Fuck this!<\/p>\n
That’s what John Muir said after being blinded in an industrial accident.\u00c2\u00a0 A file pierced his eye and he thought his vision was history.\u00c2\u00a0 But after a month in a darkened room, his vision returned and he walked from Indiana to Florida.<\/p>\n
I know, I know, that was a hundred years ago.\u00c2\u00a0 More, actually.\u00c2\u00a0 But that’s not the point.\u00c2\u00a0 The question is, are you working with your head or heart?\u00c2\u00a0 At some point you’ve got to stop being who your parents want you to be and start being who you are.<\/p>\n
I hadn’t been to Yosemite since 1973.\u00c2\u00a0 Not much has changed.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s how it is with the physical world.\u00c2\u00a0 It outlasts us.\u00c2\u00a0 We’re just a blip in time.\u00c2\u00a0 We think we’re forever, but despite all the hosannas, even Michael Jackson’s music will soon be forgotten.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not human nature, it’s Mother Nature!<\/p>\n
Yosemite is an amusement park of the mind.\u00c2\u00a0 Rather than going on rides, being turned upside down by mechanical contraptions, you look at the landscape and your mind does somersaults.\u00c2\u00a0 How did this happen?\u00c2\u00a0 It’s hard to imagine a glacier that creates Half Dome, and how can El Capitan be almost perfectly vertical?<\/p>\n
At the visitor center near Yosemite Falls there’s a bit of cell service.\u00c2\u00a0 But you get no e-mail on your BlackBerry, you’re disconnected from everything deemed important.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re placed in natural perspective.\u00c2\u00a0 We’re here for such a very short time.\u00c2\u00a0 What do we want to do, what do we want to accomplish?<\/p>\n
Money won’t help you if you’re hiking in Tuolomne Meadows and it starts to rain.\u00c2\u00a0 Rich people get no better view from Glacier Point than poor.\u00c2\u00a0 In Yosemite, we’re all in it together.<\/p>\n
On a nature walk behind the Ahwahnee Hotel, the ranger told us the John Muir story.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s stuck with me.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s shown me that those Americans not on the cover of "Us", not featured in the "Forbes" 500 are not losers, but in many cases winners.\u00c2\u00a0 Money is not the only priority.\u00c2\u00a0 You need it to live, but how much?<\/p>\n
Would you rap if there was no Biggie, no Jay-Z?<\/p>\n
Would you play the guitar if there was no Eddie Van Halen?<\/p>\n
Would you be in the music business if David Geffen hadn’t made all that money?<\/p>\n
If not, give up.\u00c2\u00a0 Please.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re hurting yourself.\u00c2\u00a0 And you’ll leave no lasting mark.<\/p>\n
But if you need to play, don’t lament that you’re not a millionaire.\u00c2\u00a0 The music should be enough.\u00c2\u00a0 If you’ve got a roof over your head, if you can pay the bills, you’re on the map.\u00c2\u00a0 Affecting a coterie deeply is more important than being a momentary comet, burning brightly and then flaming out.<\/p>\n
So don’t do what you should do, do what you want to do.\u00c2\u00a0 Even if your chosen field is not perceived to be a road to riches.\u00c2\u00a0 Who knew all those chefs would become stars on the Food Network?\u00c2\u00a0 Who knew you could make a career in extreme sports?\u00c2\u00a0 Who knew gaming would outstrip both music and movies in revenue?<\/p>\n
I’m not saying to forgo an education.\u00c2\u00a0 Fundamentals are important.\u00c2\u00a0 Only by establishing a foundation do you have a place to build.<\/p>\n
It’s time to establish your own independence.\u00c2\u00a0 To make your own decisions.\u00c2\u00a0 So when you’re on your deathbed, surrounded by loved ones who will soon reach their demise also, you’ve got no regrets.<\/p>\n
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Fuck this! That’s what John Muir said after being blinded in an industrial accident.\u00c2\u00a0 A file pierced his eye and he thought his vision was history.\u00c2\u00a0 But after a month in a darkened room, his vision returned and he walked from Indiana to Florida. I know, I know, that was a hundred years ago.\u00c2\u00a0 More, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s96vPs-yosemite","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2072"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2073,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2072\/revisions\/2073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}