Jim Carrey was one of my favorite comedians as a kid. I used to love him on In Living Color. I still crack up whenever I see his old Fire Marshall Bill skits!
Carrey delivers a rousing commencement address!
But, in addition to making us laugh, Jim Carrey is also a wise soul. If you have a few minutes today, watch this segment from Jim Carrey's 2014 commencement speech at Maharishi University (the clip is also embedded below). It's loaded with gems.
In this segment, Carrey talks about fear--and how we often let fear dictate our lives. He says, "So many of us choose our path out of fear disguised as practicality..."
This is a powerful idea. It reminds me of different times when I chose comfort and familiarity over challenges. One thing I've started to see is that great things can come from accepting challenges and stepping out of one's comfort zone. These are moments that test your mettle and force you to grow.
Jim Carrey is a comedian and low key wiseman
We all have practical constraints, but pay attention to the moments in which you let fear and its ugly cousin, doubt, into your thoughts. Do you feel motivated by fear? Or, does fear prevent you from pursuing something important and meaningful? If it's the latter, remember what Jim Carrey says a little later about his dad, who chose a "safe" path instead of doing what he loved. "...[Y]ou can fail at doing what you don't want, so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love..."
I met Bette and her oldest son, Joey, during a death penalty trial in Center City. It was the sentencing phase for the two men who killed her youngest son, Timmy, who was gunned down execution-style when he was 15. Caroline, an advocate with the Families of Murder Victims, introduced us. "Bette, this is Jooyoung. He's a researcher and wants to interview you." Joey sized me up and seemed protective of his mom, who had already been through so much. Her eyes were red from crying, so I said, "I'm really sorry to hear about what happened." She smiled a little and said in her Tacony accent, "Thank you. It's been such a long day. But, call me whenever, sure." I spent the next day with Bette and her family at the courthouse and visited them weekly over the next year. I hadn't planned on following the families of murder victims, but my ongoing research in Philly had pushed me in this direction. While getting to know gunshot...
The Existential Fall Out after Newtown I have a heavy heart tonight. My thoughts and prayers are with the families of Newtown. The Newtown shooting is a terrible tragedy. It has reminded me of lessons learned while studying the families of murder victims. For the past 2 years, I have been researching the everyday lives of families who lose someone in a murder. This has been difficult—and often heartbreaking—research. I have spent many nights thinking about how much I take my family, friends, and other people in my life for granted. I think about the mothers, fathers, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and siblings whose first and last thoughts of each day are of the person they loved and lost. The things that I have seen and the stories that I have collected have left a deep and permanent mark on my soul. Amongst the many thoughts swirling around in my head, I keep returning to a t...
During the past couple weeks, I've come across shocking stories of people who become ultra violent after ingesting hallucinogens. These stories are a sharp contrast to the likes of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters. The two stories are something closer to scenes from Texas Chainsaw Massacre. For example, the Internet is filled with stories of Rudy Eugene, a man who was discovered eating another man's face in Miami. Reports are linking his ultra-violent behavior to "bath salts," a mostly legal synthetic compound that is said to produce a wide array of intense hallucinogenic results in users after ingestion. After being summoned by a fellow motorist, police officers shot and killed Eugene who allegedly growled at officers and continued chewing on the victim's facial flesh until he was shot and killed. In the media frenzy, Eugene is being called everything from a crazed "zombie" to a cannibal on the Internet. Ronald Poppo (victim) and Rudy Eugene...
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