On Saturday I spent a good part of the day watching the funeral of Ted Kennedy from the cathedral in Boston to Arlington National Cemetery. What is it about watching these kinds of events that mesmerizes us, makes us stop and consider our own mortality? I believe it is the mystery of ‘time’ that gives us pause. What is time? It’s definition is as elusive as the definition of gravity or love. The only way to understand it is to metaphorically characterize it.
Time is a stream that we are all floating in, going somewhere. We don’t know where it is taking us, but there is no way to avoid its destination. We have no control over where we got into the stream, and no idea where we will get out either. We are just along for the ride, so to speak. Since we can’t stop it, and we can’t control it, most of us are preoccupied and neurotic about where we have been,( since we can look behind us), and where we think we are going, (which is unknowable for the most part). What we fail to take note of most of the time (no pun intended) is where we are at any given moment.
Except when something happens to knock us on the head and make us stop our incessant preoccupation with the past and the future, like the death of a major figure like Ted Kennedy, or Princess Diana, or Tim Russert. So it was for me on Saturday.
If we put aside the amazing accomplishments of the man and simply think about him as a person who suddenly became aware that he had limited time, consider the way he chose to experience his remaining time. We really didn’t know that until this weekend when we heard his family talk about what he did in his remaining months after his diagnosis. I learned about the character of the man, how he viewed life, how he treasured his family, how he spent his time, what became important to him during these last months of his life….the singalongs, the family dinners, sitting quietly on his porch and smelling the salt air of Hyannisport, being out on the ocean in his sailboat. What I heard was that the things that were important to him are the same things that are important to all of us in the end…..our families, the people we love, the simple things of beauty in the world around us that we all too often don’t take notice of. I guess those are the lessons of life that perhaps are the most important ones to learn.
It sounds so cliché to say that we should make the most of every moment, but if we don’t we aren’t really living. Living is the act of experiencing the moment we are in, whether it is good or bad. That is life; that is what we are here to do.
I read an article in the New York Times several weeks ago by a zen Buddhist priest named Norman Fischer (born Jewish in Wilkes-Barre, Pa in 1946) about the meaning of time. It gave me much to think about, and I offer it to you here..Norman Fischer
My daughter Caitlin said it best a couple of weeks ago when she was home during the summer break before going back to school at UF in Gainesville. We were talking about this article and she said very matter of factly, “If you have one foot in the past and one foot in the future, you are shitting on the present!”. How is that for a mental image?
The fundamental truth of it, though, is inescapable. We only have the moments that are before us to live our lives. My biggest challenge is to stay aware of that during every moment I am alive and to live it as it is happening. Don’t we all feel that way?
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Monday, August 31, 2009
Friday, August 28, 2009
Remembering Reading Rainbow
My friend Judy H. sent me a note yesterday with a link(below) to a review of Reading Rainbow on AOL Shopping. As most of you know, Reading Rainbow has been a life work for both me and Cecily. PBS is not renewing the broadcast rights for the show effective this month, so for the first time in 26 years, Reading Rainbow will not be on the air somewhere. I thought this would be a good time to share my personal thoughts about this wonderful experience we had. Television production is a team sport, and location production, especially, requires the talents of so many people. I can't say enough about the extraordinary staff we had at Lancit Media and how we all lived this dream together. Hope you all enjoy--
Reading Rainbow is the essence of what I am as a person. That’s a big statement, but one that really does sum up what my life has been about. I am imbued with the “Reading Rainbow Karma”. All of us on the production team of Reading Rainbow used to joke about it for all the years we worked on the show. It always seemed like this idea, this series, was blessed by some force that would not let it fail. No matter what production challenge (and there were many!) rose to meet us, we always prevailed.
But the ‘essence’ I speak of is more than just a feeling. It is a way of looking at the world. It is a method for approaching and living life. I think that all the good fortune that blessed the series was a result of the way all of us who made this program gave to it unselfishly. Money was not the issue—it was about doing something that really impacted children—that made a difference in their world. We all somehow knew that to be the case. We knew it was ‘big’, which is why we accomplished remarkable things.
Back in 1982 when someone from Great Plains National ITV Library and WNED in Buffalo, NY approached Cecily Truett and me looking for producers to come up with a concept for a new show that would encourage kids to read over the summer months, we had no idea what our idea would become. We frankly didn’t have a clue how we were going to do it! (We were trying to pay the rent, and the fee we earned creating the pilot was enough for a few months rent on our New York apartment!)
But during the following 21 years we lived a dream. What we created left an enduring imprint on the minds of children from several generations.
