He Ain’t Heavy…He’s Bob Russel

10-24-08    Bob Russell

 

I guess I was twenty five when I met the songwriter, Bob Russell.  He wrote many hit songs but the one that has stuck with me all my life was HE AIN’T HEAVY, HE’S MY BROTHER. 

 

Bob was tall, handsome and gracious.  His talent as a songwriter was second to none and his friendship as a man was warm, sincere and true.

 

I was a kid trying to make a name for myself in the P R business in Hollywood and Bob was a legendary song writer but for some reason, when we met, it was like we grew up together and had been friends all our lives.  I guess Bob was about thirty years older then I was at the time.

 

Bob was stricken with Cancer.  He had a beautiful family, gorgeous and comfortable home and all the money in the world but he didn’t have the one thing in the world he needed most, his health.

 

He fought Cancer like a Champion but lost the battle in a couple of tough years.

 

A few years later, I was managing Neil Diamond.  Neil was known for recording only his own songs but the thought of Neil’s voice and Bob’s song, haunted me.  I spoke to Neil about it and within a year or two he did in fact, record Bob’s classic song, HE AIN’T HEAVY, HE’S MY BROTHER. 

 

I don’t know if Neil recorded that song for me or his own brother but in my mind, he recorded it in the memory of my friend, Bob Russell.

 

I guess in a way, that gave back a little of the friendship I was so lucky to receive from Bob but in a way, I was the recipient of the song being recorded by Neil. 

 

I lost my brother Chuck around six years ago and every time I think of him, which is every day, I can hear in my mind, Neil’s rendition of that great song written by my friend Bob.  To Neil, Bob and my brother Chuck, none of you are Heavy and all are my brothers in one way or another.

 

Thank you Chuck for being the best older brother anyone in the world ever had, Bob, for your friendship and a song that warms my heart every time I hear or even think about it, and Neil, for our relationship, your talent and understanding as an artist.

 

Kids

11-04-09    Kids

OK, I give me, not money.  I hate to give money to charity and see most of it wasted on overhead.  I’d rather give my time and effort and see and appreciate the results on a personal and rewarding level immediately.

I recently interviewed Mary Heart of Entertainment Tonight for my Heart of Hollywood Radio/Podcast Program.  We did the interview at Children’s Hospital, Los Angeles, as Mary wanted her work with the Hospital known.  The first half hour was with members of the Hospital Staff and Mary and the second half hour was with Mary alone.  I was taken by the beauty of the Mission Statement of the facility; helping young people with illness.

I asked how I could help and it was suggested I go through their Volunteer Training Program and then figure out how I could help by looking over their list of Volunteer Services needing personal commitment.

I found mine in the Volunteer Reading Program for the kids.  Every other Monday I spend an hour and a half in the Saban Reading location, right in the Hospital’s main lobby, sitting on Reading Steps and reading to kids as they pass by and sit with me for a few or many minutes while I read from books that are there for them to select what they want me to read to them.

I love writing, interviewing people and chatting with people but I never imagined how much joy I could get by the simple practice of reading out loud to young children.

As I read to them, I can feel the trust they put in me to bring the wonderful words on the pages I read to them to life in an interesting and truthful manner.  Their eyes widen, their smiles increase, their comments are welcomed and their proximity increases as they hear the pleasure in my voice that comes from reading to them.

 

I love to read in silence but have learned that reading out loud can bring so much more love into your life if you do it in the right circumstance.

 

 

Being Lazy

11-04-09   Writing

I will not be lazy today.  I got up at 5:15 to get the coffee and paper ready for my love, Susan.  She has a Master Swim Class that begins at 6:00 and I love getting her coffee and paper ready for her.

I meditated, did my stretching/yoga/balance routine, rode the stationary bike for thirty minutes, went through my emails and am now sitting down to write.

This essay is just to prove I’m not lazy; more next time.

Dreams

10-26-90

Live your Dreams or Life Can Become A Nightmare.

It Goes Quick

To all of you that are between the ages of 16 and 40:

You’re young for a minute, enjoy every one of them.

To those of you from 40 to whatever:

You can be old for a long time; take care of yourself and the

Golden Years can be Golden; abuse yourself and the Golden

Years will be hell, if you get there at all.

