Double Blog Day. Aren't you proud?

I didn't get a chance to blog about a new hero that has entered my life. This past Saturday, I spent 5ish hours womanning the FilAm Arts table at the Lotus Festival at Echo Park Lake. It was a typical muggy LA summer day and as the sun set, heat crept in under the canopies. I was supposed to leave at aroun 5:15 when Albert returned from some networking around the festival. To my joy, as it turned out, he was late to return. This meant that I heard more of Manong Tony's teachings and philosophies on life.

Manong Tony insists that he is a nobody but after speaking with him I must disgree with him on this point. He is one of the most somebodied people I have ever met. I've often heard people say how you can see passion in someone's eyes and I have thought myself a witness to that true passion. I was wrong. When Manong Tony speaks his eyes brim with passion and even more so when they are brimming with tears. Manong Tony taught me better what I thought I already knew. He showed me what living what you believe looks like.

Humility is truth. Only with humility can you find truth. There is no other way to work with the people. You must be humble. You cannot understand another person if you do not care, and only truly humble people can truly care. If you are rich than you can never be sure that people are really there for you, who you are, or if they are there for what you have.
Be humble in competition. If you win, know that you could not have won if someone else had not competed and lost. Thank your competitors for their ambition, without them you could not have achieved what you did. If you lost, know that without you, there would have been no winner.
If you become famous, don't forget the power that comes with it and use it well. Sometimes showing up can do so much- just saying you will be there and showing up, has power. Don't forget your communities because they don't forget you.

Somthing he didn't say but he taught me in those 45 minutes was real dedication, love, and honesty.

He is writing it all down as a book. I asked him to record his voice because it is harder to get someone's spoken words out of your head than to close a book. I would listen and recording it would help me remember.