JULIA ROBERTS

Life is too short to waste in the bitterness of reality, so dream on

Julia Fiona Roberts (born October 28, 1967) is an American film actress and former fashion model. She became well known during the early 1990s after starring in the romantic comedy Pretty Woman opposite Richard Gere, which grossed $463 million worldwide. She won the Best Actress Academy Award in 2000 for her critically acclaimed turn as the title character in Erin Brockovich and earned Oscar nominations as Best Supporting Actress for Steel Magnolias (1989) and Best Actress for Pretty Woman (1990). Her films, which also include romantic comedies such as My Best Friend's Wedding, Mystic Pizza, Notting Hill, Runaway Bride, and crime films such as The Pelican Brief and Ocean's Eleven, have collectively earned box office receipts of over $2 billion, making her the most successful actress in terms of box office receipts.

Roberts had become one of the highest-paid actresses in the world, topping the Hollywood Reporter's annual "power list" of top-earning female stars from 2002 to 2005, until 2006, when Nicole Kidman won the top spot. Her fee for 1990's Pretty Woman was $300,000; in 2003, she was paid an unprecedented $25 million for her role in Mona Lisa Smile. As of 2007, Roberts's net worth was estimated to be $140 million.

Roberts was the first actress to appear on the cover of Vogue and the first woman to land the cover of GQ. She has been named one of People magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People in the World" eleven times, tied with Halle Berry. In 2001 Ladies Home Journal ranked her as the 11th most powerful woman in America, beating out then national security advisor Condoleezza Rice and first lady Laura Bush.[4] Roberts has a production company called Red Om Films, formerly Shoelace Productions ("Moder" spelled backwards, after her husband's last name).

Early life-Roberts was born in Atlanta, Georgia at Crawford Long Hospital. Her father, Walter Brady Roberts, was a vacuum cleaner salesman, and her Minneapolis, Minnesota-born mother, Betty Lou Motes (née Bredemus), was a one-time church secretary and real estate agent. Her parents, one-time actors and playwrights, met while performing theatrical productions for the armed forces and later co-founded the Atlanta Actors and Writers Workshop in Atlanta, Georgia off Juniper Street in Midtown; the two divorced in 1971.[5] Her mother later married Michael Motes and had another daughter, named Nancy Motes who was born in 1976. Roberts's father died of cancer when she was ten. Her older brother and sister, Eric Roberts (from whom she was once estranged but reconciled since 2004) and Lisa Roberts Gillan, are also actors.

Roberts moved to Smyrna, Georgia (a suburb of Atlanta) in 1972, where she attended Fitzhugh Lee Elementary School, Griffin Middle School and Campbell High School. [6] She played clarinet in the band. Roberts wanted to be a veterinarian as a child, but soon after graduating from Smyrna's Campbell High School,[7] she headed to New York to join her sister Lisa Roberts Gillan and pursue a career in acting. Once there, she signed with the Click modeling agency and enrolled in acting classes. She reverted to her original name "Julia Roberts" when she discovered that a "Julie Roberts" was already registered with the Screen Actors Guild. Her niece, Emma Roberts, whom Julia used to take to movie sets when she was a young girl, has joined her father and aunts in the acting business.

Relationships-Roberts's personal life has often been in the spotlight. She has had widely reported romantic relationships with numerous famous men, including Liam Neeson, Dylan McDermott, Kiefer Sutherland, Lyle Lovett, Matthew Perry, and Benjamin Bratt. She was briefly engaged to McDermott, her Steel Magnolias co-star. She met Sutherland in 1990, when he was her co-star in Flatliners; he left his wife and children to move in with Roberts. In August 1990, Roberts and Sutherland announced their engagement, with an elaborate studio-planned wedding scheduled for June 14, 1991. Roberts broke the engagement three days before the wedding when she discovered Sutherland had been meeting with a stripper named Amanda Rice. Roberts subsequently went to Ireland with Jason Patric, a friend of Sutherland's. On June 27, 1993, she married country singer Lyle Lovett; the couple had met only three weeks earlier. The wedding took place on 72-hours' notice and was held in Marion, Indiana, near where Lovett was appearing on tour with his band. Less than two years later, in March 1995, the couple separated, and subsequently divorced.

In 1998, Roberts began dating Law & Order star Benjamin Bratt, who was her escort for the March 25, 2001 Academy Awards ceremony at which she won her Oscar. Three months later, in June 2001, Roberts and Bratt announced that they were no longer a couple. "It's come to a kind and tenderhearted end," she said of their relationship.[13]Roberts met her current husband, cameraman Daniel Moder, on the set of her movie The Mexican in 2000 and they began an affair. Though at the time, Moder was married to Vera Steinberg Moder, he filed for divorce a little over a year later, and after it was finalized, he and Roberts wed on Fourth of July 2002, at her ranch in Taos, New Mexico.[14]On November 28, 2004, they became the parents of fraternal twins, daughter Hazel Patricia and son Phinnaeus "Finn" Walter. Their third child, son Henry Daniel Moder, was born on June 18, 2007 in Los Angeles.

