The important lesson Walter Cronkite carried with him all those years

I love this essay Walter Cronkite wrote for Guideposts magazine. And I love the introduction he wrote for my first book, Journalism Stories from the Real World. He was one special person.

There came a time when I was growing up in Houston, Texas, that I wanted to own a watch. In fact, I had a particular watch picked out, an Ingersoll on display in our local drugstore. It cost a dollar.

Since I had no money, and no prospects for raising a dollar quickly, I asked the druggist if I could take the watch and pay for it little by little. He agreed, and the next day, when my mother happened to come into the store, he casually mentioned the arrangement we'd made.

My mother would have none of it. She was a woman of scrupulous honesty, and to her, I'd taken advantage of another person's willingness to trust me. She paid the druggist the dollar and hurried home to confront me.

"Don't you see?" she said. "Your intentions are honorable, but even you admit you don't know how you're going to earn the money for that watch. There's no outright dishonesty here, but you're flirting with it. It's one of those risky gray areas, Walter. Be careful of gray—it might be grime."

Then she took the watch and kept it until I earned the money to retrieve it.

Throughout the years since that experience, I've had plenty of reasons to remember my mother's admonition. As a newscaster I've always had to be on guard against gray—a presentation of only half the facts, a story that didn't ring quite true. And there have been such occasions in my personal life as well.

One time, for instance, some speculators offered to give me a large parcel of land. There was no suggestion that I talk about their property on the air. They were not being dishonest; they just wanted to be able to say that I owned land in the area that they were trying to promote. But it seemed like a gray area to me. I didn't accept the offer.

I believe that most of the people in this world are honest, and want to be honest. But honesty, like all other virtues, requires vigilance. My mother, Helen Lena Cronkite, knew this. This is what she had in mind as she helped me to stay clear of ambiguity—the gray areas that might be grime.

New from Carlos Martinez

The dressing room is the place where I take humour seriously,
where fear teaches me to push the boundaries of silence,
where the intimacy of the mirror speaks to me quietly,
where I remember my childhood dreams to work as an actor.

It is where I convince my voice to allow my body to speak,
where I go over the script of my movements and gestures,
where I tune my technique to make it all seem so natural,
where I put on my makeup to tell stories that ring true.

Carlos Martínez


With emotion, expression, and movement, Carlos Martínez crafts silent stories. However, after each performance, the mime removes his makeup on stage in order to recover his voice and engage in a verbal dialogue with the people in the theatre.

Now, for the first time, Carlos Martínez takes his audience backstage and transforms his world of gestures into letters and words in his book Ungeschminkte Weisheiten. The fullness of human nature, with its ups and downs, combines easily with anecdotes from the dressing room of life. As an avid observer of the quotidian, the book brings a few chuckles, many smiles and space for reflection.


The following link gives a preview of the first 15 pages of the book:

http://tinyurl.com/Ungeschminkte-Weisheiten


Initially Ungeschminkte Weisheiten is published only in German. However, Spanish and English versions are in the pre-production stages. We will keep you updated about further releases.


Ungeschminkte Weisheiten – From the Dressing Room of Life
Hard cover - 128 pages
Foreword by Andreas Malessa

Over 40 full-colour photos

ISBN: 978-3-7615-5729-7

Shop price: 12,90 EUR (DE), 23,40 CHF (CH)

Available 01st of September 2009 in German language bookshops or from the following online shop: http://www.kleinkunst-shop.de

Mary-Mitchell Campbell's coming back to Broadway

I’m so excited to learn that Mary-Mitchell Campbell will be the music director for the new Broadway musical version of The Addams Family, coming to the Great White Way next spring. Mary-Mitchell is one of my favorite people in show business, and certainly one of the most impressive because she’s not just gifted, but she’s an extraordinary humanitarian. I met her a couple of years ago when I interviewed her for NCR (click here to read that feature) and by the end of our time together she had volunteered to take part in that year’s Broadway Blessing. She was MD for the recent Broadway revivals of Sweeney Todd and Company, for which she won a Drama Desk Award.

