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The Hard Work of Independent Thinking, Individualism and Courage – by Gary Smolker, Social Commentator, Values Critic
COURAGE
How much courage do you have?
What is courage?
THINKING
Thinking for yourself is courageous.
Thinking for yourself is hard hard work.
HARD WORK
Unless strongly motivated, most people avoid doing hard work.
THE HARD WORK OF BEING PREPARED TO THINK
Most people avoid spending large amounts of their time fully engaged in doing the hard work required to be able to think things through adequately.
Many people do not keep themselves informed by reading a large variety of books; they do not read a variety of magazines; they do not read a variety of reports on studies conducted on a variety of topics of interest to them.
Most people do not read several newspapers each day.
Many people are not constantly reading.
Most people are not constantly looking things up.
Most people do not attend seminars; most people do not attend lectures on topics of interest to them; most people to not take continuing education courses.
Most people are not constantly learning new useful things.
LEARNING NEW THINGS
Most people spend little or no time studying anything.
Although many people are constantly reading, they are not reading to learn things important to independent thinkers.
Instead, they are reading to learn “what society should think according to influence leaders.”
They do not “think” for themselves.
Most people are not constantly learning new useful things of interest to independent thinkers.
Most people do not spend any time doing “experimental research” to learn new things.
Most people spend little or no time analyzing their own ideas or the ideas of other people.
COMING TO CONCLUSIONS
Many people do not come to their own conclusions on matters that are of great concern.
Most people do not come to their own independent conclusions on matters of importance to them.
Instead they rely on other people’s advice and/or they rely on the generally held beliefs of the communities they belong to.
Coming to their own conclusions is too much work for most people.
Coming to their own conclusions would require too much of their time.
Coming to their own conclusions often requires expertise they do not have, expertise they do not wish to gain.
VERY AMBITIOUS PEOPLE
At the opposite extreme is a very small group, but growing group, of very ambitious people who find it difficult to have fun for fun’s sake.
They don’t stop to smell the roses.
They don’t spend time enjoying nature or the outdoors.
They seem to live to work.
They are being who they actually are.
They are driven by a desire to accomplish a clear concrete self-defined well-defined goal.
If they work 12, or 14, or 16, or 18 hours a day, six or seven days a week they are giving up a lot for something.
Some of them eventually learn: “the key to having a successful relationship with another person is to devote a substantial amount of their time to that person.”
They figure out that it is necessary to give their full sincere attention to that other person.
They eventually realize there is more to life than money and prestige.
PROGRESS DEPENDS ON THE UNREASONABLE MAN
“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world.
“The unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself.
“Therefore, all progress depends upon the unreasonable man.”
– George Bernard Shaw
THE BENEFITS OF BEING AN INDEPENDENT THINKER
Independent thinkers search for the truth with little concern for what other people think.
Their value and respect for the truth compels them to make their own decisions.
Their judgments are based on the logic and knowledge they have achieved.
Their judgments are not based on another person’s agenda.
The benefit of being an independent thinker to an independent thinker is they learn to trust themselves and the efficacy of their own judgments.
They have tremendous self-esteem and self-confidence.
The only person who can give you self-esteem is yourself.
KOBE BYRANT
Kobe Bryant was an evolved human being.
He was intense.
He had mind bogging drive; he had a relentless drive to be the best at what he did.
He would outwork anyone.
He had an almost superhuman work ethic.
He had determination and persistence.
He had an unyielding will to win.
He was a go-for-broke competitor.
He was fearless.
He displayed a steely toughness; he played through pain.
He never gave up.
He always wanted to grow.
He always wanted to know: What drove excellence?
He was a wonderful exemplary father.
He taught his young daughter how to play basketball.
He went to his young daughter’s ballet class with her.
He coached a girl’s basketball team.
Kolbe Bryant was more than a razzle-dazzle basketball star.
He was a wonderful compelling compassionate man.