Roberts has given her time and resources to UNICEF as well as to other charitable organizations. In Spring 1995, Roberts, an enthusiastic supporter of UNICEF, asked if she could meet some of the relief agency's neediest recipients. On May 10, she arrived in Port-au-Prince, as she said, "to educate myself". The poverty she found was overwhelming. "My heart is just bursting", she said. UNICEF officials hoped that her six-day visit would trigger an outburst of giving: $10 million in aid was sought at the time.

In 2000, Roberts narrated Silent Angels, a documentary about Rett syndrome, a neurodevelopmental disorder, which was shot in Los Angeles, Baltimore and New York. The documentary was designed to help raise public awareness about the disease. In July 2006, Earth Biofuels announced Roberts as a spokeswoman for the company and as chair of the company's newly formed Advisory Board promoting the use of renewable fuels...

TOM LANDRY

Leadership is getting someone to do what they don't want to do, to achieve what they want to achieve.

Legendary football coach Tom Landry (1924-2000) was the founding coach of the Dallas Cowboys who brought the team from a winless first season into a dominating force in the National Football League (NFL). Over 29 seasons, Landry guided the Cowboys to 20 consecutive winning seasons, 19 NFL playoff appearances, 13 division titles, five Super Bowl appearances, and two Super Bowl victories. His overall record was 271-180-6. "From the late 1960s through the 1970s and into the 1980s," contended "Washington Post" staff writer Bart Barnes, "the Cow boys under Landry were a perennial power in the NFL, with a mystique that transcended the sports community and Texas."

Landry also helped restore the image of Dallas, dubbed the City of Hate after the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, into a city known for its winning all-American football team. The coach's strong work ethic and Christian belief fueled the success of his team and earned the Cowboys the nickname "America's Team." Landry is the third-winningest coach in NFL history, behind Don Shula and George Halas. Yet the coach is equally well known for his style. Standing on the sidelines with folded arms and a stoic expression, Landry wore his signature fedora hat, sports coat, and tie to games. A bronze statue, unveiled in October 2001, captured this pose and is displayed outside the Dallas Cowboy's home stadium in Texas. Landry remains a national icon of control and loyalty.

Excelled in Classroom and Football Field

Tom Landry was born Thomas Wade Landry in Mission, Texas, on September 11, 1924. He was the son of Ron Landry, who worked as an auto mechanic, served as the town's fire chief, and supervised Sunday school at First Methodist Church in Mission, Texas. At Mission High School, Landry was an A-student, president of his class, and a member of the National Honor Society. He also excelled on the football field, playing all-regional fullback on a team that outscored its opponents 322-0 during his senior year. A devout Christian, Landry took part in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

Landry served in the Army Air Forces in World War II, participating in 30 B-17 combat missions over Europe and even surviving a crash landing. In 1945 Landry was discharged as a first lieutenant and enrolled in the University of Texas, where he resumed playing fullback and some quarterback and defensive back for the Longhorns football team. During his junior year he made the all-Southwestern Conference second team, and in his senior year, he served as co-captain. In 1948, Texas won the Sugar Bowl, and in 1949 his team won the Orange Bowl. In 1949, Landry graduated with a degree in business administration from the University of Texas and later earned a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Houston.

Began Career in New York

Landry began his professional football career playing cornerback for the New York Yankees in the All-American Football Conference. After the 1949 season, the team merged with the New York Giants, where he continued to play cornerback for the next six seasons, making the All-Pro defensive team in 1954. When Jim Lee Howell became head coach of the Giants, Landry became a player-coach under him for the 1954 season. He left the field permanently as a player in 1955 when he took a position as the team's defensive coordinator. From 1956 to 1959, he worked as assistant coach alongside offensive coordinator Vince Lombardi, who later rose to fame as coach the Green Bay Packers.

During his time with the Giants, Landry developed his famous 4-3 defense that became the NFL standard, later evolving that into the Flex. The strategy replaced the "umbrella defense - a six-man line with a roving line-backer - with a four-man line and three linebackers." Landry said "My industrial engineering degree shaped my coaching," reported Keith Whitmire in the Chicago Tribune. "The whole coordinated defense, the Flex defense came out of that idea, of putting everybody together with certain responsibilities. It was a very technical approach to football." In Landry's four years as defensive coach, the Giants earned a record of 33-14-1, with two Eastern Conference division titles and one NFL championship, in 1956.

Headed to Dallas

Landry left New York in 1960 to take a job as head coach of the Dallas Cowboys expansion team. A Dallas group headed by owner Clint Murchison Jr. and General manager Tex Schramm recruited Landry for the top job, signing him on for 5 years at $34,000 a season. Landry ran an insurance business in Dallas during the off-season and the offer gave him a chance to move closer to home.

