Brilliant

This is one of the best things I've read in quite some time.

Sad thing is, I know people like Hank. They too send me those same emails.

Like The one post-9/11 where all we should have done was listen to Al Gore when he said the main threat the US had to fear was Bin Laden. Then there was the one a year or two ago where all we should have done was listen to Oliver North (Oliver North! Of all the people they could have chosen! And they had to choose good old Oliver North who I haven't heard from since the whole Iran Contra affair was televised) when he said he would spend all of his money on a home protection plan because of nuts like Bin Laden.

Or the one where Obama supposedly isn't saluting the flag. Or the one where they show McCain as a war hero and a young Obama as a radical Islam. Or the one . . . well, you get the idea.

I don't care what side of the political debate you fall on, these emails are for morons.

Kind of like the one that talks about HIV positive drug needles planted by gang members in movie theater seats or the one about not letting anyone in a Walmart parking lot offer to spray any cologne samples in your face (it's really a knock out gas they use before they rob you) or the one about Chinese organ thieves!

But this stupidity is only part of the brilliant satire of this piece.

The other part is the angry old men who "used to matter" and their frustration.

I recall a Magnet Arts trip I was chaperoning several years ago. I was sitting up front next to a student, John. We were listening to the old man who "used to matter" who was driving the bus. He was bitching about all the problems in the world today and how the young people were not stepping up to the plate and doing anything about them.

It was at this moment that John spoke up and said, "I don't think we were the ones to create the atomic bomb or Chernobyl or get involved in the Gulf War."

That shut the old geezer up!

This is why Ken Robinson's work on creativity and the ability to find your passions is so vital. How many people retire - thinking they're going to enjoy sitting on their asses in hot and sweaty Florida or Arizona - yet hate it. But by the time they realize retirement is not what they thought it would be, it's too late. They can't go back to their previous way of life. Sure they can greet people at Walmart or bag groceries, but that was not what they had in mind when they retired. Before you know it, you see their obit in the paper.

You have to develop your passions - no matter what teachers or counselors or parents say about them being worthless.

We don't live in the world of the '40 and '50's where a young kid could drop out of school and get a job sweeping and doing odds and ends at a local business and through sheer determination and persistence after 20 years the kid has worked his way to the top.

You can have all the determination and persistence you want at Arctic or Digi Key or Lincoln High School, but the pay scale is pretty much set.

But if a kid has a passion for music - and all his life his parents and teachers and others have hit him with, oh get serious. You'll never win American Idol. You'll never make a living playing music. Get serious and go into science or math or computers.

Now, I was guilty of this. Before Ken Robinson kicked my ass and showed me how foolish I had been.

In a flat world, a kid with some talent and luck, can now create a video on his MacBook and upload it to youtube and get thousands of hits. The days of forming a bar band and being relegated to playing to the same 25 drunks at the Crusty Nail every weekend are over.

Just look what happened to a nerdy white kid name Bo Burnham. Casey and KoKo would always watch his videos on youtube. Well, it wasn't long before he had his own record deal and they were downloading his songs on iTunes.

I realize that this doesn't happen to every single musician with a dream. But the odds are much better than they were 40 years ago. Plus, not every college graduate is landing jobs left and right, either.

So the point is find your passions. Develop them and enjoy them. Even if they don't bring you financial gain. Develop them. At least you won't be stuck in your basement degenerating into a fear monger like poor old Hank. If you have a dream and pursue it, maybe you'll end up like Larry instead. Or Walter.