First I would like to thank all of you that have read my book. And if you have not yet read it, I would be happy to send you a pdf version. Or if you can think of anyone that might like to read it, please let me know and I will send one to them. Finally, thank you for all the positive and wonderful comments.
This blog is about my book but it is also about life and the things we all share in common. Our hopes and desires and our fears and despair. I want to place a short paragraph from the book here:
Chapter 30
Changing – Pg. 138
“After a while, I remembered, what Winston had told me when we first became friends. He said,” Don’t waste one-minute feeling sorry for yourself. You put yourself in this situation and you better face up to that fact. You’re responsible for being here and you’re responsible for surviving in here. No one in this place is going to give a crap about you. Its dog eats dog. And you’ll get eaten quickly if you spend your time feeling sorry for yourself.”
I knew he was right, but I didn’t care anymore. I continued to wallow in my self-pity.
Winston also told me, “You better spend your time learning how to read people and situations around you. And don’t let yourself get caught up in other people’s business.”
I realized that T.J., in his own way had been telling me the same thing. I knew I had learned to do that. Maybe not as well as I should have, but certainly a lot better than when I had first checked into the Decker Hilton.
Then I remembered Winston’s number one rule, “Make no enemies or friends unless you absolutely have to.”
By the time he told me his number one rule, Winston and I had been hanging out with each other for over two months. I recalled wanting to ask Winston if we were friends, but I never did.”
I learned a lot about many different things during my stay at the Decker Hilton. And today I am still using some of those things to navigate my way through this present-day world.
I think we have so many serious things going on in our world today that it is almost impossible to think about any of them clearly. If any of you are feeling what I am feeling then here are a few of my muddled thoughts that may just lead you to your own sense of clarity. If so, I hope you will share your thoughts with me.
Firsts let me mention a few of the things that are disturbing my peace and sleep at night.
- Our current political environment (so divisive, no tolerance, no middle ground. If you are on the Right you are wrong and if you are on Left you are right. Or is it the other way around. It is all so disgusting)
- Climate Change (Real or imagined) It is very real but you can imagine whatever you want. End of homo Sapiens (6th extinction) or Science will save us. Anthropogenic definition is – of, relating to, or resulting from the influence of human beings on nature.
- Terrorist and Terrorist Nation-states (N. Korea, Iran) Nuclear disasters, dirty bombs (radiological bombs)
- The Stock and Bond markets (Inverted yield curves and 500 points down days in the DJIA)
- Healthcare (Universal or not)
- Immigration (open, closed and up against a wall)
Okay, I am sure there are several others that we could discuss, but this is my current starter list. In my next blog, I will share some thoughts and ideas that I have come across and more books and people I find interesting and helpful.
I believe we are all here for a purpose. And I believe that everyone that we come into contact with is someone we can learn from and sometimes we are the teachers. So we better get prepared.
Books:
The Uninhabitable Earth (David Wallace-Wells)
Falter (Bill McKibben)
This Changes Everything (Naomi Klein)
Podcast:
Joe Rogan #1309 w/Naval Ravikant
Joe Rogan # 970 with Bret Weinstein
Gus Castellanos http://www.innerinmate.com/ Inner Inmate Mindfulness, Wisdumb and such