Wow! First of all it relates to where I am today and how I saw this news item. I am in Hanoi and reading about world news from the official government newspaper in English, Viet Nam News…I am not sure I would have seen this item in the San Diego Union-Tribune…

One of our favorite actors won the Oscar for his performance as Hannibal Lecter…Sir Anthony could walk onto any stage anywhere with any script and dazzle the audience with his brilliant acting…

He was knighted by the Queen…..he received the Oscar….
Lifetime achievement…..NO! NOT!

He is painting his life away….from now on….daily, he is an artist.
He paints daily in his Malibu (Southern California) home….sells his prints for $1802 each in today’s market….has a nation-wide exhibit underway with 50 of his paintings…

Interesting….he paints by knife, and does masks! He as am I, into eyes….

Blueflash? Of course, he is a free soul, wild and free, to do what he wants to be….

He is obviously in what some would call ’second career’….
He is in my words ‘living out his second blueflash’…as an artist, a good one receiving major compliments from the art community……and here is the quintessential thing for you to hear…

He does not need to do this….it is his passion…it is the heart of the artist…
he cannot be stopped….this flow has strength and power and destiny behind it….

And, it is his second burst of wind in his career…it is his what he declares to put down here on this planet as his heart and soul speaking…

Sir Anthony, nice work, sir….stay young with your art………stay with life!

Happy Valentine’s Day from Taiwan! Yes, it is universal, maybe worldwide now…the day that we celebrate the romance in our lives…pink sparks and pinkflashes in high gear!

So here is my offering of a poem for all those who love someone special on this day…

It took place between Romeo and Juliet, but was never released until now….

Juliet: Romeo, so what do you see in me? I am just ordinary…like a bee
I have won no beauty pageants…can’t you see…
I am even quite nervous, sometimes quite contrary…

Romeo: Juliet, you ask…what do I see in you?
Let me tell you I see your eyes, but your eyes I look through…
And I see your inner beauty…which is so true…

Juliet: Romeo, what I see in you…
Is what you see in me…
It is so deep, forever like the sea…

The pinkflashes in our lives are moments when we realize our deep closeness and passion for a loved one. I have come to believe it is not outer beauty that is the important part. It is what we see just inside the other person we are loving….we look not at their eyes, we look through their eyes and see their true heart and soul.

We see their outer beauty and it is real. We see their movement and it is at home with our own…we get to know their culture and “demographics”, and it may be far from ours…..

But, this is the person who we see deeply beyond their eyes…and they see into us as deeply…when that happens the music plays….we dance….and we see the face we love….so look into their eyes…see what you may see…you will know if this is the face that touches you…the face you will touch…its the magic of inner beauty and hearts that are close…

It is the essence of our moments of the Pinkflash…
Happy Valentine’s Day!

I have done a lot of paintings in my life. From childhood, I tried to capture stuff…the essence of cities was my passion….abstract…great licence….I painted with friends and family….sometimes it became passionate to create a new form…a new picture of my inner scape of something. My mother taught me the art of loving, living and art itself….she and I spent many hours with canvas and water colors. She taught me that the artist has heart.

I left that art twenty five years ago….haven’t painted since…..words have been my palette….poetry, lyrics and passionate essays about the essential life issues as I have experienced them as a College President….

Recent events have shown me the inner world of the ‘heart of the artist’. It is a wide and open canvas of amazing shapes and forms and emotions.

These people are destined, too, to have life purpose, maybe even something that represents something quite commercial as a venture, like selling their art, making friends thru art, being in a community of art people who share something quite deep.

One of them recently said she just wanted a week, a single week, to paint, nothing else…..what is this passion?

It seems to be the heart of the artist. Wanting wide open scapes, freedom to escape the bounds of ‘normal life’ with jobs and family and culture….to be totally free…to fly like a bird….and to free fall with passion and love.

Not all art is full of such happiness. That is the struggle. To be free. To grow up into something of the fully mature creator artist….

I cannot muster that passion as an artist with paint and canvas and form and shape. I cannot even put words to geometric shapes and organic or inorganic forms….but I know it when I see it….it is pure passion…the true heart of the artist waiting for his or her life moment of discovery….even if it is just with a select few…..those who love the work of an artist, understand the artist and feel that same passion….

Athleetes speak of the ‘zone’. I think artists also are in the zone of something wide and wild and free when they paint….the heart of the artist is struggling to put paint to canvas to say what is deepest in their heart….a love for life and living….

