Chris Waddell Living It

Energy Sovereignty, Authoritarian Regimes, Climate Change, Green Solutions, Decarbonization, Climate-Neutral Future, Energy Poverty, Reliable Energy, US, China, Russia, EU, Developing Countries. For Retired Rear Admiral Mike Hewitt, all people deserve energy, food and clean water. In a world that has a gross inequity of power, he sees nuclear as a clean, cost efficient, consistent and convenient solution. Gone are the reactors of our past, soon to be replaced by Small Modular Reactors (SRMs). Energy Sovereignty will be a defining factor of the twenty-first century. 

It’s easy to see Brad as a superhero because he’s achieved things about which most of of us just dream: Naval Academy graduate, explosives expert, breaker of a thirty year old world record, gold medalist in his second Paralympic sport, husband, father and Ivy League PhD candidate, but his success is the product of his struggles. He was about to quit the swim team at Navy to concentrate on his studies before his teammates voted him Captain for his senior season. He had to talk his way into Explosives Ordnance School because his grades weren’t competitive. Brad is a leader of men and women, who does his best to follow the example of his heroes and mentors, and with compassion and empathy. Strife and struggle have shaped who he is and he continues to seek their benefit daily.

M.C.’s professional career started, or attempted to start when he sent message to Ted Turner that he would walk from Syracuse to Atlanta to get hired by the Braves. As the process took a bad turn, M.C. slipped a dime into a pay phone and was immediately connected with the only Major League Baseball owner who would appreciate his initiative, the iconoclastic and insightful genius Bill Veeck. From the White Sox to the fledgling cable industry, to sports behemoth ESPN, to his own weekly column and to writing a speech to nominate Barack Obama, Antil learned marketing and learned that he could write. “Floor Burns” is his perfectly crafted legacy of how race, religion, changing economics, a basketball game and a highway came together to change his hometown of Syracuse, New York in 1967.

Mattochainsaw is my cousin. After dangerous years of climbing trees as an arborist/tree trimmer, he started down a different path when his wife asked him to carve a bear for the front yard. Chainsaw art–taking a piece of wood, a section of tree, or the extended stump of a felled tree and turning it into a figure and a story. Matt attends competitions, sometimes with creation time limits as short as an hour, carves images from his imagination and does commissions with chainsaw in hand and protective ear muffs

Lonnie’s father was a second generation pro wrestler–a villain, who turned kind, soft and human with his fans after the match. His uncle was a turnaround executive leading several companies from distress and treating everyone with respect. Lonnie followed his uncle’s path, working to right companies in difficulty for thirty years until he started Red Shoes Living to create the kind of culture in companies that he’d learned in his youth. Red Shoes stresses the basics that we know and seem to forget: seeing the person, being thankful, understanding that someone’s actions might be related to an unknown story, treating everyone well and putting yourself out there. You can’t help but be captivated by Lonnie.

While he was still in Chemotherapy, Brian convinced his parents to hit the Nordic jumps at his home in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. With each bigger jump he was more and more hooked. Then he convinced them to let him join the program. Nordic Combined became his sport when he followed his friends not realizing that it meant the pain of Cross-Country skiing, but he soon realized that he had a talent for that pain and was rewarded for being tough the way that he had been as a little kid having to get his blood drawn. That joy and toughness led to two Olympic and five World Championship Teams. Now, he works with one of the preeminent knee clinics in the world, giving so many others an opportunity to live fully.