He used his celebrity, his star power, and his animal-magnetism for the good.
He was more than a basketball player.
He was a fine, gutsy, highly skilled larger than life icon who always tried to be the best person he could be.
THE KOBE BRYANT GOSPEL OF DEDICATION AND HARD WORK
Kobe Bryant was a work maniac who leveraged his talent with an incredible work ethic that drove him to the top of his profession. He spoke three languages languages, was a brilliant man and a great writer who chose to pursue a career in sports over more erudite occupations.
Kobe was an inspiration to an entire generation of young people who were attracted initially by his prowess as a basketball player, but soon learned of his work ethic and quality as a person.
Kobe made mistakes, did the hard work of learning from his mistakes, and then after much thought, corrected his thinking. Kobe turned the corner, redeemed himself.
Like many males, he had his challenges with his sex drive, but he owned up to his mistakes, learned from them, and grew to be a dedicated father and husband.
Kobe stands shoulder to shoulder with a handful of the very best in his profession and leveraged his fame to spread the gospel of dedication, hard work and being a thoughtful and good person to all whole chose to listen.
Copyright © 2020 by Gary Smolker, All Rights Reserved
THE POWER OF MUSIC ACCOMPANIED WITH A LIGHT SHOW by Gary Smolker
Values
Music is about our values.
Music is about our values as a country.
Music is about our values as an individual.
Our music is about who we are.
Friday Night June 15, 2018 Performances of
Chicago and REO SPEED WAGON at the Forum in
Inglewood, California
Friday night, June 15, 2018, I went to a Rock & Roll concert at the Forum in Inglewood, California.
REO Speed Wagon and Chicago each put on outstanding shows/performances.
Spiritual Power of Music
Throughout the concert the psychological and spiritual power of music was palatable.
Each song REO Speed Wagon and Chicago performed was performed with the emotional oratorical power of an outstanding preacher determined to resist oppression preaching a sermon re-reinforcing the strength of the human spirit reflected in the slave spirituals:
“Go down, Moses
Go down to Egyptland
Go tell ol’ Pharaoh,
Let my people go!”
Psychic and Spiritual Sustenance
- Music gives people psychic and spiritual sustenance.
- Music always fuels a rising tide of conscience and consciousness – social consciousness and racial consciousness.
- Music is a mighty force for social reform.
- The Music Performed at this concert promoted a personal sense of dignity, self-respect and pride.
Grace and Speed
REO Speed Wagon played meat and potatoes Rock & Roll with a message: “Don’t give up. Press on!” with “Blue Lights” and a blue light show going on in the background.
While performing, the REO Speed Wagon bandleader commented, “Listening to Rock & Roll keeps you young.”
Colors convey feelings, values, relationships, contrasts, dramas and tensions.
The REO SPEED WAGON Light Show
Color is a means of expression.
Color effects us.
Goethe wrote that “… a blue surface seems to recede from us … it draws us after it.”
Blue is linked with eternity, the beyond, supernatural beauty, religious transcendence, the spiritual and mental as contrasted with the emotional and physical and with detachment from the earthly.
Blue draws us into a meditative mood.
Blue cools and calms. It is the color of moonlight.
The Mind and Mood Altering Show Put on by Chicago
After the psychedelic images above were put on the screen other images which told a story in pictures which reflected what was going on and the mood of a strong active majority of young people and the public at large that prevailed in the United States during the 1960s.
Everyone over the age of 70 ought to go to a modern day rock concert, like the one I went to on Friday June 15, 2018, and reflect how things have changed and haven’t changed in the United States since the 1960s.
Everyone under the age of 70 ought to ask people over the age of 70 who lived in the United States in the 1960s what life was like in the United States in the 1960s, what the mood of the people was with respect to (1) the Vietnam War, (2) the Civil Rights Movement, (3) with respect to segregation, race relations, and Freedom Riders, (4) with respect to Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., (4) with respect to President John F. Kennedy, (5) with respect to the Space Program, the Moon Program, (6) with respect to the assassination of President Kennedy, (7) with respect to the assassination of Dr. King, (8) with respect to the Civil Rights Act, (9) with respect to the Voting Rights Act, (10) with respect to social reform and (11) with respect to America’s dissenting tradition.