As I read of the series’ passage into history, I just want to raise my hand and say that what this series has been for all that time is something appreciated most by it’s audience. It is the children who watched, and learned, and learned to love to read that gave this idea its legs.
Our audience, (including the parents of our audience) loved this program—unreservedly! Reading Rainbow and Lancit Media won every award there was, both domestic and international! During our tenure as producers of the show, we garnered 17 EMMY awards, 7 for Best Children’s Series.
But more important than any of the awards was what happened to children out there in TV Land. They started to read! We watched the sale of Reading Rainbow books rise over 1000% in some cases as kids and their parents rushed to the bookstores to get their hands on the books.
It was a simple concept really—we endeavored to provide a real world context for children from what they could read in a book. In the process of analyzing every book we featured, we had to find ways to make the essence of what children were reading about real—in a way we could show them and they could see and understand. It required all of us to think like a 6 year old. We had to see the world through 6-year-old eyes. Sounds easy and obvious, I know, but believe me it isn’t. The wonderful thing was that the people who came together to make these programs were able to do that effortlessly. That was what was so exciting about doing this work. For 25 years, we lived the lyrics of our theme song: “I can go anywhere, I can do anything”. That was the mantra that we always held above all else, and it was the overarching theme that we tried to imbue into our audience’s minds.
I found as I directed these episodes that I needed to see the world as a 6 year old wanted to see it. I was always fascinated by the fact that whatever wide shot we started with—an aerial view of the desert; a wide shot of the harbor, a wide shot of a marketplace—we could always zero in on the beauty and wonder of extreme close ups that would reveal the claws of the gila monster, or the way the coils of tugboat ropes were made, or the surface patterns on an onion. Doing that kind of exercise with everything that I looked at in my life changed me. I felt this tremendous responsibility to communicate these things to eyes that had never seen them before…to somehow reveal the world to these fresh minds that were so open to anything I wanted to show them. It was exhilarating as a professional to have that opportunity. It made me a more aware person.
The real payoff and treasure was in the joy of discovery! We got to be 6 years old all over again. For 25 years we got to take field trips everywhere and meet the most remarkable people. It was a privilege to be able to reach our audience. Just ask anyone today under the age of 40 if they know the Reading Rainbow theme and more than likely they will break into the simple melody that signaled the embarkation on a journey every day for them as kids as they watched the show. That , my friends, is REAL media power!
Remembering Reading Rainbow
Butterfly in the Sky……
Reading Rainbow is the essence of what I am as a person. That’s a big statement, but one that really does sum up what my life has been about. I am imbued with the “Reading Rainbow Karma”. All of us on the production team of Reading Rainbow used to joke about it for all the years we worked on the show. It always seemed like this idea, this series, was blessed by some force that would not let it fail. No matter what production challenge (and there were many!) rose to meet us, we always prevailed.
But the ‘essence’ I speak of is more than just a feeling. It is a way of looking at the world. It is a method for approaching and living life. I think that all the good fortune that blessed the series was a result of the way all of us who made this program gave to it unselfishly. Money was not the issue—it was about doing something that really impacted children—that made a difference in their world. We all somehow knew that to be the case. We knew it was ‘big’, which is why we accomplished remarkable things.
Back in 1982 when someone from Great Plains National ITV Library and WNED in Buffalo, NY approached Cecily Truett and me looking for producers to come up with a concept for a new show that would encourage kids to read over the summer months, we had no idea what our idea would become. We frankly didn’t have a clue how we were going to do it! (We were trying to pay the rent, and the fee we earned creating the pilot was enough for a few months rent on our New York apartment!)
But during the following 21 years we lived a dream. What we created left an enduring imprint on the minds of children from several generations.
As I read of the series’ passage into history, I just want to raise my hand and say that what this series has been for all that time is something appreciated most by it’s audience. It is the children who watched, and learned, and learned to love to read that gave this idea its legs.
Our audience, (including the parents of our audience) loved this program—unreservedly! Reading Rainbow and Lancit Media won every award there was, both domestic and international! During our tenure as producers of the show, we garnered 17 EMMY awards, 7 for Best Children’s Series.
But more important than any of the awards was what happened to children out there in TV Land. They started to read! We watched the sale of Reading Rainbow books rise over 1000% in some cases as kids and their parents rushed to the bookstores to get their hands on the books.
