any one moment that didn’t
have something
because of what I call the foolish it
starts with the amount of holes in our
body
[Laughter]
[Applause]
Please follow and like us: