Good Luck to Darth Vader Junior, Max Page!

Remember this wonderful VW ad featuring a pint-sized Darth Vader trying to magic things around his house and finally "succeeding" to his immense surprise?

The boy actor, Max Page - who also plays a character on the popular daytime soap "The Young and the Restless"- was born with a heart defect which requires surgery, which he will undergo this week.

Max, though understandably nervous about major open-heart surgery, is determined to put on the best face he can going in. But, even more admirably, Max and his family - along with the ad agency Deutsch - are using this opportunity to help raise money so that other kids with similar diagnoses can get the surgeries they need, too.

At a difficult time, a young boy - and his family and friends - still finds it inside himself to think of other kids who, like him, are facing scary health issues necessitating surgery but who, unlike him, may lack the financial resources or health insurance to get the heathcare they need.

Good luck to you, Max.  May your surgery go perfectly, your recovery run smoothly and swiftly and may you enjoy great happiness and success in your future endeavors!

The Greatest Show On Earth

I'm still struggling with several complex topics, but in the meantime:

Lyrics:


[David Attenborough]
How could one species turn into another?


[Richard Dawkins]
How is it that we find ourselves surrounded by such complexity, such elegance?


[Bill Nye]
The genes of you and me
They're all made of DNA
We're all made of the same chemicals
DNA - we're all made of DNA


[Attenborough]
Only the fittest survive
And that is the key
Natural Selection
That is the key


[Dawkins]
We are surrounded by endless forms
Most beautiful, most wonderful
Evolution - the greatest show on Earth


There is grandeur in this view of life
Evolution - the greatest show on Earth


[Attenborough]
The history of life can be thought of
As a many branched tree
The five kingdoms of life
were established early on


Bacteria
Protists- amoeba like creatures
Fungi
Plants 
And animals


[Dawkins]
We find ourselves perched on one tiny twig
In the midst of a blossoming tree of life


[refrain]


We are surrounded by millions of other species
Walking, flying, burrowing, stalking, chasing, fleeing,
Outpacing


[Attenborough]
Animals strive to reach this one ultimate goal
To ensure the survival of the next generation
This one ultimate goal
To pass on their genes
That is what life is all about


[refrain]


[Dawkins]
As we look back on the history of life
We see a picture of never ending,
ever rejuvinating novelty


[Attenborough]
Those animals may seem to us to be very remote,
strange, even fantastic


But all of us alive today
Owe our very existence to them

Tuesday Tonics - Throwing Darts in the Dark?

via Trenchant Atheist, Faith vs. Science: A Difference in Darts

565 Million Years...or More

Balm for a weary mind.

I'm off to the dentist with a broken tooth. I hope this video will sooth you as much as it calms me!

Mistaken Point

Parks Canada

The Drook, Portugal Cove South

The Garden Of Your Mind

via pbsdigitalstudios

Did you ever think about growing things in the garden of your mind?

It's good to be curious about many things.

You can grow ideas in the garden of your mind!

(via def shepherd)