In the beginning, there was darkness, and there were "words", and when men came in from hunting all day, they sat about the fires in their caves, telling stories of their day's adventures, and rambling on and on; but, every now and then, one of them, said something that, though quite memorable, no one could remember the next day. "What was it, Hector said last night?"

It was probably about this time, that people started drawing pictures on the cave walls to convey the stories they wanted to tell to others. Later symbols took the place of the pictures, and people in different places created their own symbols, which they called, "writing".

Writing was a wonderful thing, but proved to be somewhat cumbersome, especially when carved into stone. I'm sure it was out of pure exhaustion that one day someone considered writing on tree bark. And while not very sturdy, it served the purpose well.

Time passed, and soon, new and exciting materials were invented on which to write. Scrolls were really neat, but could be dangerous, if not properly fastened on each end. And then, papyrus was perfected and soon, not only ramblings were committed to paper, but, indeed, full volumes of thought.

Many centuries passed, and reading became common, but for many, tedious - - as it hurt ones eyes to read bythe light of a candle, or oil lamp, and many . . . well, 80% of them just never got the hang of it.

Then, one evening, back in the 1800's, a man by the name of, Thomas Edison, was working bythe light of a kerosene lamp, and got to thinking that it would be really neat to transfer words to some kind of a thing that would play back sound, if you couldn't see to read them. He explored the thought further and wrote a reminder on his Post A Note, to look into inventing such a contraption after he figured out how to harness electricity into some kind of a container so that he could see what he was doing.

Edison was from Ohio, and a truly tenacious man. (We say that now, because he finally succeeded in doing these and many other wondrous things, had he not succeeded, he would be listed at the top of "The Greatest Failures Of All Time.")

Well, unlike reading books, electric light bulbs, the telegraph, and phonographs (that's what he called them) really caught on. While the light bulb served many useful purposes, the telegraph was able to transfer words from one place to another, and the phonograph became a really big hit when music could be magically transformed and captured into tiny, tiny little grooves on a disc that he called a record. What a gigantic leap in achievement - from random words in the cave to recorded music! Remarkable.

Well, one thing led to another, and next thing you knew, they'd figured out how to put images of people moving about and talking on a little tape which they put into a machine that reflected bigger images on a screen. Whodda thunk???

After that, people just kicked back and enjoyed the good life. "No use in fixing something that ain't broke", they'd say. (You could tell from their grammar that they were the non-readers.)

Then in 1956 a man named, Earl Nightingale, did something that no one else had done before - - at least no one who comes to my mind - - he "talked" on a record. He called his message The Strangest Secret. This was very unusual. Records were for music, not talking, but it caught on! Caught on?

It caught on so big that over a million of these records were sold, earning him the only Gold Record for an audio message ever to be given, and this message was not just some ramblings by a guy in a cave - this was good stuff. Stuff you remembered the next day!

Not long after that, guys became disgruntled with records, because they sounded scratchy after a while, and if you sat on one, they broke, so they decided to improve on what Edison had started with the telegraph (after all - one wasn't supposed to talk on a record, they were for music) and came up with, what they called an 8-Track. According to the language of the times, it was referred to as, "cool", and "groovy."

So, Earl Nightingale, recorded his message on 8-Track, and it continued to sell as briskly, as it had on records.  But, alas, the 8-Track was too cumbersome and so a smaller more compact version was designed. They called it, a cassette.

The multitude was unhappy and upset - "It will never take the place of the 8-Track, " they cried. "I'll never buy a cassette", they wailed. But, they did.

As time passed away, so did the 8-Track, and so, Earl Nightingale, recorded his message on cassette, and made many other audio programs as well, and they continued to sell as briskly, as they had on 8-Track.

And then, (it was bound to happen), someone came up with a new, improved medium. It was like starting all over again! It was like a tiny, little record, but all shiny, without grooves. It was called a, CD - and the multitude was unhappy and upset - "It will never take the place of the cassette, " they cried. "I'll never buy a CD", they wailed. But they did.

When, in 1989, Earl passed away, his audiocassette recordings, continued to sell - as briskly as before - - and so, his widow Diana, decided to make them available on CD.

Her customers didn't like the idea, and some wrote unkind letters of opposition to her, but she, like, Edison, came from Ohio and was also tenacious, and decided to do it anyway. Soon, no one wanted the cassette version anymore, only the messages on CD.

Time passed, and with it came still another leap in electronic communication and one night, Diana was sitting alone by candlelight, and had an electrifying idea!!!

"What if I publish Earl's messages as MP3 Downloads on our web site?" she thought.

Talk about a giant leap for man and womankind - - this was a really far reach from the days in the cave! From darkness to download!

Well, her customers cried, - "It will never take the place of the CD. "

"I'll never buy an MP3 Download - - what's an MP3 Download?" Oh, how they wailed. But they bought it anyway.

And Earl Nightingale's messages are selling as briskly in 2005, as an MP3 Download, as they first did in 1956 on Records, and as they did in subsequent years on 8-Track, Cassette, and CD.

And so it was. And so it is.

And with the writing of this newsletter, I am happy to announce our new name, our new look, and our new expanded product line.

Now you will find us at www.earlnightingale.com. The only Official Website of Earl Nightingale.

You'll still find, The Strangest Secret, Lead The Field and Creative Thinking on CD, but you will be able to purchase them as an MP3 Download as well, saving you time, money and shipping costs!

Some of the additional new MP3 Download products include:

Sky King radio shows

An abridged audio version of Earl's book, Earl Nightingale's Greatest Discovery

Earl's narration of James Allen's, As A Man Thinketh

And just in time for the 4th of July -

Earl's narration of Eva Brann's, What The Declaration Of Independence Really Means.

Additional programs will be available in the months to come.

***************************

After thoughts:

We may have come a long way from the cave to this moment in time, but there remains a dormant gene which surfaces in each new generation that commands children to write and draw on walls.