Marriage In Vegas

If you're going to the chapel anytime soon then you may want to take the advice of a former client who shared with me that getting married and having children in today's world is not what it's cracked up to be.  She shared this with me just after her third divorce was finalized.  "It's not that I want to spend the rest of my life feeling lonely but love just fizzles after a year and the commitment is gone.  You could say the same about employers and even college these days.  The divorce rate for a first divorce is well-over 50%.  If you knew that you'd only win 50% back of your money in Vegas would you play?  Not likely.  More importantly, the divorce rate for second marriages is 60-65%.  Again, would you play on those odds in Vegas?  And what if you knew the divorce rate for third marriages is close to 80%?  If I knew I'd win twice out of ten plays in Vegas I would eventually lose everything and that's her point.  To illustrate this point, I close with the example of my sister-in-law sharing with me and my wife about how wonderful her marriage will be because they were getting married at the Air Force Academy Chapel, a very awesome place to get married.  After some years, they became millionaires and no longer had time for children.  My question to them was, "Why did you get married?  You can be a childless couple and not get married?"  Sadly, they divorced for the sole reason that one wanted children and the other did not.  I think they knew this but didn't get honest about it.  Instead, they played Vegas odds and are now in search of a love that ends in 60-65% divorce instead of 50% which is where everyone stands when they go to the chapel for the first time.  

College Radio

Thirty years ago I took broadcasting classes at the community college for basically a lack of anything better to do after High School.  I had big plans to become a professional musician but those plans fell through for reasons I'd mostly resolved with my therapists over the years.  But recently, an event triggered me to revisit those times, in particular, a situation that brought perspective to me when yet again nothing made sense to me in this ever-changing world.  The event occurred when I took to the airwaves for the fifth or sixth time while in the studio with another student.  We'd had a tour of a "real" radio station with highly advanced equipment just before we went On The Air, so when we returned to the college radio station we realized just how badly we wanted to do well in school and get a real job at a real radio station.  When I turned on the microphones for the both of us, we got to dialoguing about our recent journey, which turned into a comparison of college radio versus professional radio.  At first, we slammed college radio for having the worst equipment but it didn't take long for us to realize that even though the equipment was different at both radio stations, they both played good music.  Haven't you ever felt like you wouldn't be able to put out your best performance because you didn't have the best technology?  With all the changes we experience on a daily basis when it comes to technological advances, it would be easy to say we can't give our best because we don't have version 6.0 versus version 5.0.  Me and my friend came to the conclusion after our ranting that day that the college radio station was still way cool and came up with a new motto, one the program director wasn't too fond of, that "We were KEPC where we play the best music on the worst equipment."  You can do this as well.  You may not have all the best technology at your fingertips, but you can still give your best with what you do have.