In his first season as head coach, Landry failed to win a single game. The team posted a 0-11-1 record. Landry offset the team's lack of talent with an innovative offensive strategy that called for multiple formations based on the strengths and weaknesses of his own players and those of his opponents. A 1968 NFL press release described Landry's offense as using "10 or 11 formations a game, with up to six variations of each. This is several times as much offense as the NFL average … the Landry defense, on the other hand, is a one-formation machine. It is as complex as a computer, and its individual parts are coordinated like the works of a clock." "He was renowned in the NFL for his ability to think ahead," noted Washington Post staff writer Bart Barnes. "not just for the next down but to the next series of downs."

Despite a sub-par record, Landry had won the confidence of Cowboys owner Clint Murchison. In 1964, Murchison signed Landry for an additional 10 years as head coach of the Cowboys. This marked an unprecedented show of support for a coach with only a 13-38-3 record. But the gamble paid off. By 1965, the team won as many games as they lost. And in 1966, the Cowboys made the playoffs for the first time after posting a 10-3-1 season. That year Landry was named the NFL's Coach of the Year. In 1967 the team won the Eastern Division title. After the 1970 season, the Cowboys advanced to the Super Bowl for the first time, but lost the championship game to the Baltimore Colts. The Cowboys eventually made it to the Super Bowl five times, winning in 1972 and 1978 and losing in 1971, 1976, and 1979. Throughout his career, Landry earned a record of 250-162-6 in the regular season and 20-16 in the playoffs.

Achieved Celebrity Status

In the 1970s, the team gained national popularity and was dubbed "America's Team." Football became the most-watched professional sport in the United States. Super Bowl VI, in which the Tom Landry's Dallas Cowboys beat Don Shula's Miami Dolphins 24-3, marked a turning point for the team. They shed forever their image as lovable losers and became a dominating force in the NFL. "The title validated Landry's status and the Cowboys' claim as one of the league's elite teams," wrote David Moore in the Chicago Tribune. "It forever altered the perception of the franchise."

Landry and his players became national celebrities. Moore recounted the defining events of the Dallas Cowboy's celebrity era. In 1975, the Dirty Dozen referred to the 12 rookies who made the team. The 50-yard Hail Mary pass from Roger Staubach to Drew Pearson climaxed a 17-14 playoff victory over Minnesota later that season. Troubled running back Duane Thomas called Landry "a plastic man, no man at all."

The Dallas Cowboy's cheerleading squad had a certain cachet. Former Cowboys wide receiver Pete Gent wrote a best-selling novel, North Dallas Forty based on his time with the team. The book, which was made into a movie starring Nick Nolte, portrayed the organization in a negative light, characterizing the owners as more concerned with the bottom line than with the welfare of the players.

Landry also revolutionized the college draft system by introducing the computer to organize the annual selection process. The coach became an iconic figure, known for wearing a fedora hat and pacing the sidelines with a stoic expression. Admirers saw a caring, warm, and devoutly religious man. But his aloofness also drew criticism. Landry was called "plastic man" and "computer face," and even referred to cynically as Pope Landry I by some of his players. Moreover, Peter Golenbock in the Wall Street Journal suggested that Landry also exhibited racist tendencies. His black players, especially Bob Hayes, Duane Thomas, and Thomas Henderson, "felt they never got the same respect or recognition from either the coach or the city as his favorite white players: Bobby Lilly, Lee Roy Jordan, and Roger Staubach," according to Golenbock.

Became Corporate Symbol

In 1983, Landry appeared in a national commercial for the American Express corporation. By that time, the Cowboys-Redskins rivalry had become legendary. The advertisement showed Landry walking into a tavern filled with large men in burgundy and gold Redskins football uniforms. Golenbock asserted that Landry became a symbol of corporate America. "His national fame grew around the same time this country was enjoying dizzying economic growth. His coaching philosophy centered on sacrifice for the good of the organization and working like a dog for victory at the cost of everything else. Corporate workers were expected to do the same."

By the early 1980s, the Cowboys had begun to fade. The owner sold them to a consortium, and they never seemed to regain strength. Landry's last season with the team was 1988. In 1989, the Cowboy's new owner Jerry Jones fired long-time coach Tom Landry and longtime general manager Tex Schramm. At his firing, he shed public tears, according to Time magazine, which "shocked an America that saw him as the faultlessly tailored, taciturn but brilliant sideline tactician." "The great irony was that in the end Coach Landry became a victim of the same corporate culture he had championed," contended Golenbock.

After his coaching career ended, Landry and his son became partners in an investment firm, and he also served as a goodwill ambassador for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1990 and was inducted into the Dallas Cowboys Ring of Honor in 1993.

In May 1999, Landry began undergoing treatment for acute myelogenous leukemia and died at Baylor University Medical Center in Texas the following February at age 75. He married Alicia Wiggs, whom he met in college, in 1949, and she survives him along with their children, Tom Landry, Jr. and Kitty Phillips. The couple also had another daughter, Lisa Childress, who died of liver cancer in 1995.