It was a simple concept really—we endeavored to provide a real world context for children from what they could read in a book. In the process of analyzing every book we featured, we had to find ways to make the essence of what children were reading about real—in a way we could show them and they could see and understand. It required all of us to think like a 6 year old. We had to see the world through 6-year-old eyes. Sounds easy and obvious, I know, but believe me it isn’t. The wonderful thing was that the people who came together to make these programs were able to do that effortlessly. That was what was so exciting about doing this work. For 25 years, we lived the lyrics of our theme song: “I can go anywhere, I can do anything”. That was the mantra that we always held above all else, and it was the overarching theme that we tried to imbue into our audience’s minds.
I found as I directed these episodes that I needed to see the world as a 6 year old wanted to see it. I was always fascinated by the fact that whatever wide shot we started with—an aerial view of the desert; a wide shot of the harbor, a wide shot of a marketplace—we could always zero in on the beauty and wonder of extreme close ups that would reveal the claws of the gila monster, or the way the coils of tugboat ropes were made, or the surface patterns on an onion. Doing that kind of exercise with everything that I looked at in my life changed me. I felt this tremendous responsibility to communicate these things to eyes that had never seen them before…to somehow reveal the world to these fresh minds that were so open to anything I wanted to show them. It was exhilarating as a professional to have that opportunity. It made me a more aware person.
The real payoff and treasure was in the joy of discovery! We got to be 6 years old all over again. For 25 years we got to take field trips everywhere and meet the most remarkable people. It was a privilege to be able to reach our audience. Just ask anyone today under the age of 40 if they know the Reading Rainbow theme and more than likely they will break into the simple melody that signaled the embarkation on a journey every day for them as kids as they watched the show. That , my friends, is REAL media power!
Remembering Reading Rainbow
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Journalism or Theatre?
What a pleasant surprise to hear from all of you! Your words of encouragement are much appreciated.
Well, the good news is that my doctor says I am good for another 10,000 miles and I can truthfully say I am feeling great today!! Nothing like a good report from the Doc.
I made mention in my last post that I am really tired of the incessant garbage spewing forth from right wing Talk Radio. You know I am living here in SW Florida which went Republican in the last election by a 2:1 margin, so it should come as no surprise that the airwaves here are filled with not only the nationally syndicated blowhards like Hannity, Levin, Beck, Limbaugh, Cunningham and Ingraham, but also locally by a 40 year old woman named Mandy Connell during morning drive time on the only real AM station here in Naples/Fort Myers. I like to listen to the radio at night, and also when I wake up to see what is going on in the world before I roll out of bed and have a cup of coffee and read the online NYT.
More often than not, as my consciousness materializes I find myself listening to the abrasive voice of this woman screeching and yammering about all the things in the world that are Obama's fault....everything from the economic collapse to ruination of the environment. Her delivery is so filled with vitriolic, snide, demeaning hatred that I assume that anyone listening is completely repulsed by her rantings. I am so wrong! Caller after caller comes on the air and agrees with her, while adding their own venomous comments to her conclusions about all the things that are being done wrong by our new President and the liberals, progressives, Democrats, etc. It is a scary thing to behold! These people are borderline seditionists, inciting all of the non thinking automatons in the listening audience to go to Tea Parties and show up at town meetings to scream at members of Congress or anyone else that disagrees with them.
Whatever happened to reasonable discourse?
I wonder how many of these people are really out there? The media would have us believe that it is an increasingly smaller group of core base conservatives, but I am not so sure. These are people with guns (oh by the way, I discovered that 85% of the population here in SW Florida has firearms!) who are buying more guns. Now they are starting to appear at Presidential rallies, national parks and other public places. What country is this? I find it all pretty scary.
I have had a few back and forth emails with this Connell character, accusing her of half truths, distortions, erroneous conclusions and the like, but she is undaunted. I tried to make her understand that good journalism requires that she present a balanced view. She said she was not a journalist, but rather an entertainer! I would call it Theatre of Absurd Journalism! She, like all the rest of these radio personalities, is willing to believe anything regardless of fact if it furthers her argument and can incite her audience, and bring ratings to the station. That means they can charge more for advertising of course! And to think I spent half my life in 'show business'!
Ah well, now that you know what I think about that, let me leave you with some thoughts about something that Kathy said in her comment. She told us that she has tried to write to Obama everyday to tell him how she feels about the non-punishment given to Wall Street perpetrators when compared with jail terms for people stealing food to live , and how the 'deck is stacked against us', the ordinary citizen. I hear this from lots of people... the average citizen has lost control.
We all hoped for a real change when Barak Obama assumed the Presidency, and what we are seeing is what many predicted---the slow erosion of our hopes as the realities of money and the real Washington game becomes visible to us all. Every day we read about some other concession that the administration is making that is the antithesis of the promised changes that we had all hoped would restore the tenets of truth, honesty, compassion and intelligence to the way the government is run and how we want it to consider the needs of real people. What we are discovering is what we have subliminally known all along: Money is the true driver of everything. It corrupts all of our best intentions.
