Life 2.0

Another interesting week behind me, with some serious reminders about not letting other people stuff your backpack, the importance of finding your path, understanding that it's later than we think, and that a Super Bowl commercial can put one of the biggest names in music history back on the charts, decades after his death.

Bill Bennett is a multi-award-winning Australian filmmaker who captures the human condition like no other. His latest work, "The Way, My Way" is based on his best-selling book of the same name and is the captivating true story of a stubborn and amusingly self-centered Australian man who decides to walk the 800-kilometre-long (497.8 miles) Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route through Spain. He doesn’t know why he’s doing it, but one step at a time it will change him and his outlook on life forever.  

This past week I purchased a copy of my first book, and there was an interesting note inside from whoever first bought it back in 2006. It gave me a chance to review and remember the lessons from 21 extraordinary people like John Denver, Wayne Dyer, Jerry Kramer, Dorothy Hamill, Cheryl Richardson, Dr. Kathleen Hall, Walter Payton, and three young people (Chelsey, Timmy, and Jerry) who left the game of life early, and who had (and still have) a major effect my life.

Yes, I was one of the 127.5 million people who tuned in to watch Super Bowl LIX and the ferocious dismantling of the Kansas City Chiefs by the Philadelphia Eagles. But it was the Super Bowl held the day before that grabbed my attention. I think it's time that the PBA follows the lead of the NFL and starts to ramp up their half-time (beer frame!) activities to get in some of that cold hard advertiser cash!

Only a handful of men remain who played in Super Bowls I and II. My longtime friend and Green Bay Packer Hall of Famer Jerry Kramer is one of them. JK takes us back to a very different time in the game when tickets were $12 bucks, there were 10,000 empty seats, and that first contest between the Packers and Chiefs was broadcast on two competing television channels. Now, a ticket to the game tomorrow could run you $10 grand, one network will make serious coin and there will not be any empty seats at SB LIX in New Orleans.

Taking a pro-active stance on the impending tariffs, I thought a good pre-emptive strike would be to buy a few cases of my favorite beer before we went into a trade war with the Canadians. It didn't quite go as I expected. The Moose is loose!

It's the 2nd episode of Earth Matters Monday, which will air on the 1st Monday of every month in 2025. Today, it's all about the moral responsibility each of us has to be a spiritual steward of our part of the planet. As Carl Sagan pointed out... there is no Planet B we can escape to, and for better or for worse, we make our stand here on the pale blue dot.

Instead of bloviating, speculating, and ruminating as a solo act, I've secured the wit and wisdom of my gal-pal and best-selling author, Emmy Award-winning journalist, and media maven- Jen Weigel on this episode. It's a no-holds-barred, unplugged, raw, and real conversation about everything from overcoming adversity to getting your sh*t in one sock and why I think Batman is the best super hero-ever. Hold on to your lugnuts with this one, cause it's time for a serious spiritual overhaul. 

It looks like any typical plot of ground next to the expressway in Chicago, but I see a portal into the past when that little triangle became a football stadium when I was a boy. I had an extra hour on my hands last week, so I made the "Immersion Therapy" circuit as I drenched myself in little bits of yesterday, to make today seem more bearable. Part of that route had me in front of my grandma's house, then in front of our home not far from there and the aforementioned "Triangle Stadium" as well as reliving the simple joys of ice skating when it was sold cold your nostrils would freeze shut! What a great thing! 

Every time I am introduced to an audience (as I was last Monday for the MIC (Media in the Caribbean workshop) my bio mentions the thousands of hours of radio/podcasting that I have hosted and/or produced in the past 30 years. They also mentioned the long list of guests of name and note that I've had conversations with.

 

Its an impressive list of humans. But there is one person I never really thought I would have on the guest list-my daughter Amanda Lee. 

 

We've had a lifetime of father/daughter conversations. Some very difficult, others hilarious and so when she asked about being a guest and "spending a little time in dads world..."

 

Smart, talented, driven, and creative. She's overcome some serious health challenges and wears her heart on her sleeve and the world is a far better place because she showed up.