Yes, it was a terrific day here in Nashville.  I made solid progress on client tasks and took time to enjoy this magnificent weather.  There is much gratitude here.  Breathing, loving, and smiling.

First U.S. Rehab Center for
Internet Addiction
Opens Its Doors.

Excellent post and the video that inspired it.  How much time have you spent on the internet?  Probably too much.  See the list of 10 signs of addiction–you might be surprised at how many you can answer yes to.

The young man featured in the CNN video on the Mashable page was pretty matter-of-fact about his issue.  It was a somber sight though, this young man with such talent–it appears that he’s getting back to what he loved in “real life”.

It reminds me that there’s other important stuff off of this grid.  Much of my work is on computer and on line, so it’s difficult to flat out break away sometimes.  All the more harder to do so anyway.  Hard or not, it’s necessary.  At issue is balance.  You do the work here that’s needed.  The internet has sucked so much attention away from television and more traditional media outlets, but big media’s getting into the fray to provide more content here.  So it’s more tempting to stick around and find the gossip, the tv shows, the sensationalism.

Recovery starts when you know you need it.  Sometimes others let you know.  Regardless of how you found out, take the path.  Prioritize and establish–or re-establish–that balance.

The link came a while back from my friend Doak:  To the video of this last lecture, taken from an Oprah Winfrey show.  The lecturer, Randy Pausch, inspired completely, and now this experience is expounded upon in the new book The Last Lecture.  I had not known of this custom among orators to perform such a lecture, but learning of it let me appreciate the group more.  What a hold the video has taken, millions of views.

One of my favorite performing songwriters, John Gorka, has a line in a song–”get your compass and your sharpest knife, because people love you when they know you’re leaving soon”, and the situation reminds me of this line, the truth of it.  Pausch admits that the dying has so much to do with the attention.  The self-help literature talks about how you’d like to end up, what would people say at your funeral.  This lecture relates to that, though somewhat in a reversal of roles.  People love you also, or they have to reiterate it, when they know they’re leaving soon.  Mortality is such a core part of our world.  I feel more alive seeing, hearing and reading this brave set of words.