Who said that?? "Be true to yourself. And stay away from the dark thoughts".

Who said the following, and under what circumstances?

"Be true to yourself. And stay away from the dark thoughts."

Thought I would just go ahead and post the answer, because, well..... google just takes all the fun out of guessing, seeing as the information is immediately within reach in the seconds it takes to copy and paste the info into the search area.

Sooooo...the answer is: Frank Sinatra!

Frankie shared the above pithy remark in the book The Way You Wear Your Hat (subtitled "Frank Sinatra and the Lost Art of Livin',") by Bill Zehme, in response to the question: "What is the most important thing a father can tell his children?" The director of our show also happened to mention that after an award ceremony (he thinks it was The Grammys in 1992), when they were interviewing the winners, someone just out and asked him the secret to life. He said something close to "be thankful every day...and stay away from the dark thoughts."

As dissolute a life as he led, he actually had some very interesting and insightful advice that he imparted, over the years, and though some of it I don't necessarily agree with, this particular one, I do.

Many of us are bombarded, daily, with 'dark' thoughts. Sometimes they are a result of outward influences, but oftentimes they are just random thoughts that appear out of nowhere. They manifest themselves in a myriad of ways, including self-doubt and self-criticism, anger, revenge, feelings of futility. They are destructive and debilitating, and not easy to shake off. But the wonderful thing about the human mind is that change is just a thought away. We have no control over what thoughts come into our mind, but we DO have control over how long they remain in our psyches. If we indulge those thoughts they will remain there, slowly poisoning our mind, spirit and body until we actually believe what those nasty little voices are telling us, whether based on reality or not. On the other hand, if we refuse to entertain any negativity and immediately replace those thoughts with something positive, then they have no chance to take root and strangle us from within. And that's what it feels like. But we, ultimately, have that choice: to listen or not.

The walls in the apartment here are paper thin, and during the second week of performance, the girlfriend of one of the female leads made disparaging remarks about everyone in the show, including my work, and her criticism stayed with me until a few days ago. I couldn't shake it from my mind and although I knew it wasn't true, and that I'm sure she was just trying to pump up her friend's ego, (because one of the great reviews spent 2 or 3 paragraphs on my small part compared to her one line of mention), I allowed it to affect my work. I stupidly made adjustments that never felt comfortable. And in spite of the fact that the director assured me I was not doing what she described me as doing (being cartoonish), and I got wonderful feedback from audience members, I still felt bad. It wasn't until after a dear friend, who saw the show, finally told me that what I was doing was giving this one biased person, total power over how I feel about the job I am doing, and that was all I needed. I'd already allowed the comment to poison me, somewhat, so it still took some work to eventually get over it, but I'm grateful I did. What I should have done was immediately dismiss it, considering the source and circumstances, like I did the one bad review, but I didn't and that was the problem. It was a wonderful lesson, though, and I won't allow that to happen again.

And that's basically what we do when we listen to those 'dark thoughts'. We give power to the negative, which can affect us, adversely, for a very, very long time. So staying away from those thoughts, to begin with, is wonderful advice.

It's just a thought away!

Who said that?? "Because things get difficult, you don't cut and run!" - The answer!

In response to criticism regarding our presence in Somalia, after the Battle of Mogadishu and the Black Hawk down tragedy, in October, 1993, former President Bill Clinton quoted Colin Powell, saying:

"Because things get difficult, you don't cut and run!"

Most people automatically assume only a Republican would be capable of making such a statement but, surprisingly, a Democrat repeated that same statement to congress, with great earnestness and conviction. Interesting how times have changed, since those days. And, actually, at the time, it was mostly the Republican leadership demanding: what are we sacrificing our young soldiers in Somalia for? (Now it's the Democrats asking the same question about our troops in Iraq.) Unfortunately, under pressure, Clinton capitulated (for political reasons, undoubtedly), promising the American people that the troops would be withdrawn by March 31, 1994. It wasn't until one year later (March 1995) that all U.S. personnel finally bailed out, but our withdrawal from Somalia was what ultimately prompted Osama Bin Laden to proclaim, 4 years later, "... that the Americans are a paper tiger", and to boast that the U.S. could easily be defeated because we were unwilling to suffer casualties. Saddam Hussein had also predicted (prior to the 1st Gulf war), that Americans would be unable to tolerate"10,000 dead in one battle". And Saddam's prescient comment has indeed proven true. Once again.

The American people have absolutely no patience, for anything, and our leaders take their political cue from the demands of the people. In spite of our power and might, over time, our overly-civilized battle demeanor and reluctance to 'stay the course' has only served to embolden our enemies. It's our one fatal flaw: the inability to stomach prolonged warfare and the casualties that are an inevitable result of battle. Bin Laden, in a 1997 interview with CNN, claimed that the mujahideen's defeat of the Soviets, in occupied Afghanistan, proved to him that a few could triumph over the many. It was this victory over the soviet invaders that led to the following epiphany: "the myth of the superpower was destroyed not only in my mind but also in the minds of all Muslims". In 1996, assessing our battle-steadfastness, or lack, thereof, he said "The Russian soldier is more courageous and patient than the U.S. soldier....Our battle with the United States is easy compared with the battles in which we engaged in Afghanistan." And yes, the battle might be easier, but through no fault of our courageous soldiers. They have been forced to fight a p.c. war, through the scope of public opinion, with a barbaric enemy that has no comprehension of human decency. Yes "war is hell" but sometimes necessary, and in a civilized world, people usually abide by certain rules of engagement and the various Geneva Conventions. Not so with this enemy. While we fight with our hands tied behind our backs by certain Laws of War, the insurgents continue to flagrantly violate them all.

And so, 10 plus years later, Bin Laden and the Islamist extremists have us pegged. They realize that all they have to do is keep up the offensive, by hammering away at our defenses and our will to fight. They know full well that by gradually increasing the body count, the American people (and hence our politicians), will tire of it all and start demanding withdrawal. In which case they have won. And then what?

So, no matter who originally said: "Because things get difficult, you don't cut and run!", or who will say it again, some day; regardless of their political affiliation, it is an extremely valid statement! One that needs to be considered carefully, because withdrawal is just not a viable option.

(Thanks to BCF and B.B. for setting me straight.)

Who said that??

Who, emphatically, said the following, and under what circumstances?

"Because things get difficult, you don't cut and run!"

Answer on Friday, or sooner.