Friendship

With social media, we can now claim to have thousands of friends.  But how many of them are true friends? Most of the people we call friends are merely acquaintances or activity partners. We may have some common interests but we don’t really share an emotional bond. 

10 Character Traits of a True Friend

1. Honest.  They are truthful and not afraid to tell you when you’re wrong. 
2. Supportive. They are there for you through thick and thin. They won’t disappear when the going gets tough. 
3. Good Listener.  They allow you to express yourself without interrupting or judging.
4. Sensitive.  They're sensitive to your feelings and needs. 
5. Loyal.  They don't talk behind your back and will defend you if others do. 
6. Humble.  They don't try to “one-up” you. 
7. Helpful.  They help you when you’re feeling sick or depressed. 
8. Available. They make time to get together, talk on the phone, etc. 
9. Positive.  They aren't overly critical or drag you down. 
10. Respectful & Considerate.  They respect commitments.

Thoughts on Friendship

True friendship isn't about being there when it's convenient.  It's about being there when it's not.

 It's not how many friends you can count, it's how many you can count on.

 Hard times will always reveal true friends.

 In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends. ~MLK Jr.

 It's the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter.  ~Marlene Dietrich 

Think where man's glory most begins and ends, and say my glory was I had such friends.  

~W.B. Yeats

Destiny?

I'm always interested in how exceptional talent gets discovered.  I often ponder the question:  can a person have a gift and not know it?  What if a potential violin prodigy grows up never having played a violin?  Will she go through life unaware of her talent?  Or will the inner drive be so powerful that she'll somehow find a way to express it?  Or, will destiny ensure that she's given the opportunity to play one?  What if Jimi Hendrix had been raised in a remote part of the world with no guitars?  Or if McCartney had never met Lennon?  Would they have still discovered their songwriting talent?

I ponder this question with Olympic ice dance gold medalists Meryl Davis and Charlie White, who met at ages 8 & 9 at their neighborhood rink.  They both knew immediately, even at that young age, that they were meant to be skating partners.  They've trained and competed together for 17 years.  It's an amazing story.

Meryl started skating at age 5 because she lived beside a lake and wanted to be able to skate on it in the winter.  What if she'd grown up next to a desert instead?  Would she have ever discovered her talent for skating?  And Charlie's parents gave him skating lessons so he could skate with his friends.  What if his friends had been into bowling?  Or what if his parents hadn't had the money to pay for lessons, or didn't live near an ice rink?  Would he still have found his way onto a pair of skates?

Certainly, much of their success goes to their dedication to the sport -- long hours of practice and major sacrifice.  But their exceptional talent was discovered, in the right place at the right time with the right opportunities.  That's the part I ponder.

How much of our lives are governed by destiny, how much by circumstance, and how much by choice?  Will an uber-gifted person somehow discover his gift, regardless of his means or circumstances?  Or are there people walking around out there -- perhaps even you or me -- with a gold-medal talent that they aren't aware of?  What do you think?

In Praise of Hometown Press

Like most everyone, I'm enthralled by the Olympic gold-medal skating couple Meryl Davis and Charlie White.   Their skill, speed, and agility on the ice.  Their charisma and grace off the ice.Their 17 years of growing up together, training together, competing together.  I saw the mainstream coverage, but I wanted to know more.  How did they start?  What drew them to skating and to each other?  Who first recognized their talent?   I wanted to dig down to the very beginnings of their journey to gold.  

with their first coach

After much searching, I found what I was looking for.  Not from NBC, CNN, or the like.  From an obscure article on a hometown website called Observer & Eccentric.  OK, O&E is owned by Gannett.  But it has a decidedly micro-local focus that delivers depth and details only a hometown paper can. So kudos to them and to all hometown media outlets for giving inquiring minds what they want to know!

Here's the article. 
First skating coach for Charlie White and Meryl Davis looks back on pair's career

Counterfeit Medicine

Medicines Made in India Set Off Safety Worries

Is that drug you're taking real or fake?   Why are we importing our pharmaceuticals from countries that are known counterfeiters? 

• India, the second-largest exporter of over-the-counter and prescription drugs to the US, is coming under increased scrutiny by American regulators for safety lapses, falsified drug test results, and selling fake medicines. Over 40% of our over-the-counter and generic prescription drugs come from India.
  
• The World Health Organization estimates that one in five drugs made in India are fakes
• Counterfeit medicines at a pediatric hospital in Kashmir are now suspected in hundreds of infant deaths.  And the Uganda Cancer Institute received shipments of anti-cancer drugs from India that turned out to be counterfeit and inactive, with forged labels.
• One widely used antibiotic was found in a govt. lab test to contain no active ingredient. The test was kept secret for nearly a year while 100,000 useless pills continued to be dispensed.
• The crucial ingredients for nearly all antibiotics, steroids and many other lifesaving drugs are now made exclusively in China, home to some of the largest counterfeit manufacturing operations in the world.
   
  Read the article here.

Angelique!

Eve

Spirit Rising

One of my most-admired living persons was in town tonight in support of her new album, Eve, and book, Spirit Rising.

Angelique Kidjo gave a high-energy, crowd-pleasing performance at GWU's Lisner Hall. She sang with power, inspiration and emotion a range of songs -- including Pata Pata (in tribute to Miriam Makeba), -- and invited the audience to join her on stage at the end of the show. Between songs, she spoke passionately about the need to empower and educate women in Africa and around the globe. And nobody's got her dance moves! Here are a few clips from (sorry) the back of the theater.

Click here for a recent article about her in the NY Times.

Her NY-based drummer, Daniel Freedman, kept me enthralled and nearly stole the show. 

In keeping with tonight's theme -- here's Toni Childs's haunting Zimbabwe  ...and an alternate 12" version of Toto's masterpiece
along with and an interview with Toto's David Paitch on the making of his enduring #1 hymn to the continent.

Beatles 50th

It was fifty years ago today... At 8:31pm, on this day in 1964, the Fab Four performed their first full concert in America, right here at the now-defunct Washington Coliseum.  It was the largest venue they’d ever played—with the promoter jamming 2,500 temporary seats right up to the lip of the stage to accommodate 8,100 fans.  The historic site is being converted to (sigh) luxury condos / mixed use.

Deadheads Invade the Mansion

Tom Constanten and a houseful of tie-dye at the O Street Mansion, 
DC's best-kept secret and a wonderful concert venue.

(TC is former keyboardist for the Grateful Dead and holds a Ph.D. in Music from Harvard University)