The city of Dallas commemorated Landry by renaming one of its main highways. In addition, it commissioned a nine-foot-two bronze likeness of the coach. On October 15, 2001, the statue was unveiled at halftime of the game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Washington Redskins. It shows the coach on the sidelines wearing his trademark fedora and carrying a game plan placard from a 1983 game against the New York Giants. The statue stands on a star-shaped pedestal at Texas Stadium.

Landry explained his coaching philosophy this way: "The players are basically in my hands - whether they start, whether they play, what they do," according to Whitmire in the Chicago Tribune. "That's an awesome responsibility when you come down to it. Therefore, my feeling is you must have some distance from the players in order for them to do the things they have to do. Once you get close to a player, you give them an out."

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

The best portion of a good man's life is his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love.

William Wordsworth was born April 7, 1770, in Cockermouth, Cumberland, to John and Anne (Cookson) Wordsworth, the second of their five children. His father was law agent and rent collector for Lord Lonsdale, and the family was fairly well off. After his mother's death in 1778 he was sent to Hawkshead Grammar School, near Windermere; in 1787 he went up to St. John's College, Cambridge. He enjoyed hiking: during the "long" (i.e., summer) vacation of 1788 he tramped around Cumberland county; two years later went on a walking tour of France, Switzerland, and Germany; and in 1791, after graduation, trekked through Wales.

His enthusiasm for the French Revolution took him to France again in 1791, where he had an affair with Annette Vallon, who bore him an illegitimate daughter, Caroline, in 1792. Having run out of money, Wordsworth returned to England the following year, and the Anglo-French war, following the Reign of Terror, prevented his return for nine years.

In 1794 he was reunited with his sister Dorothy, who became his companion, close friend, moral support, and housekeeper until her physical and mental decline in the 1830s. The next year he met Coleridge, and the three of them grew very close, the two men meeting daily in 1797-98 to talk about poetry and to plan Lyrical Ballads, which came out in 1798. The three friends travelled to Germany that fall, a trip that produced intellectual stimulation for Coleridge and homesickness for Wordsworth. After their return, William and Dorothy settled in his beloved Lake district, near Grasmere.

The Peace of Amiens in 1802 allowed Wordsworth and his sister to visit France again to see Annette and Caroline. They arrived at a mutually agreeable settlement, and a few months later, after receiving an inheritance owed by Lord Lonsdale since John Wordsworth's death in 1783, William married Mary Hutchinson. By 1810 they had five children, but their happiness was tempered by the loss at sea of William's brother John (1805), the alienation from Coleridge in 1810, and the death of two children in 1812. In 1813 Wordsworth received an appointment as Distributor of Stamps for Westmorland, and the £400 per year which went with this post made him financially secure. The whole family, which included Dorothy, moved to Rydal Mount, between Grasmere and Rydal Water).

Wordsworth's literary career began with Descriptive Sketches (1793) and reached an early climax before the turn of the century, with Lyrical Ballads. His powers peaked with Poems in Two Volumes (1807), and his reputation continued to grow; even his harshest reviewers recognized his popularity and the originality.

The important later works were well under way. His success with shorter forms made him the more eager to succeed with longer, specifically with a long, three-part "philosophical poem, containing views of Man, Nature, and Society, . . having for its principal subject the sensations and opinions of a poet living in retirement." The 17,000 lines which were eventually published made up only a part of this mammoth project. The second section, The Excursion, was completed (pub. 1814), as was the first book of the first part, The Recluse. During his lifetime he refused to print The Prelude, which he had completed by 1805, because he thought it was unprecedented for a poet to talk as much about himself — unless he could put it in its proper setting, which was as an introduction to the complete three-part Recluse.

Inspiration gradually failed him for this project, and he spent much of his later life revising The Prelude. Critics quarrel about which version is better, the 1805 or the 1850, but agree that in either case it is the most successful blank verse epic since Paradise Lost.

Finally fully reconciled to Coleridge, the two of them toured the Rhineland in 1828. Durham University granted him an honorary Doctor of Civil Law degree in 1838, and Oxford conferred the same honor the next year. When Robert Southey died in 1843, Wordsworth was named Poet Laureate. He died in 1850, and his wife published the much-revised Prelude that summer.

BLAISE PASCAL

Do you wish people to think well of you? Don't speak well of yourself.

Blaise Pascal was an influential mathematical writer, a master of the French language, and a 

great religious philosopher (a person who seeks wisdom). He began making contributions to 

mathematics at a very young age. The computer programming language "Pascal" is named 

after him.

Blaise Pascal was born at Clermont-Ferrand, France, on June 19, 1623. His father, Étienne, was a civil servant and served as king's counselor. Blaise's mother, Antoinette, died in 1626. Blaise was three years old at the time and had two sisters, Gilberte and Jacqueline. In 1631 the family moved to Paris, France.