I am an eternal optimist, however. I believe that the inherent goodness of the human heart is stronger than anything else. I will still hope for enlightenment on the part of those who wear the blinders of the profit motive. There is nothing wrong with making money as long as it is not at the expense of our humanity and our souls. Let us pray!.........
Well, the good news is that my doctor says I am good for another 10,000 miles and I can truthfully say I am feeling great today!! Nothing like a good report from the Doc.
I made mention in my last post that I am really tired of the incessant garbage spewing forth from right wing Talk Radio. You know I am living here in SW Florida which went Republican in the last election by a 2:1 margin, so it should come as no surprise that the airwaves here are filled with not only the nationally syndicated blowhards like Hannity, Levin, Beck, Limbaugh, Cunningham and Ingraham, but also locally by a 40 year old woman named Mandy Connell during morning drive time on the only real AM station here in Naples/Fort Myers. I like to listen to the radio at night, and also when I wake up to see what is going on in the world before I roll out of bed and have a cup of coffee and read the online NYT.
More often than not, as my consciousness materializes I find myself listening to the abrasive voice of this woman screeching and yammering about all the things in the world that are Obama's fault....everything from the economic collapse to ruination of the environment. Her delivery is so filled with vitriolic, snide, demeaning hatred that I assume that anyone listening is completely repulsed by her rantings. I am so wrong! Caller after caller comes on the air and agrees with her, while adding their own venomous comments to her conclusions about all the things that are being done wrong by our new President and the liberals, progressives, Democrats, etc. It is a scary thing to behold! These people are borderline seditionists, inciting all of the non thinking automatons in the listening audience to go to Tea Parties and show up at town meetings to scream at members of Congress or anyone else that disagrees with them.
Whatever happened to reasonable discourse?
I wonder how many of these people are really out there? The media would have us believe that it is an increasingly smaller group of core base conservatives, but I am not so sure. These are people with guns (oh by the way, I discovered that 85% of the population here in SW Florida has firearms!) who are buying more guns. Now they are starting to appear at Presidential rallies, national parks and other public places. What country is this? I find it all pretty scary.
I have had a few back and forth emails with this Connell character, accusing her of half truths, distortions, erroneous conclusions and the like, but she is undaunted. I tried to make her understand that good journalism requires that she present a balanced view. She said she was not a journalist, but rather an entertainer! I would call it Theatre of Absurd Journalism! She, like all the rest of these radio personalities, is willing to believe anything regardless of fact if it furthers her argument and can incite her audience, and bring ratings to the station. That means they can charge more for advertising of course! And to think I spent half my life in 'show business'!
Ah well, now that you know what I think about that, let me leave you with some thoughts about something that Kathy said in her comment. She told us that she has tried to write to Obama everyday to tell him how she feels about the non-punishment given to Wall Street perpetrators when compared with jail terms for people stealing food to live , and how the 'deck is stacked against us', the ordinary citizen. I hear this from lots of people... the average citizen has lost control.
We all hoped for a real change when Barak Obama assumed the Presidency, and what we are seeing is what many predicted---the slow erosion of our hopes as the realities of money and the real Washington game becomes visible to us all. Every day we read about some other concession that the administration is making that is the antithesis of the promised changes that we had all hoped would restore the tenets of truth, honesty, compassion and intelligence to the way the government is run and how we want it to consider the needs of real people. What we are discovering is what we have subliminally known all along: Money is the true driver of everything. It corrupts all of our best intentions.
I am an eternal optimist, however. I believe that the inherent goodness of the human heart is stronger than anything else. I will still hope for enlightenment on the part of those who wear the blinders of the profit motive. There is nothing wrong with making money as long as it is not at the expense of our humanity and our souls. Let us pray!.........
Monday, August 24, 2009
How Am I?
So I have an appointment with my doctor tomorrow at 9:30 am, and I am sure when he walks through the door into the examining room he will hold out his hand and ask me how I am? Isn't that what they all do? So while I was doing my 2 1/2 mile walk this morning I tried to think about how I really am so when I get a chance to answer the question for real I will have something intelligent to say.
Well, I'll be 62 in a few weeks and I can eat anything without feeling bad. I get up to pee a couple of times a night, but who doesn't at my age? Neither my wife or kids has any serious diseases. I don't have any chest pains, abdominal pains or anything else that could be serious. I take 20mg of prozac a day so I am pretty much anxiety free, and I have been taking blood pressure meds since I was 26, so I am doing all I can to preserve my plumbing and vital organs.
