I work with organizations that want to LAUGH through difficult cHAnge.
Thanks to Monroe Church of Christ for inviting me to speak at their Annual Father & Son Banquet tonight. It was a fun evening full of great food, reconnecting with old friends, and especially–laughter. Thanks, too, to the little boy who came up to me after the show saying, “That was really good violin playing.” Then he told ME some jokes he created himself! He already knew how to, “Get Your SHINE Together!” I was so proud of him!
Singer Darden Smith has a song called, “Little Victories.” Makes me think of how we should celebrate all the brave things we do. Including adding humor to our day. With strangers, in the grocery store, with the mailman–you name it. It takes courage, and even if we don’t get a laugh, we made progress. We started to create that environment where we and they can Live Life, Lite.
Here are some other little (and BIG) victories I want to celebrate with you today. The picture is from my friend Birgit, who is taking a trip around the world, solo. She is now in New Zealand. I will be posting some of her pictures on my Facebook fan page. You are welcome to join us there!
The other victory is a huge one for Pittsburgh. I just heard that never in the history of the WORLD has a city had a winning Super Bowl AND Stanley Cup team from the same city! Here is a link of photos from the Pens victory parade yesterday in Pittsburgh. Enjoy! http://tinyurl.com/m9e3bn
Want to send me YOUR little victories, photos, links, etc.? Message me on my Facebook fan page or send to trina@yourshiningexample.com or use the contact form here on the website. Just write “Victory” in the subject line.
Oh, and also, “Get Your SHINE Together!”
Read an article in the May-June 2009 issue of Spirituality & Health magazine Body Practices: Relax When Too Many Things Are Up in the Air By Jennifer Derryberry Mann. It’s about juggler Ryan Christensen. His juggling, he said, is like meditation for him. Juggling things in the air forces him to let go of attachments, to not fear the outcome, to get outside of his conscious thoughts. Sound a lot like–HUMOR?!
Be the first to tell me how juggling is like humor, and you’ll win a free book! Might be something from my bookshelves, or, “Heart of a Woman in Business.” Share your ideas here or trina@yourshiningexample.com with the word “JUGGLING” in the subject line.
Thanks for your input, and, “Get Your SHINE Together!”
Countries and cities have borders. We know when we leave one and enter another one. Today’s Comedy Around the World travels to a place where there are no borders. It’s called today’s culture.
This week I asked for input on the Letterman/Palin fracas. At first, I thought Letterman was out of line. Crass. His remarks were uncalled for. Then, after a few days of thinking it over, I changed my mind about Letterman. The entire scenario is a lot larger than just Letterman.
Letterman is a comedian, an entertainer. His is solidly out of prime time. Or, so it used to be. The problem occurs when our media runs out of important things to tell us, and instead reports on what the late-night talk show hosts had to say the night before. So, essentially, every second of every day IS prime time. There is no “safe” time to keep our kids from hearing things that are questionable for children to hear.
Letterman’s jokes were funny–IF they would have been told in a comedy club. People go there specifically to hear off-color, questionable and objectionable material. It is a platform for free speech, and patrons know this on some level. Sixty years ago (or more?), there were burlesque theaters, where people could listen to off-color jokes, uncouth sayings, and general free-speech rantings. The problem is that these two places are now collectively called TV. Kids are now allowed into comedy clubs and burlesque shows, because their world consists of this.
Finally, speaking from a solidly creative standpoint, I say that no one’s sense of humor is wrong. Just more or less appropriate in different venues. Letterman’s joke was out-of-bounds because it occurred out-of-place and out-of-time. His joke was offensive because he–like most comics do–told us things we don’t like to think about. But that is the most important job of the comedian–to highlight those types of things and bring them to the light of inspection. You are allowed to disagree; but you will have to look at the item in order to disagree. It is a matter of consciousness-raising. We have to ask ourselves: Who benefits from keeping silent about statutory rape, illegal immigration, crime, drugs, or other fodder for late-night comics? The only ones who benefit are the very people who commit these offenses. Our silence means they are safely unscrutinzed.
Unless a show is specifically labeled, “Clean Comedy” you had better be prepared to be shocked. Offended. And given a different twist on things. Instead of railing against Letterman, whose show airs at 12:30 a.m., we can be outraged at what regularly is aired on prime time shows like “Two and a Half Men.” We can’t blame Letterman for giving us what our appetites have informed him that we need. After all, he probably didn’t even write the joke.
http://EzineArticles.com/?id=2130756
And, here’s another resource for speakers:
How To Write A Speech - http://howtowriteaspeech.blogspot.com/
Seems like just last year at this time I was writing about the Pittsburgh Penguins. And tonight I write of them again, this time to say, “CONGRATULATIONS! to the Stanley Cup winning Pittsburgh Penguins!”