Blaise's father did not like the way school was taught at that time and instructed all three children at home himself. He placed special emphasis on learning Latin and Greek. He did not expose Blaise to geometry because he felt the topic was too enticing and attractive. Geometry is the branch of mathematics that deals with points, lines, angles, surfaces, and solids. He thought that if exposed to geometry and mathematics too soon, Blaise would abandon the study of classics.

This ban on mathematics merely served to make Blaise even more curious. On his own he experimented with geometrical figures. He invented his own names for geometrical terms because he had not been taught the standard terms. Some people believe that Blaise Pascal. 

Blaise was twelve years old when he started attending meetings of a mathematical academy with his father. Other scholars think that he did not attend the meetings until he was about sixteen. Whichever was the case, he was far younger than the adults who were there.

In 1640 the Pascal family moved to Rouen, France. Blaise was still taught mainly by his father. He worked very hard, but was frequently in poor health. During this time he developed a new theorem, or mathematical formula that can be proven, in geometry. He sometimes referred to this theorem as a "mystic hexagram." It was quite different from geometry that dealt with measured properties of figures. It was the foundation for an important, and, at the time, almost entirely undeveloped branch of mathematics.

In 1640, at age sixteen, Pascal wrote a book, Essay on Conics. It deals with the geometry of cones. He gave the mystic hexagram central importance in this book. At the age of nineteen, Pascal invented a calculating machine. It was able to add and subtract by having a person move a series of gears and cylinders. This was an early form of a computer.

In 1646 Pascal's father had an accident and was confined to his house. Some neighbors who were Jansenists came to visit him. The Jansenists were a religious group formed by Cornelius Jansen (1585–1638). Their beliefs were very different from the teachings of the Jesuits, who were the most influential group at the time. The Pascals began adopting the Jansenist beliefs. As a result, they received opposition from the local Jesuits.

After Étienne Pascal's death in 1651, Pascal's sister Jacqueline joined the Jansenists at their convent in Port Royal. Pascal continued to enjoy a more worldly life. He had a number of aristocratic (upper-class) and famous friends and money from his patrimony (inheritance) to support himself. In 1654, however, he completely converted to Jansenism, and joined his sister at the convent at Port Royal.

In 1655 the writer Antoine Arnauld (1612–1694) was formally condemned for heretical teaching, a teaching that opposed the standard beliefs of the church. Pascal decided to defend Arnauld. He wrote a series of pamphlets that were supposed to look like letters between two friends, one in the city and one in the country or provinces. They came to be known as The Provincial Letters and poked fun at the Jesuits. They were very popular. The Jesuits tried without success to find the author. The wit, reason, eloquence, and humor of the letters made the Jesuits a laughingstock (object of ridicule).

When Pascal died in 1662, he left behind an unfinished theological work (relating to religious faith and practices), the Pensées. This was an apology, or defense, for Christianity. It was published eight years later by the Port Royal community in a thoroughly garbled and incoherent form. A reasonably authentic version first appeared in 1844. It deals with the great problems of Christian thought, faith versus reason, and free will.

The Pensées, unlike the Provincial Letters, were not highly edited and polished. The Letters give Pascal a place in literary history as the first of several great French writers practicing polite irony (humor in which words are used to mean the opposite of their true meaning) and satire (making fun of human faults and weakness). In contrast, some people think that the feeling of the Pensées makes it seem that it could almost have been written by another man. In them, reason is supposedly made to take second place to religion. Both books, however, are recognized as being among the great volumes in the history of religious thought.

Little is known of Pascal's personal life after his entry into Port Royal. Some of Pascal's scientific and mathematical works were not published until after his death. His "Treatise on the Equilibrium of Liquids," and his work on the links between theories involving liquids and gases, were enormously important in providing knowledge to develop air compressors, vacuum pumps, and hydraulic (run by the pressure created by forcing liquid through a small opening) elevators. Although he never wrote at great length on mathematics after entering Port Royal, the many short pieces that do survive are almost always concise and incisive.

The mathematical theory of probability (whether something is more likely to happen or not) made its first great step forward when Pascal and Pierre de Fermat (1601–1665) began writing to one another. They found that they both had come to similar conclusions independently. Pascal planned a treatise (a formal explanation of a theory) on the subject, but again only a fragment survived. It was published after his death. Pascal suffered increasingly from head pains after 1658. He died on August 19, 1662.

Pascal published many of his theorems without providing proofs as a challenge to other mathematicians. Solutions were found by some of the best mathematicians of the time, all rising to do their best by Pascal's leadership. The computer programming language "Pascal" is named after Blaise Pascal in honor of his early contributions to the science of computing. Thus, the influence of Blaise Pascal lives on today.

SHAKTI GAWAIN

You create your opportunities by asking for them

Shakti Gawain is a pioneer in the field of personal growth and consciousness. Her many bestselling books have sold more than six million copies in thirty languages worldwide. For more than twenty years, Shakti has lead workshops internationally, and has facilitated thousands of individuals in developing greater awareness, balance, and wholeness in their lives.

