Blue Dog

I like this guy. I had not heard of him before but he has had much commercial success and is now being featured at the New Orleans Museum of Art. I just saw an interview with him on the Sunday Morning show and this is what I like about him - he paints what/how he wants to paint and not how the galleries tell him he should paint in order to get people to buy his work. That line of thinking has apparently worked for him. Now he is a multimillionaire so obviously he can live by this philosophy without losing any sleep about where his next meal will be coming from. But I think he stayed true to himself in the starving artist years as well and it paid off. Good for him.

Another interesting story from today's show was about a woman named Wendy who was diagnosed with MS ten years ago. She decided she better live life now before she was relegated to a wheelchair for the rest of her life. So she ran a marathon which was great...but not enough. She set her sights on climbing the highest mountain on each continent. I think she was living on the east coast at this time and decided to move to CO in order to train. Along the way to achieving this goal she came across this 4th grade class who has embraced her and her goal. They track her progress and she calls them when she reaches the summit of whatever mountain she is on. She often tells them to Climb Your Own Mountain. I love that. These kids are learning to set goals, go after them and if at first you don't exceed, try and try again. We need more Wendy's in the world.

And one last thought for the day. Matt and I read an artlicle about an epidemic sweeping the nation - videoicisis. More and more youth are foregoing a good old game of kickball, riding their bikes, going to parks, hiking, doing sports, fishing - you get the picture - to sit in front of (1) the tv, (2) video games, and (3) the computer (not necessarily in that order). I can see the effects of this becoming so far-reaching - generations of unhealthy, overweight, vitamin D deficient people. And on top of that, who is going to care about our green spaces? No one. So do your part. Get off the couch, get your kid off the couch and go climb a mountain.