February 27, 1997. 

A “shot” was fired in The White House…a shot that almost brought down the President.

It was a cold winter day in the nation’s capital.

First Lady Hilary Clinton’s busy schedule had her attending four “drop-by” events around Washington DC.

Meanwhile, President Clinton had just finished his radio address and ventured into the Oval Office bathroom.

As recounted by the witness: a few moments after Clinton entered the bathroom, in the dim light, “the shot” was fired, traveling through air and hitting at the waistline. There was no blood, no pain, no immediate impact.

As the witness recalled:

“And at that point I noticed it
and I kind of thought, oh
this is dirty… it needs to get cleaned.
And then I remembered that I had worn it
the last time I saw the president.
I believe it was at that point
that I thought to myself…
Oh, no.”

Yes this was not a “shot” from a gun, well it was from President Clinton’s gun, if you will, and this shot didn’t hit the President but rather the infamous Monica Lewinsky and her legendary blue dress from The Gap (see pic).

As you will now remember, this “shot” was the evidence that led to Clinton’s impeachment, almost ending his Presidency.

Now you must be wondering, “Why the hell is he writing about Monica Lewinsky?”

Bill Clinton…Meet John Friend

For those unaware, John Friend is one of the most famous American yoga gurus very much in the public eye.

He recently fell from grace when news broke that he was having sex with women (some married) in a Wicca coven…all the while shipping packages of marijuana to cities across our great nation.

Both President Clinton and John Friend were… and are…distinguished Americans. Both screwed up. And like Clinton, John Friend will rebuild his career. Americans are forgiving.

But why does this happen?

According to an article in Psychological Science led by Dutch psychologist Joris Lammmers, “People in power generally are more confident, self-assured, assertive, and impulsive than people low in power.

“These people high in power think others are sexually interested, that they will be successful if they make a pass, that they themselves are more attractive…

“…which explains why Donald Trump seems so convinced he’s Andrew Carnegie, Abe Lincoln, and that guy from the Old Spice commercials rolled into one.”

But before we point the finger at men…

…the Dutch study also said, “Gender did not moderate the effects we found. Among women, power had a comparably positive relationship with infidelity as it did among men.”

What Can We Learn?

Leadership is about inspiration, vision, and community.

But…as shown by our priests and Presidents and yoga gurus, leadership is no longer about moral guidance.

We get our moral guidance from God or parents or intuition…NOT from our leaders.

Power is a lethal cocktail of emotions and privileges, and very few humans can handle the buzz.

So, if you currently look up to a powerful human as so many of us do, be not the least bit surprised if one day you should turn around to find them transformed into a boobie-shakin, brain-hangin, sex-crazed freak of nature.

As Brian Alexander, author of America Unzipped, wrote, “The powerful have increased levels of testosterone. All that extra hormone floating around turns the primitive desire circuits into a shouting Glenn Beck, while the frontal cortex becomes a quiet professor trying to rationally explain why assaulting a hotel maid (ie Dominque Strauss-Kahn) is a bad idea if you want to be president of France.”

.

I have A BIG JUICY QUESTION for you

Someone recently asked me, “Imagine if the current version of you could go back in time, take a walk with the 5 year old version of you, and have a conversation. What would you say?”

I thought for a while, it’s one of those questions that gets you thinking…and I’d say to the 5 year old version of me:

–”Go to a few more Grateful Dead shows because everyone is right…Jerry Garcia really is going to die!”

–”That total eclipse of the sun you’ll see in Mexico in 1991, don’t stare at it without the goddam protective glasses. I think that ends up causing permanent damage to your eyes.”

–”And Andrea Sarrity, the beautiful blond with whom you think you have no chance when you’re 16, just ask her out. It will feel like a Hail Mary but trust me, she really does like you.”

–”And make sure to tell your little brother to go to the hospital and be with Grandma Evelyn in October 2010, because she doesn’t make it through the night.”

–”Just relax, don’t squeeze so tight. Enjoy the ride. You need some dark to enjoy the light.”

Can You Answer That Question

If the current version of you could go on a walk with the 5 year old version of you, what would you say?

Here’s a thought.