She has appeared on such nationally syndicated shows as Oprah!, Good Morning America, Sonya Live, The Larry King Show, The Leeza Show, America's Talking and New Dimensions Radio, and she has recently been featured in Cosmopolitan, New Woman, New Age Journal, Body Mind & Spirit and Time Magazine.

Shakti was brought up, as the only child, in a highly academic environment. Both parents were atheists. The mother, by way of her own belief system, demonstrated that there are no limits other than those we set ourselves; everything is possible! This created in Shakti an attitude of both openness and scepticism that lead to a great need for testing everything herself. For a while things went perfectly smooth until eventually a love relationship broke up which left Shakti in a deep existential crisis. What is it all about really? she wondered, and thus took the first step on the long path to self-realisation, in search for the true purpose of life.

"I read a lot and filled my head with psychology. And eventually I realised that it is not enough to stimulate only the mind, the intellect. Also the body needs to express itself. That´s how I started dancing."

The next step in Shakti´s journey came about through a trip to India where she became deeply impressed with the culture and the religious beliefs she encountered. All of a sudden she lost interest in all things material. - "I gave away all my possessions and kept only what I could fit into a small canvass bag," she goes on. "I needed nothing more. I realised that, along the way, we will be given all the things we truly need. There is no sense in collecting more that you can use. By the way, the name Shakti is the name of the female aspect of the Hindu God Shiva."

"18 years ago I decided I wanted to write a book about my experiences," Shakti explains. "However, I doubted my capability, and for a long time I did nothing but fret about it. At the time I lived together with a very creative man. It was he who taught me to 'cut the shit and do the thing'. So I did, and that´s how Creative Visualisation came about."

According to herself, Shakti was once a workaholic. "This is what becomes of us when we allow ourselves to be influenced by outer authorities for whom, in order to give us their love and acceptance, we believe we need to perform constantly. Most of us lost touch with our intuition already as children. And now we are faced with the intricate question: how can I trust myself and my intuition? - Make contact with your inner Child, your Mentor within," advises Shakti. "That teacher knows which fork in the road to follow. And you know when you have chosen right, because then you feel alive. Start exercising your intuition by letting it guide you on issues of less importance. For instance, shall I go to that party or not? What feels best? And then act on it, like if you never had a doubt in your mind."

"Nothing is predestined," she continues. "Everything is a creative process. Visualisations and affirmations are only tools to help in the process. Our own healing is the most important process taking place on Earth at the moment, because it influences the collective all or oneness. The greatest harm we inflict on Earth is our separation from nature. When we change, we also change the world around us. The Earth is undergoing a great transformation - and it happens very fast. Old values and patterns can no longer be followed. We must heal ourselves and find out own path. We must make use of our will, become valiant 'knights' on a crusade for positive thinking, positive acting. However, on this crusade we cannot become victorious unless we also recognise our shadow side; our fears, our denials, our negative thought-patterns. This side of ourselves must also be brought into the light in order to manifest wholeness."

"Would you like to manifest a great love relationship? Then visualize and affirm the perfect characteristics of your partner to be! Or maybe you are looking for a new apartment? Visualise your ideal home! Then sleep on it. Then visualize again, etc. Eventually something will happen. Just make sure your intent is very clear. We already are very good at visualizing. Unfortunately we often, unwittingly, use the process in reverse; we visualize things we hope never shall take place. By seemingly innocent thoughts to the effect: 'I hope nothing bad will happen', our programming of negative thought-forms take command over the process of visualization, and without realising, we materialise what we do not want. It is therefore very important to be honest with oneself and courageous enough to look at ones fears. For instance, most of us would like to find the perfect life-partner. However, some people might, deep down, be afraid to engage in a love affair for fear of loosing themselves. Then it becomes very difficult to visualize and manifest, because there is a hidden message from the sub-conscious, and the all important intent gets muddled."

"Reality is objective. Everything is energy. Everything influences everything. We see the mirror of our true self in everyting everywhere. - Through meditation we gain access to the will of the universe and Divine Wisdom. It is not complicated, really. Just visualize something, create a mental picture. It´s fun and simple," motions Shakti. "Sometimes we meet our pain. When we do, we should confront it, allow it, feel it, yet not fussing too much over it. Instead we should look to create balance through giving and through meeting our needs. Sometimes we need help and then it can be very beneficial to turn to a friend or to look for some form of therapy to alleviate sorrow and work on our pain," says Shakti.

Our four body system

"Human life exists in four aspects or on four levels - a spiritual-, a mental-, an emotional- and a physical level. In order to develop and evolve ourselves, we need to cleanse and heal and integrate all of these four bodies."

In her most recent book, The Path of Transformation, Shakti explains how we can best accomplish this process. -"The spiritual body is our base. We are all one," continues Shakti. "We are born with a spiritual connection. As we grow we come to imagine our separation from that connection, and we feel a vast emptiness. Spiritual exercises such as meditating, painting, listening to or creating music, walking in the woods, are all tools to help us find our way back to that connection."