I am a visual person.
My personal reaction to seeing the light show put on by Chicago while the Chicago band members were playing their musical instruments was that I felt like was in a time machine that had transported me me back to the United States in the 1960s when the Beatles invaded America, when I watched the Beatles perform, when I listened to newly released Beatles’ songs, what was going on in my mind while I was watching the Beatles’ movie “The Yellow Submarine”, how I felt and where I was and what I was doing when I heard that JFK had been assassinated, vivid memories of watching Vietnam Protestors protest, the light show reminded me of what it felt like to be fully personally aware of racial segregation, my feeling as I was witnessing non-violent civil rights protests, how I felt upon hearing that Martin Luther King had been assassinated, what I felt while I watched President Nixon resign, etc. etc.
The 1960s in America was a time of civil unrest but also a time of feeling we (Americans) could fix anything.
For many Americans (myself included) the 1960s was a time of hope, a time of optimism, a time of being idealistic and a time of idealism, social activism was rampant, massive public protests were ongoing and there was rising prosperity.
The light show put on while the band Chicago played its musical tunes, brought back all those memories to me.
Below are some of the scenes flashed on the screen behind Chicago as Chicago performed at the concert.
Dr. King delivered the historic keynote address we know as his “I Have A Dream” speech before the nationalized televised March on Washington on August 28, 1963. He received the 1964 Nobel Prize for Peace. He was assassinated on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee.
The alternative to violence is nonviolent resistance, made famous by Mohandas K. Gandhi, who used it to free India from the domination of the British empire in 1948 and made more famous in the 1960s by Martin Luther King’s leadership in a concentrated drive against injustice.
Laura Bush Speaks Out: Separating Children from their
parents at the border ‘breaks my heart.’
Laura Bush is a former first lady of the United States.
The following is my quotes of something written by Laura Bush on Father’s Day, June 17, 2018, which I read today in the “Washington Post.”
“I live in a border state. I appreciate the need to enforce and protect our international boundaries, but this zero-tolerance policy is cruel. It is immoral. And it breaks my heart.
“Our government should not be in the business of warehousing children in converted box stores or making plans to place them in tent cities in the desert outside of El Paso. These images are eerily reminiscent of the Japanese American internment camps of World War II, now considered to have been one of the most shameful episodes in U.S. history…
“We Americans pride ourselves on being a moral nation, on being the nation that sends humanitarian relief to places devastated by natural disasters or famine or war. We pride ourselves on believing that people should be seen for the content of their character, not the color of their skin. We pride ourselves on acceptance. If we are truly that country, then it is our obligation to reunite those detained children with their parents – and to stop separating parents and children in the first place.
“People on all sides agree that our immigration system isn’t working, but the injustice of zero tolerance is not the answer. I moved away from Washington almost a decade ago, but I know there are good people at all levels of government who can do better to fix this….”
“In 2018, can we not as a nation find a kinder, more compassionate and more moral answer to this current crisis? I, for one, believe we can.”
Laura Bush, the performers and audience at the Friday, June 15, 2018 concert at the Forum, in Inglewood California, which I attended believe AMERICA CAN NOT ONLY BE GREAT BUT ALSO GOOD.
COPYRIGHT © 2018 by Gary Smolker
CREATING DESIRE – by Gary S. Smolker
The 2016 Toronto International Film Festival
I just returned from watching 18 films about fascinating people (in 5 days) at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival, in Toronto, Canada.
The City of Toronto is known world wide, in the movie making business, as the city that has the most film literate audience.
Most Motivating Movie I Saw at the Festival
The most motivating movie I saw at the festival was “Paris Can Wait.”
