Kareem: 20 Things I Wish I’d Known When I Was 30
By Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, esquire.com
When I was thirty, I was living my dream. I’d already accomplished most of what I’d set out to achieve professionally: leading scorer in the NBA, leading rebounder, leading blocker, Most Valuable Player, All-Star. But success…
4. Play the piano. I took lessons as a kid but, like a lot of kids, didn’t stick with them. Maybe I felt too much pressure. After all, my father had gone to the Julliard School of Music and regularly jammed with some great jazz musicians. Looking back, I think playing piano would have given me a closer connection with my dad as well as given me another artistic outlet to better express myself. In 2002, I finally started to play and got pretty good at it. Not good enough that at parties people would chant for me to play “Piano Man,” but good enough that I could read music and feel closer to my dad.
10. Being right is not always the right thing to be. Kareem, my man, learn to step away. You think being honest immunizes you from the consequences of what you say. Remember Paul Simon’s lyrics, “There’s no tenderness beneath your honesty.” So maybe it’s not that important to win an argument, even if you “know” you’re right. Sometimes it’s more important to try a little tenderness.
13. Do one thing every day that helps someone else. This isn’t about charity, this is about helping one individual you know by name. Maybe it means calling your parents, helping a buddy move, or lending a favorite jazz album to Chocolate Fingers McGee.
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“The invention of corn by Mexicans is comparable only to the invention of fire by man.”-Octavio Paz, Mexican poet. “Beyond its prevalence in local cooking, corn is a symbol at the heart of countless indigenous traditions and holds great spiritual significance…. “When we care for and cultivate our cornfields, God is with us. He gives us the food that we need. He works with us and he rests with us. That is why we ask for permission from God in every moment of the life cycle of corn … The corn that God gives us, lives with us, sings and dances with us, and in certain moments it also cries with us.” Excerpt from the article,”From Mexico to India: Monsanto is killing more than just biodiversity.” To read the article in its entirety click on this link: http://revolutioniseternal.wordpress.com/2013/05/13/from-mexico-to-india-monsanto-is-killing-more-than-just-biodiversity/Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Supply http://www.amazon.it/Stolen-Harvest-Hijacking-Global-Supply/dp/0896086070/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368561359&sr=8-1&keywords=stolen+harvestImage: El Maiz, El Primer Tótem Nagual by Yreina Cervantez
[via Curanderismo, the Healing Art of Mexico]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/d713aeaef9c7ee19e35412d90fcd1173/tumblr_mmt4qsl1141qzx7b6o1_500.jpg)