Gabrielle Roth said, “In shamanic societies, if you came to a medicine person complaining of being disheartened, dispirited, depressed, they would ask one of four questions. When did you stop dancing? When did you stop singing? When did you stop being enchanted by stories? When did you stop finding comfort in the sweet territory of silence?”

On that note, I challenge you…get into a dreamy space and tell the 5 year old version of you some secret, some story she needs to hear to make this life journey easier and remind her to keep dancing, singing, and allowing enchantment to endure.

But do it right. Set the tone. Pour yourself a lovely glass of wine, relax the lighting. Put on a crisp, beautiful song with timeless ambition (ie the Grateful Dead’s Sugaree or Hendrix’s Angel or Mumford’s Awake My Soul).

Most important, be a storyteller.  Because if the current version of you can tell the 5 year old version a good story and put a beautiful spin on your life…

…and if you can capture the imagination and ease the fears of the 5 year old version of you…

…magic happens on the timeline.

It might go something like this, “Listen, a lot has gone wrong. But so much has gone right…”

As Ellen Goodman said, “We spend most of our time walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Sometimes, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives… not looking for flaws, but for potential.”

For more beauty, laughter, and deliciousness in your life, drop your email below:

Visit here to see past BFD Moments of the Day

Patience & Wisdom

The other speakers at GRID covered every part of life on every part of the globe. One was Sunitha Krishnan from India. She is a prominent leader in bringing attention to the issue of human trafficking. In virtually every nation in the world, children are turned into slaves, beaten, tortured and held against their will at ages as young as 5. Sunitha has rescued over 6,000 child slaves, mostly in India.

Then there was Peter Vesterbacka, the CEO of ROVIO, the company that created Angry Birds, the most successful mobile game in the world with over 400 million downloads and over 1 million additional downloads every single day. While you’d think the company would be primarily focused on the cash windfall, Vesterbacka was focused on leveraging the platform of what will soon be 1 billion fans and making a difference, particularly in education.

Sunitha is a woman who lives hand to mouth, who has a price on her head ($100,000), who has been beaten countless times by unsavory characters. Vesterbacka is CEO of a company who will go public sooner than later with a market cap in the tens of billions.

What in the world could these 2 totally different people have in common?

Both are focused on making a difference in the world through education and human equality, creating positive change, and in the process, living totally inspired lives.

They’ve managed, one by dharma, the other by the fortune of cyber-virality, one thru the grind, one thru the air… to commit to something big.

Oscar Wilde said, “Looking good and dressing well is a necessity. Having a purpose in life is not.”

*****

We spend so much time each day responding to all the stimuli that it takes some serious discipline to remember what we’re living for.

Clearly, most of us don’t have time to just stop being parents, or to stop going to work, or to stop long enough to take a breath… let alone to ponder our purpose.

But there is a bigger reason we’re here. It’s a matter of choice whether or not we lock on to our purpose.

As a former President of India said, “If man misses his destiny, Nature is not in a hurry; she will catch him someday and compel him to fulfill her secret purpose.”

PS:
–watch the speech by Sunitha
–watch the speech by Vesterbacka

David Romanelli: In a Moment | GRID11 from Bonnier on Vimeo.

Hi:

Last summer I received an email about a guru from India traveling across the United States.

The email read: “Sri Kumare is traveling through the US…he is a yoga master. His message is one of finding the inner teacher or the guru within. He says he is here to learn rather than teach but he has an amazing way of teaching about oneness, giving and receiving, and identity and the self. He is kind and gentle with a great sense of humor!”

Turns out he was being followed by a film crew making a movie about a “living guru.”

I instantly jumped at the chance to meet this guru and be in a movie.

We met at a coffee shop in Phoenix, talked for a bit, he seemed authentic, kind, loving.

Watch this video of my teaching this “real-life guru” how to high five.

Fast forward one year….

Just last week I saw that the movie they were filiming, entitled Kumare, was screening at various film and yoga  festivals such as South by Southwest.

It soon became clear that this “guru” was an imposter pretending to be a guru and making fun of suckers like me who buy into the whole guru schtick. Watch a brief bit about the movie Kumare by visiting here.

*****

I’d been PUNK’D, or for those of you who know not of Ashton Kutcher, I’d been tricked!

I had it comin’.

After years of joking around in my Schtick, the boomarang flipped back around and tore me a new one

As they say, karma is real.

