"Our lives are brief.

We’re here for a while and then we leave. And, it almost becomes incumbent upon us to try and fill our lives with as much warmth and love and humanity as possible. And, not to worry too much about what might happen tomorrow or what might happen in 10 years. Or not to worry too much about big cosmological questions.

Rather just enjoy the moment that’s in front of you.

Have dinner with your friends and play with dogs and listen to nice music and go out dancing.

And just have a nice time because life here is brief. And it seems like such a shame to take our brief time here and waste it by being too worried and too depressed and too frustrated and anxious."

– Moby
   American music artist & businessperson (1965 -     )
   (busboy and motivational speaker on occasion)

I became a fan of Moby last year after reading a piece on him in Inc.. He’s my favorite type of artist — an eclectic business person who cares about the work and the contribution it makes (while making it profitably).

Several weeks ago, I picked up his new iTunes original — a mix of music and small interview clips. How fantastic it was to be able to preview it, download it, and run with it on demand (fantastic to those of us who grew up having to go to a store to buy music on plastic and then put it on a stationary box to listen to it — I’m still amazed and I’m 40).

A wonderful mix of music and thoughts.

Very inspiring. At 9.99, it’s a great investment (even without the music).

His site. His tea store.

editorial note:

I decided to publish this today for no particular reason (those 4 words always remind me of Forrest Gump) after having sat on it for a couple weeks. I didn’t know the reason I wasn’t publishing it. I just wasn’t.

Today is Moby’s birthday… and the fourth anniversary of 9/11.

Now I understand. It was meant for today.

"In lieu of flowers, please buy some coffee for the person behind you in line at Dippin’ Donuts or Espresso Love and tell them it’s from Stan."

A 212 obituary conclusion (courtesy of Tom Peters).

Inspiration by Stan.

Close to a quarter of a million beds have been offered by thousands of people across the country through HurricaneHousing.org.

Just incredible.

With tragedies and challenges come opportunities to serve.

"A family in Iowa is offering a finished basement and private bathroom for a small family to use rent free "for as long as you need."

A firefighter in Petaluma, California, is offering his living room for a displaced family.

And a single father in Williamsburg, Kentucky, has offered to share his modest 3-bedroom home with up to four adults or teenagers and pet dogs, if they have them." — Reuters, Americans opening homes, lives, to flood refugees

These people are 212.

How lucky we are.

To donate for the first time or kick in a bit more…

American Red Cross || Network for Good || Katrina Help Wiki

"We are both communal and uniquely ourselves, not either-or."

– Gloria Steinem on Nature vs. Nurture

NPR recently revived a series from the 1950s called "This I Believe" — a series of short essays (no more than 500 words) to which anyone can contribute (including you).

What a great exercise… even if yours isn’t published through them (remember, you can always blog it and be "published").

Have you ever put your beliefs in writing? Have you ever shared them with your world?

Reading (and listening to) Edward R. Murrow’s introductory essay from 1951, I found myself thinking, "Sounds like a blog." Funny how some things now are so similar to things more than 50 years ago.

What do you believe?

(For me, listening to them while following along with the text works best. So far, I’ve enjoyed several including Helen Hayes, Norman Cousins, Gloria Steinem, and many of the less famous people.)

This morning, I asked the boys if they’d like me to cut their pancakes.

"Yes," said my youngest.

"No," said my oldest.

"I don’t want mine cut either," reconsidered my youngest, attempting to prove his manhood.

"What if we made them so they didn’t need to be cut," I said.

"They’d have to be really small."

BabyCakes were born (named by my oldest, accepted by my youngest).

Bite-sized. Fun. Less utensils needed.

I sound like a salesman… thank God.

(to make: regular-sized pancakes generally call for a quarter cup of batter… silver dollar pancakes call for probably half that… for babycakes, we found a bit less than a tablespoon worked best (striving for something just larger than a quarter)… a little trial and error and you’ll be set… be careful– they cook fast)

I gave blood yesterday for the 3rd time since April.

It was the 4th time in over 20 years.

A few nicely communicated words by a blood services person a few months ago and a new habit was inspired.

Here’s how our company has used the experience to go even further…

morebloodmorelife.com

A site we built (using a blog post from April) and promote to over 100,000 business people every few weeks.

More fun to come.

(what could you do?)

Waiting for me when I got home from my trip this week were these MarbleMen with the accompanying tape recorder.

On it was a clip from the radio of Aerosmith’s "I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing" — a song that when it comes on the radio I tell the kids I wrote it about The Spaniard (my wife) for Aerosmith but they changed the "Cause I’d miss you Jen" to make it more appealing to everyone.

They never believe me.

(courtesy of my 11 year old — a nice reminder that our efforts to help our kids be kind and thoughtful are working… occasionally ; )

I had a business lunch today at a Palm. This was on the table…

Anticipating customers’ potential needs with just a little more attention… I like that.

What potential needs could you anticipate for your most important people?

(the Palm pad says "Notes Taken At:" with the address, phone, fax, and Web site URL)

(the photo is me trying to be artsy with a cell phone shot using Google’s Picasa — man they never stop making great stuff)