Ryan Byrd’s Ramblings

A couple of years ago I threw together a site called Morning Pep Talk as a repository of collected up-beat, motivational and inspiring poems, quotations and speeches etc. You’ve been able to quickly jump to that motivational site by clicking the Cheer Up link in the top navigation bar of RBDN.

Since that time I’ve been reading the Pep Talk content out loud and saving those readings into handy MP3s for your iPoding pleasure. I’ve finally completed and uploaded audio for two sections. Candidly, I can’t imagine why anyone would want to listen to my nasal, raspy voice, but in the interest of multimedia progression, there ya go!

No doubt, you’ll want to hear me stumble through Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take The Garbage Out, Betty Botter, and The End of the Raven — A poem by Edgar Allen Poe’s Cat.

That’s the question I asked Dr. Stephen Covey tonight. His answer, given with a big smile, “being married to my wife, Sandra.” Then he paused, his expression quickly changing, “She is having back surgery this Wednesday, will you include her in your prayers?” I assured him I would.

I chatted briefly with Covey after a talk he gave on “Six Events: The Restoration Model For Solving Life’s Problems.” He spoke about four basic human needs (Live, Love, Learn and Leave a Legacy), reminded us that life is short and provided two questions for conflict resolution:
Q. Would you be willing to search for a solution that is better than what either of us has proposed?
Q. Would you be willing to agree to a simple ground rule? No one can make his or her point until they have restated the other person’s point to his or her satisfaction.

The A/V guy was not having a good day and the video projector for Covey’s presentation refused to function properly. Still, Covey had all of his slides memorized and was able to recite them effortlessly. That’s pretty impressive. Strong work Dr. C.

If you were an educator and you knew you had but a few months left to live, what would you give for your last lecture?

Randy Pausch, Professor at Carnegie Mellon with appointments in the CS, HCI and Design departments, is in just that position. Randy has Pancreatic Cancer which has an incredible mortality rate. He is an accomplished professor who has authored or co-authored five books and over 60 reviewed journal and conference proceeding articles. Randy is married with three small children and though he says the lecture is intended for their benefit, I think you’ll find it inspiring as well.

Download the last lecture transcript here

Youtube blocked? try this Randy Pausch blip.tv link

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• Toys For Tots
• Children’s Hunger Fund
• Charity Navigator

A close friend of mine (and I hope he’ll forgive me for writing about this here) and his young wife were recently expecting a child. His wife began labor prematurely and upon arrival at the hospital, she experienced a massive hemorrhage. She lost untold quantities of blood and the doctors seemed convinced that she wouldn’t pull through. But, by the slimmest of margins and narrowest of chances, pull through she did. Emotionally harrowed, my friend had good reasons to be bitter. They had lost the child and he nearly lost his wife. Instead, days later he seemed resolute in his grateful conviction that his wife had been saved only through a miracle:

“Do you know how many liters of blood are in the body“, he asked me. “Five”, he answered. “She lost four. And she’s still alive. That’s amazing. Somebody was looking out for us.”

Just last week I stopped to talk with him as he headed out the door. “On my way to give blood”, he said. “I hate giving blood”, I joked, “I think my blood prefers to stay inside of me.” Always the smartalek, I continued, “Are you trying to earn an extra buck or two on the side?” He laughed before saying, “Actually, it’s not for me. I figure I have to donate forty times to repay the amount of blood the hospital gave to my wife. One down, 39 to go.” He smiled and boarded the elevator.

Economics teaches us that there are two types of people in this world: producers and consumers; those who give and those who take. Of necessity, we are all consumers. Some, like my friend, try to even the score by giving back.

So, in this small written tribute, my hat goes off to him (and to his wife.) The world would be better if more people had their perspective. Maybe with all the new year’s resolutions, some more of us will be producers too.