“Paris Can Wait” teaches us that even the most seductive Frenchman can not seduce a well grounded morally straight all American girl.
I say “Paris Can Wait” is the most motivating movie I saw at the festival because after seeing “Paris Can Wait” the woman I was with wanted a glass of wine and assured me that all women in the audience wanted a glass of wine also.
She told me that was the main topic of conversation in the woman’s washroom after the movie concluded.
My Scientific Experiment
At the festival I was able to test my theory that I can tell all I need to know about a woman instantaneously, in less than a minute by looking at the shoes she is wearing.
Below is my report on the experiment I carried out at the festival.
Sophistication Unplugged
Experimental Result and Conclusion
I could tell by looking at the shoes and clothes women attending the festival were wearing and the hand bag they were holding/carrying [while going to see films and standing in line to see films and in the theatres showing the films] how hip, knowledgeable, self-confident, full of self-esteem, energetic, brave, courageous, sophisticated, and full of energy they are/were and whether they welcome new adventure.
Benefit to Mankind of Discovery
COMPELLING SALES PROPOSITION – WHY YOU SHOULD CONTINUE READING
(You Need to Understand Women in Order to Know How to Please Them)
If you know how to do it, you can tell what kind of woman a woman is in less than one minute [instantaneously] by looking at the shoes she is wearing.
For detailed information on this topic, check out my blog posts on Dudes Guide to Women’s Shoes at http://www.dudesguidetowomensshoes.com.
Theory Proven
(Summary: The Shoes A Woman Wears Is Much More Revealing than the Palm of Her Hand.)
The scholarly “in-the-field-enterprise” described below and scientific experimental data set forth in visual form below conclusively proves that the shoes a woman is wearing is much more revealing than the palms of her hands.
If a woman wears “sexy shoes”, and if the man she is with looks at her shoes, the vision of her in her shoes will close around the man looking at her shoes, that image will reach inside him, controlling his every thought as he is looking at her shoes.
The image he sees of her at that moment, in her sexy shoes, will be impossible for him to forget.
It is not complicated:
- Women know how to parameterize.
- Women know that after seeing her in her sexy shoes, a weak man might get drunk and say something poetic and romantic to her, then wake up with her besides him the next morning, with a terrible hangover, kneading his forehead and consumed with guilt because of the sweet possessive looks she is giving him.
- Women have no trouble putting any man in a box, and tying it with a ribbon and giving herself to him as a wedding gift … by wearing sexy shoes, then getting the man she is with drunk.
A BIT OF ADVICE TO MEN: You don’t have to be a big thinker, it is a transcendent universal, the ultimate reality, beware of women wearing “sexy shoes.”
My Analysis of the Following Scientific Experimental Data
A WOMAN’S SHOES REFLECT WHETHER SHE IS HIGH ENERGY
Below is a series of pictures of the shoes worn by a woman I met Friday night (September 16, 2016) in the waiting area for Air Canada flight AC793 to Los Angeles at the Pearson International Airport, Toronto – on way back home after I had been in Toronto for seven days.
I met her while I was waiting to board an Air Canada plane to take me back to Los Angeles from Toronto.
Can’t you tell what kind of person that woman is just by looking at the shoes she is wearing, pictured above?
I can/I could.
Coincidentally, the name of the “young woman” whose shoes are shown above is Nirvana.
I could tell instantaneously by looking at Nirvana’s gold Gucci shoes that Nirvana has money spending power; she is fashion conscious; she is a cutting edge person.
Nirvana can buy or has someone in her life who will buy her shoes that cost $500 or more; Nirvana knows what is going on in the world of fashion; Nirvana makes up her own mind; Nirvana is comfortable in her own skin, and is (a) smart, (b) fun, and (c) energetic in every sense of those three words.
In summary, by looking at the gold shoes Nirvana was wearing, I knew in less than one minute [instantaneously] that Nirvana is SMART, FUN and ENERGETIC.
