ON THAT WINDING ROAD AGAIN

Sometimes on the highway there's a warning.

Sometimes you just keep going.

You put on your survival hat and travel down the winding road on foot, on a bike, in an auto, or donning your wings.

Hey, "if you come to a fork in the road, take it." That's what Yogi Berra said.

Why? Probably it's what Berra learned from doing what he did in baseball.

If you don't move down the road, maybe it's because you don't know where the road might be taking you. Even so, take a step, then another, and see whatever is there to see -- the yellow line, cracks in the road, rocks along the side, or maybe the foliage as you look beyond the trees and wonder where you are going.

Here's a remark for you  to remember:

"A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it," said Jean de la Fontaine, 17th Century French poet whose fables are still quoted nowadays.

Travel lightly -- don't pack all your clothes, your mementos, your special favorite things. The less you carry with you, the easier it is to take strong steps and get from where you are, to another place where you can pause and look around.

Ayn Rand said, "People create their own questions because they are afraid to look straight. All you have to do is look straight and see the road, and when you see it, don't sit looking at it -- walk."

Okay, if you're tired, you can't help recalling other long walks that led to empty spots and dead-end places, dark places -- where time was wasted looking for ways to get out, or ways to back out while traveling slowly backwards.

Hey, even moving backwards you are progressing. Backwards, sideways, forward, or up or down is progressing -- it's life's exercise.

You could quote Hawking, Einstein, Margaret Thatcher, Buddha -- a  lot of major thinkers talk about the roads we travel on. You could sing that song:

"Life is a winding road,
with many twists and turns.
You must make the right choices,
or you will crash and burn.

There is always a chance,
the wrong choice will be chosen.
But do not fret, and do not fear.
The right choice you will hear.

Life is a winding road,
with many different choices.
Be careful what you choose,
for there are many different voices."

Yes, sing, but don't judge, or attach praise, or fears, or definitions. Be there. Just be there as you go.

AWARD FOR TOM CRUISE

The narrator-director of this clip got an easy-going, relaxed performance from Cruise even though the action sequences are more spectacular, more dangerous than ever. There's a gorgeous female (played by Vanessa Kirby) with a shiv in her garter. Ethan, the part Cruise plays, and his new partner Walker (actor Henry Cavill), ambush a deadly villain in a men’s bathroom.

Having seen it, I agree with the NY Times: "Cruise drives, dives, shoots, flies, falls, and teeters on the edge of disaster in his latest film... The setting and Cavill’s strapping masculinity give the scene titillating possibilities, echoing rumors about Mr. Cruise’s sexuality while shrewdly framing him as being as self-aware, as well as controlling... Mr. Cruise’s being 56, and fitter than most people, looks closer to his age than ever, but it works for the character, making him more vulnerable."


Having watched Cruise over the years, I've seen a feisty, cute, young guy become a major producer, writer, director, star, super star. Here's a list of film projects Cruise produced and awards.

There are other film stars who have done what Cruise has done but he's kept expanding, taking on challenges, apparently undeterred by success/failure fears, bad reviews, disturbing headlines about his private life. I saw Tom jump on the couch on the Oprah Winfrey show, declaring he was in love, and cringed. I have heard him chit chatting about Scientology, his marriage and divorce from Kidman, his marriage to Holmes and their baby. Despite being turned off by what he's said, I bow to actor Tom Cruise reverentially. He's done things in films that touch me: "Born on the Fourth of July," "A Few Good Men," "Rain Man" "The Firm." I've seen them more than once or twice.  If they were on TV tonight I'd watch.

I watched George Clooney recently getting the AFI Award. It's not an award that actor, director, producer Cruise will probably ever get, though I am more affected by his work  than anything Clooney's done. The artist in Cruise keeps reaching -- wider, broader, higher, and bolder --  fearlessly reaching for ideas about what a man believes in and what drives him. What Tom Cruise does with the projects he chooses creates a realty that stays with me as a real experience and part of my life.

My award is my reverential bow.

I want to say it again: This artist, actor, producer has created  realities that have become experiences for me that are truly part of my life.  

(VIDEO) SILLY IMPORTANT DAILY ROUTINES

John Cullum's fascinated as wife Emily Frankel describes some of her silly, daily rituals.

Claiming he's NOT "a routine sort of guy," John admits something that surprises Emily, and will surprise you about Cullum as a performer.

HURRAY EX-PRESIDENT CARTER

I remember his inauguration day.



He shunned pomp of the presidency, even carried his own suitcase onto Air Force One, and has maintained that same humility since he left the White House in 1981. Former Presidents join corporate boards of directors and usually sign lucrative book deals. Carter said, "I didn't want to  capitalize on being in the White House. It has never been my ambition to be rich."

He lives with wife Rosalyn in the two-bedroom ranch house in Plains which they built in 1961. He teaches Sunday School at the local Baptist church. Today, at 93, he does household chores like washing the dishes after he and Rosalyn cook dinner -- does charity work in Plains, as well as at his headquarters in Atlanta, while helping restore homes with his own hammer and tool belt, for "Habitat for Humanity." He stays on the peanut farm where he grew up during the Great Depression because  "I can't imagine living anywhere else. We feel at home here--the folks in town, when we need it, they take care of us."

He writes in a garage attached to their house. His books include: "Palestine Peace Not Apartheid,"  "An Hour Before Daylight," "Our Endangered Values." (Received a "Best Spoken Word" Grammy Award for his recording of "Our Endangered Values." In March his latest book "Faith" was published and is now a best seller. Publicizing it he appeared on the late show.



Wowy wow! This very senior Senior Citizen -- his keenness, powerful sense of right and wrong and sense of humor -- he gets me looking forward to tomorrow, and gives me hope about growing older, working, writing/talking about what's on my mind till the very end of life arrives.