“When pressure arrives, make sure you see it as an opportunity to shine and not an obstacle that can bring you down.” Carli Lloyd
Be Awesome
I just completed a successful job search, and this is one thing I learned. Be Awesome. To Everyone. All the Time. Awesome is your currency. Every interaction you have in life matters. So be kind. Be Awesome to everyone you meet. People want to work with Awesome. They want Awesome Around. Awesome wins every time.
Perfect
“If everything was perfect, you would never learn and you would never grow.”
– Beyoncé
Bring in the Balloons
“There was a tour in Germany. There was a building on the far side of the field that was visible from the stage, and we found out it was an old SS headquarters. People were already in the stands. (Prince) finds out that’s what that building is and says, ‘I can’t look at that all night and perform. So, I’m not going on.’ So they had to figure out what are they going to do. How are they going to make this building go away. So, the Production Manager – sharp – brought in a hot air balloon club. They brought in balloons and parked them in front of the building. That, to me, was amazing to see that go down.” – Peter Greenlund, who toured with Prince for nine years on the Current, Minnesota National Public Radio
Support
“There is something about having people around you giving you support that is motivating. Once I got that support from people, then I believed I could do anything.” – Prince on theroot.com
Go live there
“Find out what you’re afraid of and go live there.”
– Chuck Palahniuk
Try something new
“A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.” -Albert Einstein
Progress in a democracy is never instantaneous
“When it comes to specifics, the world is complicated and there are choices you have to make. The trajectory of progress comes in fits and starts and where you’re going is balanced by what is and where you’ve been. Progress in a democracy is never instantaneous and it’s always partial.
…It’s like steering an ocean liner and making a 2 degree turn so that 10 years from now we’re suddenly in a very different place. You can’t turn 50 degrees all at once because that’s not how societies – especially democracies – work. As long as we’re turning in the right direction and we’re making progress, government is working like its supposed to.” – President Obama
Things do work out
“There is a sense that things, if you keep positive and optimistic about what can be done, do work out.”
– Hillary Clinton
Mr Nutto’s Chair
This is Mr. Nutto’s Chair. It’s a Belter Chair from the late nineteenth century. It is rosewood with a needlepoint cushion that is not original. It was given to us by my father in law, Howe, who gave us the chair and the story several years ago.
Mr. Nutto was an elderly suitor to Vern, my husband Jeffy Guy’s grandmother, who was a widow for half her life. Vern’s first husband, a wealthy pharmacist, died when he was 40. Jeffy’s mom was 6 at the time. Her brother Rus was 10 and would soon get shipped off to the Milton Hershey School, a private school founded by Hershey Chocolate’s founder.
Vern remained a widow for the rest of her life, but later on, Mr. Nutto came calling. He wanted to marry Vern, but she refused. As the story goes, he died not long after the proposal. It’s unclear when he gave her the chair.
Had she agreed to his hand, he would have left her with a fortune. As it stands, he left her with this chair, which is now ours. It was half broken when we acquired it, and through wear, we fully broke it. I got this photo from the repair shop to indicate it is finished.
Finding someone to repair an antique, rosewood chair is no easy task. When I presented Jeffy Guy with the estimate, he said, “I like that chair, and it’s Mr. Nutto’s chair.”
