A Story from 1993 from my college days, before the Internet was around. I remember all the way back in ‘93, when I was in college and I had just spent a few weeks in China for an academic scholarship. Because I was now some type of “International” student, I was asked to attend a “lunch hour” question and answer session with Helmut Schmitt. Although I had international travel experience, I was hardly experienced in “international issues,” and I did not even know who or what he was. What was a Chancellor anyway? I guess it was some type of president or something or another. In any case, I was told to think of some questions, because it was important for the students to have many questions for him so we could appear educated and not waste his time. In the mean time, or maybe even earlier, I was at a meditation friend’s house. When I entered his place, he had some music playing in the background. I was taken aback by its sincere beauty and asked my friend what was playing. He showed me the cassette tape cover and explained that it was a get-together between professional and amateur pianists. One of those pianists was even a politician. They got together and played Bach on piano during Bach’s birthday, and the recording was the result. I admired the energy of this tape and asked if I could borrow it and he said yes.

Below is a Wrigley’s TV commercial from the 80s which started my lifelong dream to hang-glide and a genuine excuse to get educated. Whenever I saw this commercial as a child, my jaw was to the floor. It was something I had always wanted to do. Thanks to youtube, I can trace it all back. I was never really college material, I took the SAT’s once and bombed on them. Luckily, there was a trend during that time to ignore the SAT scores because there was some evidence that it discriminated against some people who could perform well at school. Because of that short lived trend, I had a window of opportunity and I got into the only two colleges I applied to. I guess the trend was correct, because I graduated with a 3.54 cumulative average. My grades soared, (probably due to meditation) and I was able to literally soar through the air.