There’s no better time than now to have a moral and civic backbone, to have a moral and civic true north—this is a tremendous opportunity for you to be heroic. Morally-upstanding. Helpful. Almost boy scout-like. Presidential. Altruistic.

You must never lower yourself to be a person you don’t like.

Not a trustafarian? We’ll get stronger climbing up than riding in the ski lift.

This video covers it all, for me. As a poor child, with a valiant hard-working much-loving single momma, I wish I’d seen this many years ago.

I’ve still never traveled. I never skiied, as a boy, because we couldn’t afford it and couldn’t afford an injury. But I got good grades ’cause my mom cared enough about my education to transfer me not once, not twice, but three times to schools with teachers worthy her cherished son. She taught me I was intelligent, and to expect much of myself.

So I argued with teachers when I got an A-, and more often than not, nerd that I was, I proved myself right. I went to a good school, one of the best for journalism in the US, and I worked the whole while. I got out of college and worked. Nowadays, with twitter and facebook and blogging, my intended career path—writing for a living—is almost too easy.

This is an entrepreneurial age. A whole generation, empowered by laptops—what Steve Jobs called a bicycle for the mind—is able to walk out the door and leave the cubicles behind, and leave the sitcom-watching get-fat and settle life along with it.

Monastic obsession, as Henry Rollins puts it, above. Find what you love. Follow your bliss…with an almost monastic focus.

“Something I have found to be true, and see reinforced all the time as I get older. People need only two things in their lives to be happy: love and work. The love must be true and the work must provide achievable challenge. But if you have those two things, you are a rich person indeed.” ~ Pliskie.

~

PS: elephant turns ten 22 in June.

> Another of my favorite videos ever, along a similar theme.

> To see Pema Chodron’s commencement speech, here. 

> Another bonus, via Henry Rollins:

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Henry Rollins – Young Person Video notes:

This video is not meant to promote any particular political view. All material is cited below.

Visit www.bigthink.com or their YouTube channel for interviews from today’s top minds in philosophy, science, and more.

Narration:
Henry Rollins’ Letter to a Young American – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbnFJVgBcw0

Henry Rollins’ Letter to a Young American (Part 2) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdHAtvlpeRs&feature=plcp

Music
Apparat – Sweet Unrest
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-devils-walk/id459432273

Video:
Time Lapse School – Test – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKpylHCcD2A

Or Yarok – Road Safety Commercial. Empty School. – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhLDdkR6PT4

Snow Falling at Night 1080P HD Kodak Zi8 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7TMlfBHCK0

Fraud Bernie Madoff Pushed by Photographer – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jESY1YReUrQ

London Riots Motorcycle Jacked – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttdGHwrF8GI

Savage beating, robbery caught on tape – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rEl8fpMVEI&feature=plcp

LONDON RIOTS: Horrific scenes the media didn’t show last night! – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ed0QJJL9sYQ&feature=related

HDR Time Lapse – Sunset Over Train Tracks – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45BYfiCPkBw

Running on Empty – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OouOM3ChmIY

Nice long cirrus clouds passing timelapse HD V08896 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udzp3ZDbCww

GOD HATES FAGS!!! – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEQuW2v6U2o

AP Top Stories – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkCvgcbU3Ik&feature=plcp

Norway Killer Tells Court He’d Do It Again – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cp5wJZeTBfI&feature=plcp

The Early Show – Teen bullying victim dead in apparent suicide – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SePNW5nlC4M&feature=plcp

Security an Issue As Somalia Aid Ramps Up – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrmC6gFiSCc&feature=relmfu

Muslim Woman Beaten to Death in Possible Hate Crime (California) – She Died on March 24th 2012 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrnMYg62boM

Vancouver Riots – Man Attempting to Stop Looters Gets Beaten – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7dcgcdWVBI

Massive Dust Storm July 18, 2011…. 2 angles – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPxmnTwNHIw

Time lapse Dandelion flower to seed head – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQ_QqtXoyQw

HD Autumn Scene – Clouds Passing Over a Golden Mountain – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZqbS8W9wc0

Arn (7 years 9 months) practising cello – May 2010 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7Za9-cV6IU

Ballet Pointe Shoe Practice – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uegAeHlG22w

Columbus State Community College Autumn Graduation 2010 HD Version – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUMR5Iy7sgo

Security checks anger Arizona Latinos – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwqVopgJgRw

beautiful nature scenery 2 (1080p HD) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtZ4uvaeK68

Muhammad Ali training for his rematch against Joe Frazier – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_rt2iM9NSI

Albert Einstein (01) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-1Z2wi2uSA

Salvador Dali – Mike Wallace interview 1958 – Part 1/2 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhyHlKHIeZY

Frank Lloyd Wright – War and Religion – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9ZHOnmZ7T0

Franklin Roosevelt – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJyCAkKUOWE

Into the Universe With Stephen Hawking -Season 1 Full – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GcmbFb8afQ

Carl Sagan 1981 Saturn Interview Part 1/2 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEYJoTSnolY

Waiting for “Superman” – http://www.amazon.com/Waiting-Superman-Geoffrey-Canada/dp/B003Q6D28C

Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use. All copyrighted materials contained herein belong to their respective copyright holders, I do not claim ownership over any of these materials. I realize no profit, monetary or otherwise, from the exhibition of these videos.

~

More:

“You’ll find in your life that sometimes your great ambitions will be momentarily stymied, thwarted, marginalized by those who were perhaps luckier; come from money; had more doors opened; where college was a given, not a student loan; it was something that dad paid for; where an ease and confidence in life was almost a birthright. Where for you, it was a very hard climb. … That happens all the time.

Just because you come from nothing, you must not let that be something that holds you back.”