Tim Russert Died

by Jerry W. Willis

6/14/08

The best tribute I can pay to anyone is to say that he was the type of person that I would like to be remembered as being.  Tim Russert was one of those type people for me.

He exemplified the values that I am writing about in my book.  His life exemplifies the type of life that I aspire to and hope that my friends and family aspire to.   Not the fame and fortune but the type of person, the type of love, the type of family and the type of family pride that he advanced with his life. 

He loved his family history, his parents, his wife and son and honored them by being the best that he could be in the type of work he loved best.  He was widely admired and respected for his integrity, fairness, good humor, humility and perspective on life and for his work of reporting on politics.  He was excellent at his work because of his love for his job and career and because of the solid foundation of those family values that he learned from his parents.

Tim honored his Dad immensely by his book, Big Russ and Me and the success of that act of honesty and love gave him the opportunity to honor millions of other families in the follow-up book, The Wisdom of Our Fathers. 

Tim told the story that after the first book was published, he learned that his son, Luke, had gotten a tattoo, and he immediately expressed his disappointment in his son for getting a tattoo without first discussing it with him.  Luke raised his arm and showed the initials of his Dad and Granddad, TJR, tattooed on his side, then told him “I just wanted to have you and Granddad on my side.”  Honor, respect, love and pride demonstrated so clearly in so few words and in the pure intentions of his act.

I will miss Tim Russert.  He was one of my favorite people on the Sunday morning talk shows that I enjoy so much because I get to listen to such sharp people.  And he was one of the sharpest.

Luke, I know that you will miss him terribly but I know that you will honor him and your family by the way you live your life.  You have a father and a family to be very proud of.  The fact that he died so close to Father’s Day will keep him even closer to you and your family and remind you of the way he would want all of you to live your lives.

Love,

Jerry W. Willis

www.jerrywwillis.com

http://thelifeofyourdreamsbooks.com

Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan have both lived the dream life of many young people.  They are good-looking, talented young women and they have achieved fame and fortune.  Wow!  Those are the dreams and goals of many, not only young people. But both of them apparently went over the boundary of normal young people out exploring and enjoying life.   Both violated laws and deeply worried many of the most important people in their lives, the people who love them the most and want only the best things in life for them.  I know, they are young and most of us make mistakes when we are young.  But what possibilities can we develop from the problems they had?   If you are a parent, you want very much for your children to be successful in everything in their lives.  You want them to be proud of themselves and to be a source of pride for their children and for you.   The bottom line is that you want them to find what it takes to make them truly happy and that will make you happy. If you are a young person you want to be attractive and have great friends and great experiences and find a great love in your life.  You want to experience the best things in life.  You want to have a career you love and live a life that you love.  You too are searching for things that will make you truly happy. But in our society we have so much information and so many goods and services and so many options that we don’t know how to relate it all together well.  The most important things get lost; the best things in life are buried in a pile of other things and we don’t know how to sort them out.  We are like a compass in an area surrounded by magnetic fields.  Where is north?  Which way is true north? 

What kind of direction could these young women and others like them find?   They can find that they have many new and exciting potentials in their lives, much higher possibilities than they have seen so far.   

Look at the example shown by Oprah Winfrey.  Obviously she doesn’t need to work to make money but she continues so that she can help others.  Look at the platform she has because of her fame that allows her to highlight important issues in this world and get others to follow her lead to make them better.    Those are possibilities for each of us.  We can use our situation to right some wrongs, to make a positive difference in this world.  And they are possibilities for the rich and famous like Britney and Lindsay.  They can use their platform of fame and wealth to make the world a better place, to find the things that need improvement and need to be fixed.  And they may find, like Oprah, that being in service to others will give them much more satisfaction and meaning in their lives than they have already experienced.   

Go to:  http://jerrywwillis.com/_mgxroot/page_10744.html and submit your information to receive a free E-Workbook to start the journey to the Life of Your Dreams.  While you are there review the www.jerrywwillis.com website to learn how to order the book explaining “A PIL for Happier Kids (and Parents) - A Purpose in Life that makes sense to people like me”.

Love,

Jerry W. Willis

www.jerrywwillis.com

http://thelifeofyourdreamsbooks.com