Sparks from the Fire

I like to think that this blog is about all things Inspirational.  That being so, we take yet another turn from Inspirational music to the fascinating world of vision.

I’m not exactly a frequenter of doctors.  I think I remember visiting all of two in my lifetime.  As a practicing Christian Scientist, I handle my physical problems through prayer and it works, so I’ve simply not had to go that route in life.  Nothing against doctors, in fact I think most of them do wondrous work helping people survive the trials of the body. (more…)

Making it. Here is probably the most misunderstood term of the entertainment industry – and probably, for many, the most important.  As creative director of an Inspirational music company, I encounter this confusion on one level or another nearly every day.

Many artists are obsessed with the idea of “making it”, but if you were to ask many of them what they meant by this, you would receive a myriad of divergent answers.  It is a term that is pretty much an entertainment industry concept only.  We rarely hear of a chemical engineer, a doctor or a school teacher making it.  (more…)

Of all the problems in our world today, war has to be the worst of them all.  I think it’s even worse than poverty.

Give me the money that has been spent in war and I will clothe every man, woman, and child in an attire of which kings and queens will be proud.  I will build a schoolhouse in every valley over the whole earth.  I will crown every hillside with a place of worship consecrated to peace.  ~ Charles Sumner, American politician and statesman from Massachusetts.

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A Rant In Reverse

In a departure from the usual post on Inspirational music, today I’d like to tell you about a kid I just met.

Kids!
I don’t know what’s wrong with these kids today!
Kids!
Who can understand anything they say?
Kids!
They are disobedient, disrespectful oafs! (more…)

“For it is in giving that we receive.” St. Francis of Assisi

What is it that we don’t get about this concept?  I definitely include myself in the previous “we”.  Why is it that we don’t give more?  The greatest minds in history agree on the simple principle.

“For true love is inexhaustible; the more you give, the more you have. And if you go to draw at the true fountainhead, the more water you draw, the more abundant is its flow.” Antoine De Saint-Exupery

I, personally, have proven this over and over in my life, but still don’t do it enough.  Often, walking the streets of New York, I stop and hand a beggar a twenty.  I like to give twenties because I know it can really make an impact on a life.

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Pete, with Wildcats hat – Summer before Link's Leopards

Putting Inspirational music aside for the moment, I’d like to recount still one of the most inspirational stories of my life.  This blog is about ALL things Inspirational, so here goes…

The Glendale Wildcats were suddenly defunct.  It was April and I was in the 6^th grade.  Baseball was my life.

The St. Louis Cardinals with Stan Musial as its Hall of Fame player were my passion, but the Glendale Wildcats was the Little League team I had played on the summer before.

The Wildcats had lost their sponsor and that meant no team, no baseball for the summer — an impossible situation to face for a 6^th grader. (more…)

As a teacher, a parent, and inspirational music composer, I am conscious of this subtle line of demarcation between the undesirable and the desired.  It moves and waves from case to case, from situation to situation.  It requires complete consciousness to keep it in control.

I want to be feared by no one – not even my worst enemy.  If I am feared then I truly am an enemy.  If I am respected then the enmity disappears and the relationship between constituents is in balance.  Cross the line and welcome in the beginnings of war.

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If there was ever a confusion of concepts, it’s this one.  It’s been in the high 90s here in NYC for the past week and it seems like everybody I’m running into lately is struggling with a summer cold.  The whole concept, or should I say ‘miss-concept’, is so proliferate that I guess I decided to join the party – or should I say ‘got duped into’ joining the party.

Fly Fishing - What's wrong with this picture?

I mean really, what a weird thing to begin with – get a cold when it’s hot.  Shows how mental these things are in the first place.  To begin with, the expression, “in the first place” is the operative word here in my experience.  I decided to join the party because I didn’t protect my thought as I usually do when I started being bombarded with all the bad news.

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