I have always been a worrier. Worried about today, worried about tomorrow, worried about 10 years from now. Not wanting to make a mistake. Playing it safe. My favorite professional football team has a coach whose first instinct is to play it safe. He had a quarterback who played it safe. He had a defensive…
Category: Freedom; the escape
Freedom: How we sold our house, gave away our possessions, quit job and moved to the beach in Michigan
T -83 Days: Tom Petty does freedom
Every now and then I get down to the end of the day I have to stop and ask myself why I’ve done it It just seems so useless to have to work so hard And nothin’ ever really seems to come from it But then she looks me in the eye and says “We’re…
T -87 Days: George Orwell
George Orwell wrote… The great mass of human beings are not acutely selfish. After the age of about thirty they almost abandon the sense of being individuals at all — and live chiefly for others, or are simply smothered under drudgery. But there is also the minority of gifted, willful people who are determined to…
T -88 Days: Bold move
I told someone on the phone today of my plans. After a short silence he replied, “Wow, what a bold move!” I thought afterward… not so bold. What would be bold would be doing it at 30 years of age. Young married, with small children. That would be bold. But after further review, other words…
T -96 Days: Facebook is evil
Facebook is Evil That is my comment whenever Facebook is brought up. I usually get a chuckle in response and a reply of something like, “Yes, I don’t really like it”. But I persist, “No, it is really evil”. I could, and probably will, give my Top Ten Reasons Why Facebook is Evil. But tonight, just…
T -97 Days: Happiness versus achievement
Happiness versus Achievement Brad: Why don’t you get a job Spicoli? Spicoli: What for? Brad: You need money. Spicoli: All I need are some tasty waves, a cool buzz, and I’m fine. Fast Times at Ridgemont High is a “must see” movie that I thought of in a new light. Spicoli’s pursuit of happiness is…
T -99 Days: Decluttering, simplifying
“If you want a golden rule that will fit everything, this is it: Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” – William Morris On the road to decluttering and simplifying our lives, we are parting with many useful and beautiful items. So useful must be…
T -101 Days: Maps
Maps II Earlier this week, a coworker asked about my upcoming “retirement”. I explained that it was a career change. When told I was going to write, and that my first book was a science fiction novel, I got the response of, “Oh, you must read a lot of science fiction”. “No” was my one…
T -118 Day: Success
Here is a triple serving of quotes from a Nobel prize winner: “Destiny is a feeling you have that you know something about yourself nobody else does. The picture you have in your own mind of what you’re about will come true. It’s a kind of a thing you kind of have to keep to…
T -129 Days: Winning
What is winning? How do you define it in your life? This used to be on the bumper of my neighbor’s truck in St Louis. Not so popular to admit out loud now, but true all the same in our culture. And actually, not just our modern western culture. Remember these words? “I tell you…