“You perceive I generalize with intrepidity from single instances.
It is the tourist's custom.” - Mark Twain

While I was eating lunch in the town square at Jackson Hole Wyoming I witnessed for the first time in my life a girl wrestling a guy in a public park.  Not just playful wresting, but hardcore freestyle wresting with arm holds, leg holds, and takedowns.  The group of Asian tourists eating pizza next to me commented — whoa, women in America wrestle men in park.

Based on that one experience the group of Asian tourists extrapolated that it is normal to see women wrestling men in a public park.  It is American as eating pizza.

I have been an American my entire life and I’m here to tell you it is not normal to see women wrestling men in public parks.  When I go to the park sometimes I see gray squirrels wrestling or maybe some kids.  But no women sweeping a guys leg out and putting him in a half nelson until he is ready to cry.

But it would be cool if someday tourists would look in a guidebook and the headline would read:

America:  Land Where Women Wrestle Men in Public Parks

A girl can dream.  This is America after all.

I didn’t make it to the Sasquatch Music Festival as I hoped, but this dancing guy video filmed at the festival has been making its way around the internet virally.   The cool part is about a minute in when the third dancer enters and the scene changes from crazy dancing guy to dance party.

Ironically they are dancing to Unstoppable by Santigold.  How do you launch a revolution and become unstoppable?  Put yourself out there and get two people to follow you.  Three is a party.  And if the party looks fun everyone will want to join in.

There's no disaster that can't become a blessing, and no blessing that can't become a disaster. -- Richard Bach

When I was swinging hammers with Habitat for Humanity in New Orleans 2.5 years after Katrina hit I asked myself more than once if what I was doing was a good thing. I went to New Orleans because I wanted to help those less fortunate. Yet when I arrived I found that many never returned to rebuild. Instead they turned a disaster into an opportunity to rebuild elsewhere.

Whether or not New Orleans should be rebuilt is debatable. Odds are there will be another Katrina, just with a different name. There is a good chance the levees will break again and the house I helped build will be destroyed. As I pounded nails into the framing of a new home that may be destroyed in the next hurricane I thought to myself – if it was me, I would rebuild elsewhere.

For many the current economic crisis is their Katrina. People are losing their jobs and their homes. Life as they knew it is gone. Change has been forced upon them. Where do they go from here?

It is hard to let go of what you once knew. But for those who can let go, the current economic crisis can be a great opportunity. An opportunity to rebuild elsewhere.

Photo credit: Flickr

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New Orleans Habitat for Humanity