"Many people in the 'New Age' movement are committing the mistake of working exclusively to develop their spiritual body. It´s easy to loose your foothold on reality that way. The mental body is our intellect, our logical, thinking mind. To cleanse and heal our mental body, we need to become conscious of our thoughts and thought patterns. On the emotional level we need to allow all variety of feelings. There are no such thing as negative feelings. Feelings are about communication and acceptance. On the physical plane, the body itself will let you know if you ignore it," concludes Shakti.

Shakti was co-founder of New World Library along with Marc Allen. Shakti and her husband, Jim Burns, also co-founded Nataraj Publishing Company, which New world Library acquired in 1998. Shakti Gawain lives with her husband in Marin County, California and Kauai, Hawaii.

RICHARD M. NIXON

If you want to make beautiful music, you must play the black and the white notes together.

Reconciliation was the first goal set by President Richard M. Nixon. The Nation was painfully divided, with turbulence in the cities and war overseas. During his Presidency, Nixon succeeded in ending American fighting in Viet Nam and improving relations with the U.S.S.R. and China. But the Watergate scandal brought fresh divisions to the country and ultimately led to his resignation.

His election in 1968 had climaxed a career unusual on two counts: his early success and his comeback after being defeated for President in 1960 and for Governor of California in 1962.

Born in California in 1913, Nixon had a brilliant record at Whittier College and Duke University Law School before beginning the practice of law. In 1940, he married Patricia Ryan; they had two daughters, Patricia (Tricia) and Julie. During World War II, Nixon served as a Navy lieutenant commander in the Pacific.

On leaving the service, he was elected to Congress from his California district. In 1950, he won a Senate seat. Two years later, General Eisenhower selected Nixon, age 39, to be his running mate.

As Vice President, Nixon took on major duties in the Eisenhower Administration. Nominated for President by acclamation in 1960, he lost by a narrow margin to John F. Kennedy. In 1968, he again won his party's nomination, and went on to defeat Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey and third-party candidate George C. Wallace.

His accomplishments while in office included revenue sharing, the end of the draft, new anticrime laws, and a broad environmental program. As he had promised, he appointed Justices of conservative philosophy to the Supreme Court. One of the most dramatic events of his first term occurred in 1969, when American astronauts made the first moon landing.

Some of his most acclaimed achievements came in his quest for world stability. During visits in 1972 to Beijing and Moscow, he reduced tensions with China and the U.S.S.R. His summit meetings with Russian leader Leonid I. Brezhnev produced a treaty to limit strategic nuclear weapons. In January 1973, he announced an accord with North Viet Nam to end American involvement in Indochina. In 1974, his Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, negotiated disengagement agreements between Israel and its opponents, Egypt and Syria.

In his 1972 bid for office, Nixon defeated Democratic candidate George McGovern by one of the widest margins on record.

Within a few months, his administration was embattled over the so-called "Watergate" scandal, stemming from a break-in at the offices of the Democratic National Committee during the 1972 campaign. The break-in was traced to officials of the Committee to Re-elect the President. A number of administration officials resigned; some were later convicted of offenses connected with efforts to cover up the affair. Nixon denied any personal involvement, but the courts forced him to yield tape recordings which indicated that he had, in fact, tried to divert the investigation.

As a result of unrelated scandals in Maryland, Vice President Spiro T. Agnew resigned in 1973. Nixon nominated, and Congress approved, House Minority Leader Gerald R. Ford as Vice President.

Faced with what seemed almost certain impeachment, Nixon announced on August 8, 1974, that he would resign the next day to begin "that process of healing which is so desperately needed in America."

In his last years, Nixon gained praise as an elder statesman. By the time of his death on April 22, 1994, he had written numerous books on his experiences in public life and on foreign policy.

JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Every man has a right to risk his own life for the preservation of it

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was born to Suzanne Bernard and Isaac Rousseau on June 28, 1712, in Geneva, Switzerland. Nine days later his mother died. At the age of three, he was reading French novels with his father, and Jean-Jacques acquired his passion for music from his aunt. His father fled Geneva to avoid imprisonment when Jean-Jacques was ten. By the time he was thirteen, his formal education had ended and he was sent to work for a notary public (someone legally empowered to certify documents), but he was soon dismissed as fit only for watchmaking. Afterwards Rousseau spent three miserable years serving as a watchmaker, which he abandoned when he found himself unexpectedly locked out of the city by its closed gates. He faced the world with no money or belongings and no obvious talents.

Rousseau found himself on Palm Sunday, 1728, in Annecy, France, at the house of Louise Eleonore, Baronne de Warens. Rousseau lived under her roof off and on for thirteen years and was dominated by her influence. Charming and clever, a natural businesswoman, Madame de Warens was a woman who lived by her wits. She supported him and found him jobs, most of which he disliked. A friend, after examining the lad, informed her that he might aspire to become a village curé (priest) but nothing more. Still Rousseau read, studied, and thought. He pursued music and gave lessons, and for a time he worked as a tutor.