After I introduced myself to Nirvana and asked for permission to take pictures of her shoes and of her to post on my blog, and after Nirvana told me it was/is okay to do so, Nirvana told me Nirvana’s hobbies are napping (two 10 minute naps a day) and dancing.
While we were waiting to catch our plane back to Los Angeles, Nirvana and I talked about how Gucci recently made a “comeback” in the world of fashion.
By the way the shoes Nirvana is wearing are Gucci shoes.
SHOES REFLECT WHETHER A WOMAN IS AN ASPIRING ACTRESS OR MODEL
Below is a series of photographs I took of a woman I saw sitting at a table at the Canteen where I was having my breakfast on morning Sunday (September 11, 2016).
Upon looking at that woman’s poise and “pose”, I immediately knew she is a woman who has great flare and great acting ability.
I immediately knew that I wanted to take a picture of her wearing her over the knee boots shown in the photographs below.
Look at the boots she is/was wearing.
Immediately after seeing her, I walked up to her to ask if I could take photographs of the books she was/is wearing.
She told me I could take a picture of her and the shoes she is/was wearing to post on my blog.
She then gave me a business card.
She did not pose for the photo shoots (the photos below) I took of her boots.
What you see in the photograph below is what I saw when I first looked at her.
She told me her name is Helena-Alexis and that she is an Actress/Model.
Her business card states:
- She (Helena-Alexis) is a two time winner of the Best Actress award of FACES MAGAZINE,
- She has twice been nominated Best Actress by BLACK CANADIAN ARTISTS, and
- She has twice been nominated Best Model by FACES MAGAZINE.
A WOMAN’S SHOES REFLECT WHETHER SHE LIKES LIVING A LIFE OF HIGH ADVENTURE ON STEROIDS
The minute I saw Robin (aka as Bronwen Hughes) come at stage at the Isabel Bader Theatre in Toronto at 10:15 p.m. on September 15, 2016, to introduce the “World Premier” screening of her film “The Journey Is The Destination”, I knew I was about to see an exciting movie because I could tell by looking at her that she is an exciting woman.
I instantaneously recognized that Robin is an exciting woman by merely looking at Robin’s shoes as well as the rest of her ensemble.
Below are photographs I took of Robin at the Isabel Bader Theater immediately after the showing of her film “The Journey Is the Destination.”
The photographs below show what Robin looked like when Robin came on the stage at the Isabel Bader Theatre to introduce her movie.
The screenplay for “the Journey is the Destination” was written jointly by Robin with Jan Sardi.
By the way, Jan Sardi also wrote the screenplay for Shine and also wrote the screenplay for The Notebook.
Look at Robin’s outfit, in the photo below which I took of Robin while she was on the stage at the Isabel Bader Theatre.
Look at Robin’s shoes.
Look again at Robin’s shoes.
Before the screening of her film began, Robin said to the audience: “How can you be good at something you are not passionate about?
Robin said:
- It takes guts and vision to make a visionary film
- When you have a vision [of a film you want to make] you need visionaries to get on board with you to move your project/train down the track.
- You are about to see a visionary film made by a team of visionaries.
- This film is about a photojournalist [Dan Eldon] who lived the steroid version of the life I want(ed) to live.
Below is a close up photograph I took of Robin’s face.
I see determination, strength, and and will to succeed (a) radiating out from Robin’s face, (b) radiating out from Robin’s over one shoulder black blouse, (c) radiating out from Robin’s sandals/shoes, (d) radiating out from Robin’s contagious smile and (e) radiating out from Robin’s silver shorts.
Below is a picture I took of Robin sitting down at the edge of the stage while answering questions directed to her by people in the audience.
I could instantaneously tell, by looking at Robin, that Robin is a woman who robustly lives life.
I could instantaneously tell by looking at Robin’s shoes, silver shorts, black over the shoulder blouse, and by looking at the earnest/contagious gleam in her eyes and smile that Robin is a fiercely creative artist.
