Tag: Jack Nicholson

Better

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How can you not be in awe of Dolly Parton?! Besides her amazing creative talents, and her dedication to being purely and authentically herself, she has given millions away to pay for books for children, college educations for her employees, and for vaccine development during this heart wrenching pandemic. And yet Dolly remains humble, grateful, thoughtful and down-to-earth.

I think that this fan’s tweet, says it best:

“There is a Dolly Parton hall of fame and it’s the planet earth. Love you.”tanya tagaq@tagaq

In times of strife, the cream rises to the top. We love to focus on the villains and the bad guys, but just for today, let’s just be in awe of the people who make this world a better place. Let’s focus on the real-life superheroes who are all around us, making this world inspirational, hopeful and even more beautiful. Don’t focus on flaws. Don’t start with “yeah, but”. We’re humans. We’re all flawed. But there are certain people who have an incredible knack for doing what is in their hearts to do, and they make it happen. Make your list today of people who are alive today, who make you want to become a better version of yourself. Is it the Ukrainians? Is it Zelenskyy? Is it Dolly? Is it your neighbor? Your sister? Your mother? Your child? Your friend? Your doctor? Your teacher? Doesn’t just thinking about these people fill your heart with so much pride and hope and enthusiasm for life, and for all that this world is capable to be??? Think of moments in your own life that you stood up to the challenge, and you put out the best version of yourself, just because you felt the need and the drive and the inspiration to do so. These moments were not only your gift to yourself, but also your gift to the entire world. Don’t be stingy. Give us more of your truest, kindest, purest, heartfelt self. If we all did this on a regular basis, just imagine how fantastically beautiful this world would be. It is people like Dolly Parton who give us a hopeful glimpse.

you make me wanna be a better man – theQuotes.me

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

You Can’t Handle the Truth

There has been so much in the news these days about dishonesty, “fake news”, spin doctors, and distorting the truth.  I found a couple of quotes about lying that made a lot of sense to me:

“Truth is completely spontaneous.  Lies have to be taught.” – Buckminster Fuller

“The advantage of telling the truth is that you don’t have to remember what you said.” – Rita Mae Brown

The older I get, the more important the absolute truth has become to me.  Jack Nicholson’s character in the movie A Few Good Men, famously shouted, “You can’t handle the truth!”

But honestly, that just isn’t true.

The truth always comes to light.  What is done in darkness, always comes to light.  So when we lie, not only does the person or entity who we lied to have to “handle” the uncovered truth, they also have to “handle” that they trusted someone who lied to them.

“Every lie is two lies – the lies we tell others and the lie we tell ourselves to justify it.” – Robert Brault

I feel like a sick-in-my-stomach teenager just writing this post.  There are few things in the world that make you sicker to your stomach than lying and/or being lied to by someone you trust.  We all probably can remember that feeling when a parent or an authority figure or someone we loved deeply looked at us with grave disappointment and stated that they did not know when they would be able to trust us again to tell them the truth, after we told them a careless, hurtful lie.

“Telling lies and being deceitful takes so much more energy than being honest and sincere.” – Stephen Aitchison

I wish that we all had to the courage to live our truths, be our truths, and honor our truths.  Everyone is so concerned about what other people think about them, how they are being perceived and what persona to take on, in order to get the things they think that they want in life.  Lying is a natural outcome when we are living other people’s ideas of who we should be.  If we are living in truth, emboldening the truth, then it follows that lying would not be possible.  Truth and authenticity would be our only way.  Frankly, there are many people who we don’t particularly like in life, but we respect and trust them because we know firmly where they stand.  I would rather be a respected and trusted person, than a popular false persona whose choices and thoughts change on the whims of others’ impressions of me.

“A liar will not be believed when he speaks the truth.” – Aesop