I have two businesses that are really a challenge right now in this horrible economy, my health care premiums just went up because I am getting older, I live in a nice house in Naples, Fla. and I can buy pretty much whatever I want at the grocery, although we have stopped eating out because of the cost. My kids are out of the house so I have more time with my wife than I have had in 25 years, and that is a real wonderful novelty!
So I guess I am doing pretty well, all things considered, especially when I compare my life with what I see all around me--bad marriages, kids who are threatening their parents with suicide, families where both parents have been laid off and they don't have any savings, friends who have lost everything to Bernie Madoff's ponzi scheme, blah, blah, blah.
I watched a documentary yesterday on Bill Moyers Journal called 'Critical Care' that portrayed the horrors of three people who don't have health coverage and are having a desperate time. The three people are all younger than me. Two of them died from horrible diseases, cancer and liver disease, both of which could have been prevented if they had not been afraid to go to the doctor because of the cost. The third was a 45 year old man with three kids and a fourth on the way. He had degenerative spinal disease that required an operation that cost $150,000 and he had no insurance. He was so stooped over he could not work, and simply because he was the subject of the documentary, he was given the necessary surgery as a gift. But what about the thousands of people who are not subjects of documentaries?
My health insurance premiums just went up, but at least I have insurance, but how good is it really? Not great....it is what I call catastrophic coverage. If God forbid I need something really big, it will be there, but for the run of the mill wellness coverage, I am forced into a high deductible policy that means I have to pay premiums and deductibles of over $20,000 before I get covered for anything big. What if I didn't have that money to pay??
And so I listen to all these assholes Republicans and conservatives who oppose anything that means real reform of health care because they are all in the pockets of the insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies. I read the editorials and wonder if this country really has the balls to do anything for the average person anymore. It makes me fearful. I fear the civil unrest when all of this boils over and the gun nuts decide to kill all the liberals. I listen to the vitriol from the right wing conservative talk mouths and wonder what ever happened to 'benefit of the doubt' and truth.
As for me, I guess I am ok......for now.
Well, I'll be 62 in a few weeks and I can eat anything without feeling bad. I get up to pee a couple of times a night, but who doesn't at my age? Neither my wife or kids has any serious diseases. I don't have any chest pains, abdominal pains or anything else that could be serious. I take 20mg of prozac a day so I am pretty much anxiety free, and I have been taking blood pressure meds since I was 26, so I am doing all I can to preserve my plumbing and vital organs.
I have two businesses that are really a challenge right now in this horrible economy, my health care premiums just went up because I am getting older, I live in a nice house in Naples, Fla. and I can buy pretty much whatever I want at the grocery, although we have stopped eating out because of the cost. My kids are out of the house so I have more time with my wife than I have had in 25 years, and that is a real wonderful novelty!
So I guess I am doing pretty well, all things considered, especially when I compare my life with what I see all around me--bad marriages, kids who are threatening their parents with suicide, families where both parents have been laid off and they don't have any savings, friends who have lost everything to Bernie Madoff's ponzi scheme, blah, blah, blah.
I watched a documentary yesterday on Bill Moyers Journal called 'Critical Care' that portrayed the horrors of three people who don't have health coverage and are having a desperate time. The three people are all younger than me. Two of them died from horrible diseases, cancer and liver disease, both of which could have been prevented if they had not been afraid to go to the doctor because of the cost. The third was a 45 year old man with three kids and a fourth on the way. He had degenerative spinal disease that required an operation that cost $150,000 and he had no insurance. He was so stooped over he could not work, and simply because he was the subject of the documentary, he was given the necessary surgery as a gift. But what about the thousands of people who are not subjects of documentaries?
My health insurance premiums just went up, but at least I have insurance, but how good is it really? Not great....it is what I call catastrophic coverage. If God forbid I need something really big, it will be there, but for the run of the mill wellness coverage, I am forced into a high deductible policy that means I have to pay premiums and deductibles of over $20,000 before I get covered for anything big. What if I didn't have that money to pay??
And so I listen to all these assholes Republicans and conservatives who oppose anything that means real reform of health care because they are all in the pockets of the insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies. I read the editorials and wonder if this country really has the balls to do anything for the average person anymore. It makes me fearful. I fear the civil unrest when all of this boils over and the gun nuts decide to kill all the liberals. I listen to the vitriol from the right wing conservative talk mouths and wonder what ever happened to 'benefit of the doubt' and truth.
As for me, I guess I am ok......for now.
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