I knew nothing about Robin and had never seen Robin before I took the above photos of Robin.
Mathematical Certainty
Although I have given my analysis of the type of woman a women is by merely looking at her shoes, and although what I say in the material above sounds scientific, BEWARE I do not claim mathematical certainty.
I may have misjudged one or more of the women whose shoes I have analyzed.
Perhaps I have completely mistaken who and what kind of women those women are by merely looking at the shoes they were wearing at the time I first saw them, which was the first time I met each one of them.
Perhaps I have over-stated the power sexy shoes, and the power a woman wearing sexy shoes, can/does have over a man.
Certainly becoming “drunk”/inebriated with a man while wearing “sexy shoes” is far more than an ingenious set of tools women use for facilitating uninhibited communication.
The story told in “Paris Can Wait” demonstrates that the combination of good food and good wine are a veritable nuclear weapon.
The Most Motivating Movie I Saw at the 2016 TIFF
Watching “Paris Can Wait” made everyone hungry and crazy with desire to have a glass of wine.
“Paris Can Wait” was/is written and directed by a 78 year old beginner – Eleanor Coppola, the wife of Francis Coppola for over five decades.
It is an intoxicating tour from Cannes to Paris – heavenly vistas, art and architecture and visions of cuisine regionales to die for.
Add a seductive bon vivant to the mix who tells the woman he is with (while taking two days to drive her to Paris from Cannes – normally a two hour car drive) that all women before her had been mere souffle and she is Creme Brulee.
When I described this movie – the food and wine and scenery – to two sophisticated women I know, one replied:
“I wish we were in Toronto, with Femme Fatale on Gary’s right and me on the left and wine in-between movies.”
The other woman (Femme Fatale) replied:
“Gary the the best exotic.
“Yes we may plan that for next year.”
After watching “Paris can wait, I took the woman I was with to my favorite restaurant in Toronto, Terroni at 57 Adelaide St. E., Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where she and I had a glass of wine before dinner, she had Amatrice as her entree and I had Spaghetti Canna Mare, after dinner drinks and wonderful deserts.
Below is a photograph I took of the woman who saw “Paris Can Wait” with me and of a glass containing the wonderful wine served to her before her dinner entree arrived.
Below is a picture of Amatrice – the wonderful entree served to her which she enjoyed immensely.
Below is a photograph I took of the entree served to me (Spaghetti Canna Mare) – which I enjoyed immensely.
We shared tow wonderful desserts – a Torta Calda and a Budino di Caramello, and both drank a different wonderful after dinner wine.
Below is a photograph I took of the deserts we shared.
She is looking at her smart phone to figure out how we are going to get to the next movie we were going to see right after dinner.
By the way, we saw 18 movies in 5 days together.
In between movies, we often had something to drink and a snack.
Below is a picture of one of those snacks we enjoyed on September 14 in between leaving one movie theatre and rushing off to another movie theater.
The picture below is a photograph I took of the strawberry shortcake we enjoyed together – shared with each other – while each of us were sipping our own coffee cup containing a generous shot of Baileys in a cup of coffee.
The ingredients of Strawberry Shortcake Dish shown above are rosewood honeycomb, lemon poppy seed cake, and burnt honeycomb ice cream.
We enjoyed that snack at the LUMA Restaurant located at 350 King St. W. Floor 2, Toronto, Ontario.
Takeaway
Sophisticated people know foreplay does not begin in the bedroom.
Gary S. Smolker, publisher, movie reviewer, social commentator Gary S. Smolker Idea Exchange Blog www.garysmolker.wordpress.com Gary S. Smolker, fashion blogger Dudes Guide to Women's Shoes www.dudesguidetowomensshoes.com
Copyright © 2016 Gary S. Smolker, All Rights Reserved
Copyright © 2016 by Gary S. Smolker, All Rights Reserved
Gary S. Smolker 