Congratulations Mary-Mitchell!

The musical — based on the kooky family of characters created by cartoonist Charles Addams — should be fun. I loved the TV show when I was a child. Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth will star as Gomez and Morticia, Terrence Mann as Mal Beineke, Carolee Carmello (one of my favorite musical theatre actors) as Alice Beineke, Kevin Chamberlin as Uncle Fester, Jackie Hoffman as Grandmama, Zachary James as Lurch, Adam Riegler as Pugsley, Wesley Taylor as Lucas Beineke and Krysta Rodriguez as Wednesday.

According to the producers, "In this original story, the famously macabre Addams Family is put to the test when outsiders come to dinner, hurling Gomez, Morticia, Wednesday, Pugsley, Fester, Grandmama and Lurch headlong into a night that will change the family forever."

During a career spanning six decades, illustrator Charles Addams created several thousand cartoons, sketches and drawings, many of which were published in The New Yorker. By far the most loved were The Addams Family characters.

"With a unique style that combined the twisted, macabre and just plain weird with charm, wit and enchantment, Addams' drawings have entertained millions worldwide and served as the inspiration for multiple television series and motion pictures," according to production notes.

For more information visit www.theaddamsfamilymusical.com.

Smokey Robinson releases new CD today

A music legend recalls his remarkable journey.

This feature by Nina Hämmerling Smith appeared in Guideposts magazine.

For the past 50 years, his sweet voice and staggering talent have made him a beloved star. But for Smokey Robinson, whose new album, Time Flies When You're Having Fun, will be released August 25, the journey wasn't always fun—or easy.

It was 1958 when he helped his friend and fellow Detroit native Berry Gordy found Motown, which in turn shaped popular music for generations to come.

Over the next few decades, he wrote and recorded dozens of hit songs, including "I Second That Emotion" and "The Tears of a Clown," for his group, The Miracles, and for other Motown acts.

He married his high school sweetheart and had three beautiful children. Robinson's life seemed perfect—until things started to fall apart.

In 1984, some of Robinson's friends who were doing cocaine introduced him to the drug. Robinson had grown up in a pretty rough neighborhood, and yet he'd stayed out of trouble thanks to his love of sports, music and God.

But now, as a man in his 40s, he found himself hooked on drugs.

For two years, he suffered through his addiction; his health declined, his marriage disintegrated, he withdrew from his friends, and yet none of that mattered, because "all I cared about was the cocaine," he says.

One Sunday in 1986, his dear friend Leon Kennedy unexpectedly appeared at Robinson's apartment. Robinson and Kennedy had a special bond, one that had been cemented nearly a decade earlier.

In 1977, Robinson was sitting home alone when he heard a voice. "I was upstairs looking at TV and I heard God's voice say to me, I want you to know my son, Jesus, and I want you to tell your friends. I heard it audibly, and I thought somebody was playing a joke on me. I searched my closet. I opened the bedroom door, but nobody was there. I was kind of scared, and I didn't tell anybody."

At the same time, Kennedy, an actor, was in the Philippines making a movie. When he returned, Robinson recalls, "He said, 'I'm going to tell you something I wouldn't tell anybody else. About two weeks ago, I was in my hotel bed trying to sleep. And I heard this voice saying, Leon, I want you to know my son and I want you to tell your friends.' That was when we both got saved and started our relationship with Jesus."

So when Kennedy arrived at his friend's apartment that night in May of 1986, a heartsick and physically frail Robinson opened the door. Kennedy prayed for him through the night, and in the morning he took him to a service.

It was at a storefront church in L.A. called Ablaze Ministries where the preacher, Pastor Jean Perez, called Robinson up to the front.  She hugged him. She told him that she knew he was coming. She prayed over him. Robinson started to cry, and then he felt a release, and, "It was over," he says. He never did drugs again. "It was instantaneous; I gave it up."

Since then, Robinson has traveled to rehabs, schools and churches, speaking about his experience. "I tell everybody I was not cured or medically helped," says Robinson.