Alzheimer’s Disease

10-22-09    Alzheimer’s Disease

Every once in a while, I get an idea that is so simple, I just write it down and talk to people about it.  Let them make fun, sometimes I’m right.

The two things I know about Alzheimer’s Disease is that the brain cells send out synapses to connect with each other.  When these synapses don’t connect, thoughts don’t come into being.  I see a person I know, the message goes to my brain and the synapses fail to connect; I can’t remember the person’s name.

As Alzheimer’s progresses, the synapses not only connect less and less, the brain shrinks.

The one thing I do know about the body is that if a muscle, organ or area is without blood, it will cramp, stiffen, shrink or die.

What makes sense to me is that all people, especially those with symptoms of dementia, should get as much blood to the head and brain as possible.  What’s the best way to do that?   Standing on your head; laying backward on a large exercise ball; using a machine that allows you to bend forward from the hips; hang from the heels and allow your blood to rush to the brain.

I do it a simple way.  I lie on my back and raise my feet as high over my head as I can, supporting with myself by putting my hands on my hips for support.  I become an L with my head being the bottom right of the L and my feet the tip top.

Simple but who knows.  It sure makes sense to me and I haven’t forgotten my name in an awfully long time.

The Golden Years

10-07-09 The Golden Years

All my life I’ve heard people talk about “The Golden Years.”

B. S.

As you get older, each year gets harder to stay in shape, stay healthy of both mind and body and keep a young at heart attitude.

I’m no kid but am over 70 and I can speak from experience.  A ton of my friends are gone because they took their health for granted and a lot of my friends are much less then mobile and fit because they neglected to keep their bodies in good condition.

The Golden Years can be there for you but only if you “Protect Your Investment!”

I don’t preach, but stay away from drugs, too much alcohol, smoking and fatty foods.  I say alcohol but don’t mean wine.  Wine with a meal is about the most wonderful thing I can imagine, as long as I keep it to a glass or two.

I swim, ride a stationery bike and lift light weights six days a week and like God, on the seventh day, I rest.  I do meditate every morning and evening however; some people might call it prayer and thanks.

I eat a lot of vegetables, fruits, lean chicken and meat, fish when I have the taste for it and also drink a lot of water every day.

I can’t run anymore, I figure I’ve run about six thousand miles in my day, due to arthritis in my hips; even that I’ve beaten that by stretching, strength training and InflameAway Celadrin.  They told me I’d need a new hip or two but I’ve proved them wrong.  Doctors can have their opinion but their opinions can be reversed.

Loving someone and having them love you back is easy as long as your devotion and respect to the relationship remains true at all times.  Give more then you get and you’d be surprised how much you get back and therefore have to give even more, and that’s with a smile on your face and in your heart.

Family, friends and work keep me occupied and active.  Volunteering to help the elderly and reading to the young at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles give me fulfillment in contributing and feel like a giving Citizen.

My life has purpose, focus and meaning.  I might pass away tomorrow but I promise there will be a smile on my face if I do.  If I live to be one hundred and twenty, you’ll find that same smile on my face, as long as I live by the rules I’ve set up for myself.

My Golden Year will remain Golden as long as I protect my investment:  ME.

BRAVERY

BRAVERY

To some people, bravery is getting out of bed in the morning.  The thought of getting out of bed and going out into the world and make a living, go to school or survive, brings such fear into their hearts and souls that just the task of arising from bed marks them as brave people.

Beginning to write this piece took bravery.  What the hell do I know about bravery?  I’ve never fought in a war or faced a man pointing a gun at me but I do know this; there have been many moments my life that took great bravery for me to get through.

Can you imagine the bravery it takes for a homeless person to get up the courage to ask for help for the first time, no matter what form it takes?

To imagine a wonderful thought or dream takes great imagination; to make that thought become a reality takes great bravery.  Is there any greater medal then the reward to make a willed thought become a reality?

To have faith takes great bravery.  We think we hear a message from God or from above and try to follow the path of that message.  Sometimes the reality or meaning of messages from above can take longer then anyone can imagine, ask Moses.  His path took longer then forty years and he never realized the prize of his path, the Promised Land.  He might have seen it but was never rewarded the gift of setting foot on it.