I felt that when I painted, too. Many years ago. Now I feel it in my words that I put down for others maybe to understand and take home.

Every day, every canvas is new. Like a birthday. Happy birthday to the artists out there….every day is like a birthday with presents and yet you are getting older, but your your heart gives us the gift of freedom, joy and expression.

Blue flash? Yes, it is all connected in this global society….the vision of your life as an artist is wrapped nicely into the package of who you are, your heart and soul. Your destiny to create. The heart of the artist today we celebrate and they have made all of our civilizations so great and worth the time we spend to say who we are……….

Something happened in July 2009 and ended, at least for now, in late December, 2009. During these months, I wrote and wrote, and what you have read here is what I produced. My shared concerns and thoughts about our business school world and the human issues which present every day. It was, during these months, like my life was filled with the sound of music… something wonderful happened, by accident, came in on one of those 90 degree angles that Buckminster Fuller talks about.

It was like a wind at my back, when I used to skate on lakes. It was like a wind under my wings to write, to stay up late and put down my thoughts for others. That “wind” was a creative force that made me feel like writing. I guess the artist feels the same escape when he or she goes to canvas to paint in passion…

It was a good time to write about things in 2009. Lots was happening. There was lots to write about. Wall Street had almost crashed, and Main Street was bleeding. We who lead business schools needed to speak out and challenge each other.

Some amazing things happened with our business school, the California International Business University (CIBU) during this period. We grew and encountered some of the most human issues we ever faced. There were losses of dear ones, there were new additions, new places, new faces, and some serendipity that confounded us. I tried to capture some of the agony and ecstasy in these moments in these essays.

During this time, I discovered I needed to set forth my own personal mission statement. Dr. Jeffrey Bennett, came into our community and provided inspiration to do this. We were challenged. We rose to this challenge. My own first attempt at a life purpose statement is contained in these essays. Others are still working on theirs.

I lost two mentors this year. It gave me the chance to reflect and write about what mentors really are and what they should be. It was not easy.

I never met some of the heroes I wrote about. The war widow. The Wall Street mavericks who are working against the creeping “gaming of America” by the clever Wall Street brains who would run off with our assets. I never expect to see these people, but I know they are out there in our larger family of friends.

There are moments in the lives of all of us, I am convinced, that are crossroads… choices to go away or to stay, choices to run or to stand and fight… choices to love or let go… or to love and let go, maybe one of the toughest.

We never know what our choices will bring, and we do still make mistakes… big ones. Just about when we may think we get the cultural context, understand the cultural differences, we are reminded by events that we were 180 degrees off from how we were actually received by those we wanted to have as friends. We are forever students, even though some of us are put in the role of “teacher”, we must learn what we missed and hope we do not miss it again.

But we do learn that when we run away, nothing good ever happens.. We must face our problems, even when there is pain. Somehow, we live on faith that better days will come.

That brings me full circle. I loved those days and especially late nights when I just had to write. I loved the sound of music in my inner world when I was sharing and pouring forth. The next book on life’s four great flashes is coming and will be roaring forward when it starts…

I guess I am convinced that one of the strongest gifts we are given are those who we love and who love us. Friends and friendship. It is the true Ship of Friends that sails on forever…

This book will go out to the world through the magic of e-publishing… it will be available to the world, have an ISBN number and even find its way to the Library of Congress. It will be read by people who do not even know me or the people I write about. Some of the essays have already been seen by strangers around the world who now are friends. Yet if it touches just a few lives to make more of their friendships and understand who their truest friends are, that is the “biggest” audience I could hope for… I am proud of the openness I was able to muster. I deeply treasure the people whose lives touched mine during this past year. I cherish the source of this inspiration and need it in my life again. Some of the best friends in my life were actors in this drama… some are still here with me, some have left. I still have hope that none were truly lost.

But my purpose was accomplished, here in these pages, however I got it done… the young presidents of the global business world… their lives and loves were touched… they are the ones who this was for. My job, after all, and my purpose, is to be the Father Lion of my pride, to watch for predators, to protect my community, to set the strong, fast example. But, this is the moment in time that I am the Lion in winter… it is a tough season at the end of this year… but the Father Lion in me needs to bring his strength and be human and go onward and upward…

I need the sound of music in the late nights when I write… it is the wind at my back, beneath my wings… Old acquaintances will not be forgot… they can never be forgotten. They were not meant to be lost. They were meant to be our friends forever. True friends can never be lost. Happy New Year. Cherish what you do have, and never believe that a true friend has been lost…