Rousseau's scheme for musical notation, published in 1743 as Dissertation sur la musique moderne, brought him neither fame nor fortune—only a fond letter from the Académie des Sciences. But his interest in music spurred him to write two operas— Les Muses galantes (1742) and Le Devin du village (1752)—and permitted him to write articles on music for Denis Diderot's (1713–1784) Encyclopédie; the Lettre sur la musique française (1753) and the Dictionnaire de musique, published in 1767.

From September 1743 until August 1744 Rousseau served as secretary to the French ambassador to Venice, Italy. He experienced at firsthand the stupidity and corruption (dishonesty and deception) involved in these offices. Rousseau spent the remaining years before his success with his first Discours in Paris, where he lived the poor lifestyle of a struggling intellectual.

In March 1745 Rousseau began an affair with Thérèse Le Vasseur. She was twenty-four years old, a maid at Rousseau's lodgings. She remained with him for the rest of his life—as mistress, housekeeper, mother of his children, and finally, in 1768, as his wife. They had five children—though some biographers have questioned whether any of them were Rousseau's. Apparently he regarded them as his own even though he assigned them to a hospital for abandoned children. Rousseau had no means to educate them, and he reasoned that they would be better raised as workers and peasants by the state.

By 1749 Rousseau had befriended the French philosopher Diderot. The publication of Diderot's Lettre sur les aveugles had resulted in his imprisonment at Vincennes, France. While walking to Vincennes to visit Diderot, Rousseau read an announcement of a prize being offered by the Dijon Academy for the best essay on the question, "Has progress of the arts and sciences contributed more to the corruption or to the purification of morals?" Rousseau won the prize of the Dijon Academy with his Discours sur les sciences et les arts. His famous "attack" on civilization called for sixty-eight articles defending the arts and sciences. Though he himself regarded this essay as "the weakest in argument and the poorest in harmony and proportion" of all his works, he nonetheless believed that it sounded one of his essential themes: the arts and sciences, instead of freeing men and increasing their happiness, had for the most part imprisoned men further.

Rousseau's novel La Nouvelle Héloïse (1761) attempted to portray in fiction the sufferings and tragedy that foolish education and restrictive social customs had among sensitive creatures. Rousseau's two other major writings— L'émile ou de l'éducation (1762) and Du contrat social (1762)—undertook the more difficult task of constructing an education and a social order that would enable men to be natural and free; that is, to enable men to recognize no bondage except the bondage of natural necessity. To be free in this sense, said Rousseau, was to be happy.

La Nouvelle Héloïse appeared in Paris in January 1761. Originally entitled Lettres de deux amants, habitants d'une petite ville au pied des Alpes, the work was structurally a novel in letters, after the fashion of the English author Samuel Richardson (1689–1761). The originality of the novel won it harsh reviews, but its sexual nature made it immensely popular with the public. It remained a best seller until the French Revolution in 1789, a massive uprising calling for political and social change throughout France.

The reputation of La Nouvelle Héloïse was nothing compared to the storm produced by L'émile and Du contrat social. Even today the ideas set forth in these works are revolutionary. Their expression, especially in L'émile, in a style both readable and alluring made them dangerous. L'émile was condemned (officially dissaproved of) by the Paris Parliament (the governing body) and heavily criticized by the archbishop of Paris. Both of the books were burned by the authorities in Geneva, Switzerland.

Forced to flee from France, Rousseau sought refuge at Yverdon in the territory of Bern. There he was kicked out by the Bernese authorities and would spend the next few years seeking a safe place to live. Finally, British philosopher David Hume (1711–1776) helped Rousseau settle in Wotton, Derbyshire, England, in 1766. Hume managed to obtain from George III (1738–1820) a yearly pension (sum of money) for Rousseau. But Rousseau, falsely believing Hume to be in league with his Parisian and Genevan enemies, not only refused the pension but also openly broke with the philosopher.

Rousseau returned to France in June 1767 under the protection of the Prince de Conti. Wandering from place to place, he at last settled in 1770 in Paris. There he made a living, as he often had in the past, by copying music. By December 1770 the Confessions, upon which he had been working since 1766, was completed, and he gave readings from this work at various private homes. His last work, Les Rêveries du promeneur solitaire, begun in 1776 and unfinished at his death, records how Rousseau, an outcast from society, recaptured "serenity, tranquility, peace, even happiness."

In May 1778 Rousseau accepted Marquis de Giradin's hospitality at Ermenonville near Paris. There, with Thérèse at his bedside, he died on July 2, 1778, probably from uremia, a severe kidney disease. Rousseau was buried on the Île des Peupliers at Ermenonville. In October 1794 his remains were transferred to the Panthéon in Paris. Thérèse, surviving him by twenty-two years, died in 1801 at the age of eighty.