Last year I attended a lecture by Geshe Michael Roach, author of the book The Diamond Cutter. He spoke profoundly about karma and how no one can get away with wrong action. You could hear a pin drop because for every angel in that room of 100 people, there were 9 sinners…including me.

Who doesn’t have at least a little karmic kick in the ass comin their way?

Whether it’s because you are a lousy tipper or because you made out with the Hard Rock cabana boy on that girls trip to Vegas …your karma, my karma, our karma is comin!

Not to make you feel guilty, but c’mon, we can’t outsmart the freakin Universe!!

A wise one best described karma, “There are the waves and there is the wind, seen and unseen forces.  Everyone has these same elements in their lives, the seen and unseen, karma and free will.”

If you, like me, feel at times a bit out of sync with these seen and unseen forces, it’s always a good time to check back and realign with what’s right and good.

Because life is a lot like a Beatles song…whose melody we love but whose meaning we never knew:

“Instant Karma’s gonna get you,
Gonna look you right in the face,
Better get yourself together darlin’,
Join the human race.” (Listen)

Who: Ella Chissoti

Where: A restaurant called the Bel Sit in Gabbicce Monte, Italy

What about this photo makes it special? “The restaurant sits on a hill overlooking the Adriatic coast and everything we ate was even more delicious because it was a beautiful moment too…being together with loved ones to enjoy it all.”

“I took Elena Brower’s yoga class the other day,” my friend Ryan said.

“Oh I love love love Elena’s class,” Azure chimed in. “Did I tell you the story about the time I was leaving Elena’s class and ran into Larry Wilcox, the blonde guy who starred in CHIPS?”

I’d heard this story 800 times.

Azure has a trifecta of personality traits that together are as painful as getting a mole removed from your sphincter.

She tells long-winded stories, she is a stoner, and she is sensitive. Which means she forgets that she already told you a story and freaks the hell out if you tell her so.

“What’s CHIPS?” I asked trying to derail the story.

Azure responded, “It’s that show from the early 80′s about those 2 California Highway Patrolmen…anyway, so I’m walking out of class and I see this guy…”

I couldn’t stand it and needed to interrupt, “Azure, you just told this story 3 days ago…

“…you thought it was Larry Wilcox but it turned out to be your boyfriend from 6th Grade who looks like Larry Wilcox…

“…and you went to have drinks and pickles with him at Carnegie Deli…

“…and pickles turn you on so you ended up having sex in the Carnegie Deli bathroom at 3am…

“…on a Monday.”

Silence.

“Waiter, do you have any pickles,” Ryan asked.

Azure gave me the look of death, “Yeah Dave, you fuckface…you’re supposed to be a yoga teacher…Yoga teachers are supposed to be nice! And patient! And kind!”

*****

With the market crashing, are we really going to suffer through the same story all over again?

Hiding, hoarding, fearing for our savings and our jobs?

Consider these 2 fearless acts performed by humans inspiring us to turn around and face our fears.

–Surfing Monster Waves in the Black of Night

Check out surfer Mark Visser surfing the most dangerous wave in the world…at night!

–Swimming Cageless Through Shark-Infested Waters

Diana Nyad tried to swim from Florida to Cuba, without a shark cage.
She wasn’t able to complete the 103 mile swim but the waters are so infested with sharks, that to attempt this swim without a cage was considered extremely dangerous.

For protection, she had a support crew which included kayaks with underwater electrical shields that emit a frequency intended to shoo the sharks away.
If that failed, divers were ready to intervene.

Can you imagine swimming in such dangerous waters for 24 hours?

Said Diana Nyad of her life philosophy, “To live a life with no regrets and no worries about what you are going to do with your time. Fill it with passion, be your best self.”

Diana Nyad and Mark Visser are obviously crazy but if they can surf 40 foot waves in the black of night and swim for hours on end in some of the most shark-infested waters in the world, surely we can stay grounded and calm and find our way through this economic chaos.

Maybe we’re facing a double dip recession, maybe not.

Either way, let’s not suffer through the same painful story that we did in 2008.

As best you can, LIVE! There is no cost for passion, no fee for attitude, no interest rate for NRG.

As Voltaire said, “Life is a shipwreck but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.”