It is better to Understand than to be Understood

I am listening to Beck's song "Jackass." I suggest an immediate download. The song comes from his ODELAY album.

Jack-Ass Lyrics

I been drifting along
In the same stale shoes
Loose ends tying a noose
In the back of my mind
If you thought that you were making your way
To where the puzzles and pagans lay
I'll put it together:
It's a strange invitation
When I wake up
Someone will sweep up my lazy bones
And we will rise in the cool of the evening
I remember the way that you smiled
When the gravity shackles were wild
And something is vacant
When I think it's all beginning

I been drifting along
In the same stale shoes
Loose ends tying the noose
In the back of my mind
If you thought that you were making your way
To where the puzzles and pagans lay
I'll put it together:
It's a strange invitation

I have already received some incredible e-mails from you guys. And I just figured out how to open the blog for posts...so post away.

I will be posting my first Q&A later today. I turned to my Father to get things started. He is the C.E.O. of AIG ENVIRONMENTAL. He wakes up at 5:30 a.m. and takes the train from the West Village to Wall Street every morning unless, of course, he is flying all around the world for conferences, meetings or to deliver speeches about cleaning up the environmental mess of the world. He sits on many boards including The Riverkeeper Foundation, with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. And in between, he romances my Mother. After 36 years of marriage, he brings her flowers every Friday. He guides my Brother, daily, through his budding business career. And he has talked me off of ledges for as long as I can remember. He is as loving and open with his employees as he is with his family. He has been up and down a thousand times, often up and down in the same, high stakes, corporate American business hour. And all the while, save the occasional migraine (Imitrix is his best friend), he remains funny, alive and very much awake.

So he will share a sliver of his journey with us later this afternoon.

Until then, I am hearing this quote over and over in my head. "It is better to UNDERSTAND than to be UNDERSTOOD." I am choosing to hear this quote as "I don't need to try so damn hard to make everyone out there understand ME and my roller coaster ride, my dreams come true, my dreams squashed...what is important, what lightens the load, empties the mind a bit is to simply take a beat and UNDERSTAND them (whoever your THEM is). Once we can UNDERSTAND others we can clearly see their ability (or lack thereof) to serve our needs."