On Bruno Mars and his Half Time Show

I've never had a dog named Bruno, but I'd be willing to bet that many dogs will be named Bruno in the near future. I'd make a bet that Mars will also be a popular name for dogs too, but Bruno is a little bit stealthier. Don't you think?  I do. I also think Bruno Mars is the next king of pop, but that's another story.

One day last week I had the good fortune to view Bruno Mars on the Ellen show. It was so inspiring I asked my son to watch along with me. By the end, I found myself up on my feet with all of the audience cheering for him. If you haven't seen the video, it might be a good idea to view it now before reading more of this entry. The video is almost 8 minutes long, and currently has 729,091 views. In a way, I am testing if anyone out there follows my links, so please watch it before reading forward. All that is needed is a simple click on the link below this text...

Bruno's Inspiring Speech on Ellen

I have watched the video at least three times, and will likely do so again, but imagine this. Directly after viewing said broadcast at home, I decided to search for the half time show and watch it again. So that is exactly what I did, and I recommend watching it before reading further again. Bruno Mars plays a drum solo, and he sings and dances like a mixture of Michael Jackson and James Brown all rolled up into a very cool package. His back up band is uber talented too. One of the things I enjoyed the most, however, and it was not without controversy, was that Bruno incorporated the Red Hot Chili Peppers into the show.

Bruno's Half Time Show

After being thoroughly entertained, and also feeling much better about life and future possibilities. My bubble was burst by my son, who pointed out that none of the musicians were plugged in. This made me feel terrible, and I left my home to go for a work out at the gym. While I was there I watched a CNN broadcast about, you guessed it, the Half Time performance. What I found amusing was that Flea, the lead singer of the RHCP, had written a response on the band's website, where he basically stated that there was no negotiation with the NFL. In a nutshell, the NFL required the RHCP to remain unplugged, and only the vocals would be live. The rest they required to be pre-recorded so there wouldn't be any problems with the performance musically. In that light, Flea said that he and his band stand by their performance, and would do it again in the same way, if requested.

For the whole letter, click on the link below. It will be necessary to scroll down a little bit in the link below to discover Flea's letter to "everyone."

Red Hot Chili Peppers News

Shortcut Discovery

We took a brisk ride this morning, thinking there wouldn't be many folks up yet. We'd traveled down the trail to the local library so many times that we'd almost taken the route for granted. It was always crowded, and seemed to get more so - almost daily. Last week we took the same path for a walk with the dogs, but today we planned to follow the trail farther down, just to see where it ended. What we discovered was the nicest surprise.

We pedaled down the path, watching numerous mallards, a blue heron, and a pair of mergansers forage around for their breakfast. The sound of splashing water accompanied us. There was not a cloud in the sky, and there was a little more water in the canal than usual, due to the small bit of rain we got last week. A turkey vulture perched on the overpass, watching us, waiting to see if we would leave a bit of something behind, like so many others. We just pedaled by, on our way to discover something, but we didn't know what.

Finally we reached the underpass that leads to the library. For the first time, we didn't stop, and we continued on our quest. We had reached the new part of the trail.  It was a wide paved underpass that boasted a brand new sidewalk, and lights on each pillar. The waterway flood drainage flowed in several different directions, and there were a couple of Canada geese that had stopped to rest during their migration. They looked peaceful, and I marveled at how adaptive nature can be. 

As we whooped and howled under the structure, it reminded me of a time when I was quite young, and my brother, sister, and I would ride our bikes underneath a different freeway underpass. That one seemed straight from a horror movie. I remember my first time being very scary. But this was different. It was truly enjoyable, and this passing made me think of our city and it's famous crossroads. We glided under the freeway cloverleaf and peddaled up the other side to discover that we had learned a shortcut to our gym! This opened up a whole new set of possibilities, and we can see ourselves using this new part of the trail for years to come.

Failure to Lunch

As Brad and I sat waiting for our hot and sour soup to arrive at lunch yesterday, chatting about our adult daughter leaving the country and not bothering to give us any of the details, I had an epiphany. There was THE cutest couple sitting in the booth to my left, who had a baby (a GOOD baby), in a rocking carrier seat. It happened when the meals arrived. As the baby slept quietly, and the couple was enjoying their conversation, I noticed that they had ordered exactly the same meal as we had ordered. They reminded me of us when we began raising a family. I wanted to lean over and say, "Enjoy your children while they are young."

This was the same advice I had received from Tony Larussa, back stage at a rock show, when I was a stay at home mom. At that time, I felt I WAS enjoying that particular stage of life, and my kids too, because I was practicing Vipassana meditation regularly, and the practice alone helped me learn to focus on, and stay in, the present moment. At that time in my life, I thought that was what he meant. The present moment being all we have in the first place, so enjoying the kids when they were young, made sense to me that way. My interpretation was... live in the present moment, and enjoy their company and your process with them. 

But yesterday, and although I did not state those often repeated words to that cute couple in the next booth, I realized that at Tony's stage of life back then, the advice could have meant something entirely different. Because for me, yesterday at lunch, it did. He was probably my age back then, and he had adult children. He was likely reminiscing about raising younger children. So he delivered to me his advice. Now I know that, as they age, raising children gets harder and harder. Their problems in adulthood are epic by proportion. It's not even fair to compare them. When they are young, children are physically demanding, but when they are older, they are financially and emotionally draining, and their problems are adult problems.

As a young adult, one must make decisions about career, property purchases, life partners, and yes, even vacations. As the parent, one must sit back and allow the children to make these choices and decisions alone. We must endure the decision, even if we KNOW, it is a poor choice because that's how they learn. It's not our life. Try as we might, we can't make our adult children learn from our mistakes. Life simply doesn't work that way. 

Today I believe his advice meant this: enjoy children when they are young, because when they are adults, the problems are vastly different and to a greater proportion. When the children are young, the problems are more about health and well being, and generally coping with having playful, somtimes annoying, immature kids around. Parenting adult children is about letting go, and accepting their life choices that can make, or break, their happiness for years to come. 

Super Bowl Hype

There is going to be a great football game today. Our gladiators will hit the field and they will play. Each team deserves to be there. Both teams were 15 and 3 for the season. It's a little ironic that the West is representing on the East Coast, but hey, we'll take what we can get. And we'll take it on Ground Hog day.

Watching the hype on television this week, especially on Tuesday, was tough to escape. I must admit I am more inclined to watch the funnier shows by choice, and The Colbert Report was particularly good. The one I enjoyed was dubbed the Superb Owl edition, and, as promised, in addition to a hilarious skit starring Colbert as QB, Steven did a story about owls too. 

I also caught a segment with social media playing a role in the predictions. It seems the fans were encouraged to send their predictions via hash tags, and the final tally was presented in team colors on Friday for all to see when they lit up the Empire State Building that night. I was pleased to see on the news the building was glimmering with Seattle colors. I didn't participate, but I agree with the outcome. 

At the same time, I'm looking forward to watching the Broncos for their awesome QB, Payton Manning. He is such a great player, and seems just generally, likeable. He is so admired by everyone, and it's not surprising. I believe despite any outcome today, he will go down as one of the greats. Even Russel Wilson admitted this week that he learned a lot from Manning in a passing workshop he took back when he was a sophomore in high school. Respect is everywhere. 

Yup. It will be a difficult game to watch today. Just like it was difficult two weeks ago against the Niners. Both Seattle and San Francisco played their hearts out during that game, and unfortunately for the Niners, it didn't go their way. But it could have. Just like today. It could go either way. Either Manning will win for the second time, or the Hawks will win for the first time. This is going to be epic.