"I was actually healed. I was healed by God. I tell them, 'Rehab can help a lot of people. But you have to get in contact with your spiritual self or you're never going to beat this [addiction].'" 

Robinson knows how blessed he is; not just because he was healed, but also because he's able to share his musical gifts with the world.

"Almost every day of my life, I write a part of a song," he says. "I know it's a gift from God. That's what He would have me do, I guess, because I've been writing songs since I was 5 years old."

That gift is evident on “Time Flies When You're Having Fun,” which features 10 tracks of original material, as well as a cover of the Norah Jones-popularized "Don't Know Why". Joss Stone, Carlos Santana and India.Arie lend their vocal support on three of the songs.

Unlike many other contemporary albums, “Time Flies” was recorded "the old-fashioned way," says Robinson, "by having all the musicians playing while I was singing.

"There's another kind of feeling when you have that, you know? It's almost like you’re doing a concert in a studio. Everybody feeds off of each other; it's a fun way to record."

The album's title is a pretty fair description of how Robinson feels about music—and life—these days. He's been remarried for seven years; he's recording great new music; and he's sharing his inspiring story.

"I know that's one of the reasons probably I'm still living," he says. "Because I get the chance to go and spread that message.

"My life is wonderful. I'm very happy."

Debbie Reynolds: Grandma on the Go

This feature by Nina Hämmerling Smith appeared in Guideposts magazine.

Back in the golden age of moviemaking, Debbie Reynolds was the sweetheart star of classics like “Singin' in the Rain” and “The Unsinkable Molly Brown.”

Now, at 77, Reynolds is still at it, touring the country with her one-woman variety show. It's full of song, dance and laughs, including impressions of Bette Davis, Katharine Hepburn and Zsa Zsa Gabor.

But perhaps her favorite role is one closer to home: being a mother and grandmother.

She lives "ten steps away" from her daughter, writer-actress Carrie Fisher, and 17-year-old granddaughter, Billie Catherine Lourd, who calls Reynolds "Aba Daba"—as in "Aba Daba Honeymoon," the song she popularized in the 1950s.

"They can never ignore me," Reynolds jokes, "because I'll lie on the driveway…Grandma always receives a hello, otherwise I won't get out of the way."

Reynolds enjoys being with her granddaughter, but she knows when to butt out, too. "You can be a part of their life without interfering," Reynolds advises. "If you try to influence too much, you can get in the way."

Billie has learned a lot from her grandmother, including, when she was a child, how to play jacks and other "games that my mother and my grandmother played with me," says Reynolds.

"I think that's the way it should be, that each generation has the experience of different ages around them."

According to Reynolds, Billie, like her show-business vet mother and grandmother, has a talent for performing. "She is a very nice pianist, plays the guitar and the drums, and has a wonderful, lovely voice," says her very proud grandma.

But Reynolds never pressed the idea of performing on Carrie, and she's certainly not doing so with Billie. Nonetheless, she says, "I think sometimes God gives you a talent and he has a plan."

Following God's plan is something Reynolds learned from her own childhood in Texas. "I was raised in religion," she says. "My grandfather was what they called a lay preacher. He'd go to different homes and lay his hands on and read the Bible to the sick. We went to tent meetings and revival meetings.”

“My life is based on faith. The most important thing is to have faith and believe in the wisdom beyond your years," she adds.

Reynolds admits that her granddaughter keeps her young. In return, Reynolds shares her considerable insights and life experience.

"I've always been very outspoken if I feel that there's some advice or knowledge I can share," she says. "After all, I should know something of value at my age."

Though Reynolds loves being home with her family, she wouldn't give up performing for anything. "I love the audience," she says. "The audience has been with me 60 years and I hope they'll continue on till I take my final bow."

Nina Hämmerling Smith is an editor and writer based in Weston, CT.

Smile, God loves you!

Psalm 100

Enjoy this lovely e-Psalm from Guideposts magazine's Our Prayer newsletter.