“To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction.” - Issac Newton
The morning I wrote about him (That Inner Light MUST Be Turned On) my son was sitting behind me doing extra school work. I had woken him up at 5:45 am by asking him, "Are You Ready to Battle for Your Soul?"His mom and I had asked him to get all B's this grading period. When we checked he had one A, one B, one C, and two D's. So he came to live with Dad who no longer asked, but told him he was going to get ALL A's now. If he is going to get more, he is going to have to give more.To be able to give more, he's going to have to become more.
Something else that has bothered me very much is the rise in terrorism and hate. I went into a neighborhood I've been banned from to check on a person that needs to be cared about, and now hear I have to die for not being terrorized and afraid enough to respect their territory (to be honest I think it's as silly as after a guy pulled a gun on me to get out I caught him off-guard by coming after him, which startled him enough to put it back in his underwear and walk away. Where I went wrong was loosing my temper and telling him to pull his pants up. It was foolish because I took away his sense of importance and his reputation, and will readily apologize for that. But I WILL NOT allow myself to die over a question of mens' underwear fashion and if he thinks I scared him before I'll make his heart stop this time. If he does kill me I'm confessing right now I will lie to my fellow dead people about how I died and why and say I got hit by a bus).
It's an ugly place (25 Most Dangerous Neighborhoods) filled with ugly thinking. I heard the city is going to tear it down, but that doesn't mean we can't bring as much light and love as possible to the people in it in the meantime. A new location won't change things for them anyway. They have to change for things in their lives to change. I'll feel strong for them, not sorry.
But I also heard something beautiful. Last week I called to see how my uncle in the hospital was doing. He couldn't talk so I told him what a truly great uncle he was and that I loved him very much. I began to choke up so my aunt thanked me and said goodbye. I found out he passed away right after, meaning the last thing he heard was how much he was loved. I can't think of any better words to hear your last few moments on Earth.
If terrorism and hate are about death, then the equal and opposite (and INTELLIGENT) reaction to this is that EVERYTHING around us MUST LIVE.Awhile ago I turned down an offer to make a movie about my life for one simple reason, someone's reputation had to die in order to make mine look good. The "villain" was to be my ex-wife, who's not only my daughter's mother (what I do to her mother I do to her), but a person in the process of becoming her best self, just like the rest of us.
Simply because someone sees me as farther along that path than someone else doesn't mean we have to trash that someone else, which if put on film might prevent his or her highest evolution from ever taking place.
After 10,000 years of evolution, our species still only uses 3-5% of our hearts and our heads. What if we took a step forward towards using more by focusing less on striving to simply survive, or at best to succeed in order to say "Look at ME! Look at what I can do and how famous I am".......
This takes the ability to appreciate life while you have it.
While helping my son evolve towards his highest self Thursday night I got a call from Bella's mother telling me she has two F's. It seems our brilliant Bella has gotten bored by her school books and is being belligerent and bellicose about becoming her best Bella self. By the time I finished believing in and loving these two children, it was after midnight before I began grading the work of other children in the process of becoming their best selves. 
When I came to school I saw a student I had at the beginning of the year who gave me her very best while she was with me for science. I picked her up and swung her around and thanked her for this. Walking away I wondered why I continue to give away energy I don't have and not save any for myself? It seems so stupid but feels so right.At the end of the day I got my answer, and evidence that the decision to trade in my 15 minutes of fame for hopefully a lifetime of inspiration might just be paying off. I was handed something that not only will give me life for the rest of mine, but let me know I have done the same for her. It let me know that my life has become about "We".
It was the best Valentine's Day card I've ever received:
(Student's Name)
Book of Thanks
for Mr. Stuart
Thank you
for changing
the WORLD
even when
it gets
TOUGH!!!!
Thank you
for changing
ME
into the
BEST
I have
EVER BEEN!!
Words can't
DESCRIBE
what you
are
doing for
ME
and
LOTS
of
OTHERS!!
The kids and I were watching a show on the Grand Canyon the other day where they mentioned it was made @5 million years ago, which is the blink of an eye compared to how long the Earth has been around (4.5 billion years). To think that I could make any real difference in 42 short years confuses and awes me.When I shared this student's card with my grandmother last night her voice filled with love as she told me how she felt about me. If terrorists can fill the world with fear and death, we can spend our lives reacting more intelligently by filling it with powerful love and life.
I might not be husband/boyfriend material, and therefore have no one specific person to send a valentine's to. The last person I dated complained this summer about what was wrong with me just as my exes did, and they aren't wrong. I work too much and dream too big.But what I can do is the equal and opposite by focusing on all that's right with me, lovingly and humorously work on what's not yet perfect and probably never will be, and give the very best I have to offer to the world in one humongous heart hug.
Living like I'm dying....doing both for life-giving love. There's nothing better.
*pics are from last summer's trip to Rome, taken at the Roman Forum, the bridge over the River Tiber, the Castel Sant'Angelo, Spanish Steps, Piazza Venezia, Pantheon, Colosseum, and Vatican.
This summer I'm planning to go to Greece. I can only imagine what will happen to my head and heart sitting and stepping in the same places as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle.
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