I watched Game 7 tonight with my mom. Neither of us are huge sports fans, but we absolutely watch the Super Bowl (this year’s winning team was the Pittsburgh Steelers, incidentally) and the Stanley Cup finals. We each knew that the teams have to get the puck into the goal being guarded by the opposing team. And I was a step ahead of my mom, because I knew there were three quarters in the game, not four. (I learned the hard way, sitting at a hockey game at Princeton University waiting- a very long time–for the fourth quarter to begin.)
But it didn’t matter that we didn’t understand everything. Just like it doesn’t matter if you get laughs or praise when you use humor in your daily life. What matters is creating that environment. Sure, neither one of us realized that Satan played for the Penguins. We were still thrilled that Malkin won a trophy for the most clean-shaven. My mom wondered, “Why don’t they hit the puck–why can’t they see it?” I told her, “That is a fly on the TV screen.”
We didn’t know the rules, the bells, the times out. But we were enjoying being in that environment. That environment that the Penguins’ players created tonight. By the end of the game, they were ALL smiling, laughing, hugging each other. That’s the kind of environment you create when you use your sense of humor in your daily life. You feel better, everyone around you feels better (unless they are from Detroit tonight), and you and they become inspired to do and be better than you were yesterday. Or last year.
“Get Your SHINE Together!” and get out on the ice tomorrow!
What do YOU think about Letterman’s comments on Sarah Palin and her daughter? And what do you think of his apology about his comments? Share your ideas here, and I’ll wait and share mine tomorrow. Stay tuned…
This just in from my Facebook friend Joan Stewart, in her latest e-newsletter. I was thrilled to read this, because if you’ve been following me on Facebook, you’ll know I’ve been trying to figure out how to rename my Facebook pages.
Read more here, and to learn about all the other great, concise, cost-effective and helpful programs Joan offers on social networking, just click here: http://tinyurl.com/ldnah8
I am NOT a technological person, so I go to Joan and her programs to explain it all to me! Try them for yourself, you’ll be glad you did! I’m glad!
“Claim Your Facebook URLs Saturday
=====================================
Facebook just announced that users can claim their vanity Profile
and Fan Page URLs starting at 12:01 a.m. on Saturday, June 13.
I wrote about this last week and urged you to claim your URLs, or
kick yourself later when somebody else has claimed them.
Facebook is offering vanity URLs for both Profile and Fan Pages.
It’s first come, first-served. Learn more at their blog at
http://blog.Facebook.com/blog.php?post=90316352130
At the bottom of that post, you’ll also see a link where you can
contact Facebook if you want to ensure that you keep the rights
for a trademark or other protected name.”
me to add to next week’s radio show interview? In a little over a week from now, I’ll be a guest on the Stay Sane Now Show on VoiceAmerica. They want me to talk about humor and how it helps us to live a healthy, stress-free lifestyle.
Anything else in relation to humor that you’d like to hear us discuss? Please share your ideas here, or at my Facebook fan page, http://tinyurl.com/mvw8cp
“Get Your SHINE Together!” and get your ideas together! Can’t wait to hear them!
talks about how we can get people to listen to us. It’s all about receptivity, Scott says. “You might be the best communicator in your office. You might be the greatest conversationalist at your company. You might be the warmest, friendliest, most approachable employee around. But none of that matters if your coworkers aren’t in a state of receptivity…HERE’S THE REALITY: You can’t make people listen to you. You can only make an effort to raise their receptivity so your ideas have the highest probability of getting through AND getting understood…”
One of the best ways to chip into people’s receptivity is through HUMOR. Think about it: Which speakers have you remembered? The most intelligent ones? Or the most entertaining and humorous ones?
We have to adapt to the world of technology–a world that has altered the way people receive and interpret messages.
* We have to be entertaining to get their attention in the first place.
* We have to offer something different–possibly even humorous
–in order for our message to stand out from the barrage of other messages people hear every hour.
* We have to be willing to be human–willing to play Second Fiddle–and take the risk that’s required to do the above two points.
How are YOU getting your ideas across to people? Share it here: www.yourshiningexample.com and remember to, “Get Your SHINE Together!”