To admit a mistake can take as much bravery as stepping in front of an armed tank.  You can dodge a bullet if you’re quick but try and duck the punishment the admission of a mistake can bring you.  It might feel good once you’ve admitted it but the anxiety of making the admission can take as much as anything in the world.

Bravery is needed many times when getting married, the first day of a new job, entering a new school, admitting you need help, trying a new exercise, playing a competitive sport, directing a movie, acting in a play or movie, writing a book, jumping out of plane, climbing a mountain, presenting a new idea, quitting a job you are unhappy at, teaching a new technique, meeting new or strange people, lifting a weight heavier then you’ve ever lifted, running a marathon; there is hardly a person on this earth that goes through life without the need for bravery at some moment; it might take some all the bravery in the world to beg for money when they are in desperation.

You don’t have to be a war hero, super athlete or daredevil to be and/or need bravery, sometimes it just takes living life to draw on that wonderful resource we all have, the will to be brave in the moment it is needed.

IF IT HURTS, WORK IT

9-23-09 If It Hurts, Work It

An arthritic hip:  It hurts to walk; it hurts to stretch, it’s almost impossible to walk up steps.

The Doctor says:  “A new hip will solve your problems.”

I don’t want a new hip, I want my own hip.

I do research.  I find a product that “lubricates” my hip, InflameAway Celadrin.

I can begin physical therapy; I can do yoga stretches; I can begin strength training exercises for my hip.  They all hurt like hell but I can do them.

In time, I can do them all with little pain, a lot of movement and no discomfort when I walk, stretch, weight train or climb stairs.

The body is an amazing thing if you work it.

It might hurt but I’d rather go through hurt to get healthy then have surgery and walk around with foreign parts in my own body.

It may hurt to get old and it may take a lot of work to keep your body in one piece but my motto is, “If it started out with me, I want to keep it as long as I can without threatening my life.”

What’s a little pain if you can keep all your original parts?

I’m a Classic.

Starting From Scratch

9-03-09    STARTING FROM SCRATCH 

My dad forbid me to play football when I was in High School and my coach told me I was too small to play Varsity Football.  I told my dad he couldn’t stop me, and he didn’t; I told my coach to cut me if I wasn’t good enough and he didn’t.

 I was told you had to know someone to get into the entertainment business and I didn’t; I’ve been in the entertainment business for fifty years now (I can’t believe that as I still feel like a kid in a candy store) so I guess that phrase/warning was meaningless. 

I launched my record company with very little capitol and no signed artists; by its fifth year, the company was billing in the millions. 

 They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks; the only time I was on the radio was when I was a little boy.  Ten years ago I did my first radio program and am still on the air and sponsored. 

 Who says you can’t when you want to.

MOM

8-26-09 My MOM My Story

I got sick to my stomach when Dr. Richard Edlich told me my mother would probably have to have both her feet surgically removed when I told him my mother’s symptoms; he wasn’t even her Doctor.

Mom had ingrown toenails that wouldn’t heal. Her legs ached and she slowly but surely found it harder and harder to walk. She had developed arterial sclerosis from years of smoking. It struck her legs.

Dr. Edlich told me that no matter what we did; mom’s pain would grow so intense that she’d demand that we have her legs removed.

He was correct.

We tried everything, even a special treatment at USC Hospital that made mom a guinea pig for awhile.

The day came, mom demanded and the doctor’s did what they had to do. They removed both my mother’s legs, beneath the knees within months of each other. At eighty four, mom learned to walk with two prosthetics and never complained once about the difficulty of achieving that miraculous feat. She got rid of the pain and saved her life in one fell swoop. She made sure the prosthetics made her a little taller than her 5’ 1’’.

We were told mom needed to be in a long term care facility. Neither mom, my brothers and sisters or I cared for that idea. Mom loved her home and we kept her in it. Through Palliative Care, Jewish Services and our ability to have a housekeeper with her at all times afforded the opportunity for mom to live, and eventually die, with dignity, in her own home.

Anyone care to talk to me about the aged and my respect and desire to care for them?