Here is the next installment of Frank Kresen’s biography of John Stewart. John Stewart 4th Installment Ch 1 and previous installments if you missed them: Prelude: Flashback and Foreshadow Introduction: “On Becoming a Household Name” —[…]
Category: Heroes
Goodbye to Mom Tarcila: Feeling the Spirit of Samar Today
My wife’s mother, Tarcila Bohol Llevado, died tragically and suddenly nine days ago, and in a few hours she will be laid to rest. Rena is there in Guinob-an, and I am here in Los[…]
Johnny They Hardly Knew Ye: Remembering John Stewart by Frank Kresen
Frank Kresen and I share a deep, lifetime affection for unique songwriter John Stewart, who died six years ago on January 19, 2006. I have written about John Stewart here, and I’m pasting in a[…]
Remembering Bob Reichenbach, The Friend of a Lifetime (1948-2013)
Yesterday the news came from Nicole Reichenbach that her father and my great and true friend Bob Reichenbach died on December 10th from complications from the stomach cancer he’d been fighting with incredible grace and[…]
Jim Flower: A True Friend and Extraordinary Human Being
A dear lifetime friend and extraordinary human being died yesterday. Jim Flower was the best friend you could ever want — he was the best man at my wedding and a stalwart and true human[…]
Malala Yousafzai on Jon Stewart — Truly Inspirational (and We Need It)
A little bit of pure inspiration at a time when I, at least, could sure use some. By the way, she just won the EC Sakharov Award. And here is her book — I Am[…]
Vaclav Havel, the Czech playwright who inspired the world much as Cory Aquino did, is gone
One by one they are leaving us. First it was Corazon Aquino, whose People Power Revolution of 1986 fired imaginations around the world and ignited the possibility of People Power. Half a world away, in[…]
Murdoch's Crouching Tiger Flying Wendy Reminds All of us With Tiger Wives Why We're Blessed
I came across a clip of Rupert Murdoch’s questioning by the British Parliament and it reminded me how, a few months back, I was inspired by Murdoch’s “tiger wife” Wendy Deng who leapt into action[…]
A warrior-poet who honored his enemy, fallen and forgotten in Mindanao in 1913, remembered a century after his death
Those fallen in battle on either side of a conflict always have a story, and most of those stories are quickly lost and soon forgotten. One story worth remembering of a hero who understood and honored[…]
What Steve Jobs had to say about death…..
From Steve Jobs 2005 Commencement Address at Stanford: My third story is about death. When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your[…]
Manny Pacquiao: Do Mexicans Hate Him, Love Him, or something else?
The just concluded promotional tour that saw Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez travel from Manila, to the US, then Mexico City, has prompted a flurry of articles (most, but not all, by Filipino writers)[…]
Remembering My Songwriting Hero John Stewart on what would have been his 72nd birthday
Today is the fourth anniversary of the death of John Stewart, the legendary songwriter who inspired me on more levels that I can begin to explain. He left us in 2008 but he’s not gone:[…]
My Grandma's "Brag Book" Photo Album — Memories Restored in HD
A few years back during a Christmas visit home, I rooted around in the attic and found boxes of pictures going back multiple generations in our family. I took the pictures with me back to[…]
11th Grader Shree Bose Inspires Hope for the Future by Actually Advancing the War on Cancer
At a time when watching the news is just painful because of 24/7 coverage of the debt ceiling fiasco, Shree Bose popped up on a CNN report and totally inspired me with the story of[…]
USA-Brazil Epic World Cup Soccer Clash Creates A Transcendent Sporting Moment
If you missed the USA-Brazil World Cup quarterfinal soccer match in Dresden Germany today, go find someone who DVR’d it and watch an instant, transcendant classic that had everything — heroes, villains, plot twists and[…]
Death of Gentle Slugger Harmon Killebrew Brings a Flood of Memories and a Whiff of Mortality
Reprinted from MichaelDSellers.com It’s a rainy Tuesday afternoon in Los Angeles and I am beset by a mountain of problems, deadlines, tasks unfinished, things to worry about — you name it. But all day, ever[…]
Life is Cruel; Seve Ballesteros is Dead at 54
Celebrity deaths happen – we read about them every day. So why is it that some truly hurt, while others don’t? One that truly hurts me just happened — Seve Ballesteros, the Spanish golfer, has[…]
Beauty and Inspiration From the Ukraine: Kseniya Simonova's Sand Painting
If your spirit is in need of a lift — this is it. Kseniya Simonova is a Ukrainian artist who uses a giant light box, dramatic music, imagination and “sand painting” skills to interpret the[…]
Channelling Pacquiao #2: What I Learned From "The Week of Manny Pacquiao"
Trying to make sense of “The Week of Manny Pacquiao”, a week in which 102,000 read an impromptu article I wrote about Manny’s grace, humility, and empathy.
Your Comments On My Pacquiao Article –(275 of Them and Counting)–Are a Gift I Would Like to Share
To everyone out there who read the piece I wrote on Sunday morning after the Pacquiao-Margarito fight (Pacquiao-Margarito: What We Can Learn From the Empathy, Humility, and Grace of Manny Pacquiao) and shared it on[…]
Pacquiao-Margarito: What We Can Learn From The Humility, Empathy, and Grace of Manny Pacquiao
Another Pacquiao fight — another drubbing of a much larger opponent, and Pacquiao’s legend as a boxer grows. But the fight between Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito produced not just a memorable pay-per-view experience worth[…]
11 Years Ago Today I Got One Very Important Thing Fantastically Right
Reprinted from MichaelDSellers.com When you live a life that involves striving for achievement, there is a danger that you neglect family and end up being so obsessed with your “quest” that you miss out on[…]
Freedom and Jeff: A Story That Truly Inspires
I just came across the story of Freedom, a bald eagle, and Jeff, a cancer survivor. I checked it out on Snopes because it’s the kind of thing that is so fantastic it might be[…]
Poet Aydah Al Aarawi Al Jahani's Extraordinary and Courageous Voice
Saudi poetess Ayda Al-Jahani has defied the political and religious leaders of her country by competing on Abu Dhabi TV’s Millions Poet and and performing poems which strike out against Islamic extremism. She’s made the top 5.
Comedian Adam Carolla Bashes Pacquiao, Philippines — and Pinoys Are Mellow About it?
Naturally I have various google alerts about Manny Pacquiao and the Philippines and so I woke this Easter morning to a headline from ABS-CBN News that read: “US Comedian Calls Pacquiao ‘illiterate’, bashes Pinoys”. As[…]
John Wooden On Success
Today’s is Final Four weekend, so perhaps it’s not entirely random that I came across a terrific interview by John Wooden, the Wizard of Westwood who led UCLA to unequaled success back during my formative[…]
Unforgettable: Death of Princess Diana
I was living and working in the Philipppines when Princess Diana died. I was in my apartment at the Hotel Danarra, watching on BBC, when the news broke: