Chatty's Thinking . . . Getting seasoned or growing up . . .

This is something I've been thinking about and even talking to a young blogger gal named Katie about - she's young, but she's so smart. She gets things a lot of adults miss.

We're born, our parents teach us how to potty, walk, what to eat, how to think, what to do, how to act, what to think, what to say, how to say it, to be good, to do good in school, be careful, work ethics, homework, grades, and so forth. They tell us what not to do too. Don't touch, don't go without looking both ways - they tell us a lot of good things not to do.

A parents job is hard. I've done it twice on my own and I am sharing it for a 3rd time with my lovely daughter. So I'm not blaming them. We do what we think is best at the time.

It's a parents duty to teach us these things. Don't drink and drive. Don't smoke. Don't take drugs. Be good. Be nice. Don't get mad. Be a good friend. Don't do this and don't do that. By the time we're 10, 11, 12 we have a big list of what to do and what not to do. Hurry up to do this and hurry up to do that. We learn to become stressed and worried. We're always in a hurry.

We spend the next years working hard at school, trying to become popular, working part time jobs, then there's college, and so forth. Do, do, do. We get a job, we get married, have kids, buy a house, cars, a bigger house, a more advanced job, and then more schooling.

We raise our kids, our kids leave, our employers aren't loyal to us, we lose our jobs, sometimes our homes and all of a sudden it hits us. What have we done all this for - why did we do it? Why did we give up the fun years to work so hard when it was going to end this way?

You know what this is called?

Midlife crisis. I think we all go through it in one way or another. Maybe it doesn't follow this pattern exactly. Maybe you wonder why did you marry who you did? Kids? House? Anything. You realize that you were all work and no play. That the time before you is less then the time that's past. You ask yourself if it was worth it or not.

This is the point of life where you can become better or bitter.

So here is the dilemma - we were born free - without knowing any rules. Our parents and society spend the next 20+ years making us learn rules, the next 30 + years we spend following them, and then all of a sudden - the rules change - the rug is pulled out from under us. We question why we believed them in the first place.

The one thing I think we should have told our children - me included was to have some fun along the way. To find some profession that you love doing. Find out who you are before you get married and have children. Have some fun. Work hard and have your values, but have fun. Live life - find out what it is about.

Incorporate both sides of yourself. Don't just grow up - GET SOME SEASONING ALONG THE WAY.



Happy Birthday to Madonna - wikipedia

Madonna performing at her Sticky & Sweet Tour, the highest-grossing tour by a solo artist According to Rolling Stone, Madonna "remains one of the greatest pop acts of all time".

She has achieved multiple Guinness World Records, including world's top-selling female recording artist and the most successful female recording artist of all time. On March 10, 2008, Madonna was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in her first year of eligibility.

Billboard magazine ranked her as the most successful solo artist (second overall, behind only The Beatles) on the "Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists".

She has also scored many hits on major international charts, including 13 number-one singles in the United Kingdom, 11 in Australia, and 23 in Canada—more than any other female artist.

Madonna is featured in the book 100 Most Important Women of the 20th Century, published by Ladies' Home Journal in 1998.

Throughout her career Madonna has repeatedly reinvented herself through a series of visual and musical persona's. Madonna's use of shocking sexual imagery has benefited her career and catalyzed public discourse on sexuality and feminism.

The Times stated, "Madonna, whether you like her or not, started a revolution amongst women in music ... Her attitudes and opinions on sex, nudity, style and sexuality forced the public to sit up and take notice." Rodger Streitmatter, author of Sex Sells! (2004), commented that "from the moment Madonna burst onto the nation's radar screen in the mid-1980s, she did everything in her power to shock the public, and her efforts paid off."

Shmuel Boteach, author of Hating women (2005), felt that Madonna was largely responsible for erasing the line between music and pornography. He stated: "Before Madonna, it was possible for women more famous for their voices than their cleavage, to emerge as music superstars. But in the post-Madonna universe, even highly original performers such as Janet Jackson now feel the pressure to expose their bodies on national television to sell albums."

Madonna has received acclaim as a role model for businesswomen in her industry, "achieving the kind of financial control that women had long fought for within the industry", and generating over $1.2 billion in sales within the first decade of her career.

After its establishment, Maverick Records became a major commercial success from her efforts, which was unusual at that time for an artist-established label. Music journalist Robert Sandall said that while interviewing Madonna, it was clear that being "a cultural big hitter" was more important to her than pop music, a career she described as "an accident". He also saw a contrast between her anything-goes sexual public persona and a secretive and "paranoid" attitude toward her own finances; she fired her own brother when he charged her for an extra item.

Professor Colin Barrow of the Cranfield School of Management described Madonna as "America's smartest businesswoman… who has moved to the top of her industry and stayed there by constantly reinventing herself". He held up her "planning, personal discipline and constant attention to detail" as models for all aspiring entrepreneurs.

London Business School academics called her a "dynamic entrepreneur" worth copying; they identified her vision of success, her understanding of the music industry, her ability to recognize her own performance limits (and thus bring in help), her willingness to work hard and her ability to adapt as the key to her commercial success.

Well, can't say I love this gal . . . what is your opinion?