A really good joke

Have you ever had one of those moments when you simply could not control your laughter? One that wasn't triggered by one too many beers or a comedy club or TV comedian? Occasionally thats happened to me. Actually, way more than occasionally. When a human mistake cascades into a situation beyond control or someone tells you a joke that just tickles your funny bone in such a way that the laughter comes out of you like a volcanic eruption. Those things are so funny to me that I can't verbally repeat them without going into fits of laughter again. You can't look for those moments, they just happen.

It's been over a month now since I've run across anything as humerous as all that. The last time was a simple joke, add to that the non-expressive face of the joke teller and Wham! I was drawn in, blind sided by the seeming innocence and smacked up on the side of my head by a joke so hillarious I almost laughed myself silly. I love stuff like that. It takes me away from reality just long enough to catch my breath and get back to the tasks at hand. I've heard that laughter also acts as a short workout for the heart. I'm looking forward to the next time it happens. But, in the meantime I've been going over some old joke books from my high school days trying to glean a few bits of humor. My, how tastes have changed. I told a couple of the jokes to the younger guys I work with. Guess what? They didn't find them funny even though I could hardly tell them I was laughing so hard. The jokes appear to be outdated.

I've checked out the joke of the day sites but no surprises there. Oh wait! Did you tee hee, hear about, haa haa, the guy who, hee, hee, haa, haa, snicker, snicker, hoo, hoo, haa, haa, Oh never mind I'll have to tell you later. I'm laughing too hard right now.................

Bernard Taylor

Bernard Taylor believes in kids. That's my observation anyway. I live in a suburb of Grand Rapids so I have no direct interest in that school system. But, what affects Grand Rapids has a great influence on the surrounding area too. I feel what Bernard Taylor, as the superintendent of the Grand Rapids public school system has done affected far beyond it's borders. I feel that what happens within our educational system is of major importance. I felt Bernard Taylor does too.

Being an outsider I didn't get caught up in any petty squabbles going on between the school board or teachers or parent groups. None of those mattered to me. I mentored dozens of young men that were the products of the Grand Rapids school system. One common factor of their at risk situations was "lack of expectations" both at home and within the schools. "You're not ever going to amount to anything so we're not going to waste our time trying to help you excel." I didn't get that feeling from Bernard Taylor. I've never met the man, don't know what he's like personally. I don't care either. What I saw in his attempts to do his job was a deep seated belief that if given the opportunity, most kids will buckle down and take advantage of it. He didn't appear to believe that the students weren't capable of learning. He moved forward by expecting them to learn and a belief that most children will rise to the occasion.

Bernard Taylor will be leaving the Grand Rapids school system soon. The system will carry on and he'll be faced with another challenge to overcome. Life will continue as before. But, the system will be different because of his efforts and optimism in those kids. That's my observation. I like to see people like him when it comes to dealing with the future generations. Expect, inform, assist, educate and keep moving forward. I wish Bernard Taylor well in his future endeavors.

September 11th, 2001

The horror of September 11th 2001 is printed indelibly on my mind. So is the heroism of that day. Ten years has not lessened the impact it had on our lives. It taught us there is no safe haven from terrorism and we forever must remain vigilant. I believe we also must continue to pursue our dreams of freedom by facing the threat and pressing on regardless. Paraphrasing words spoken on flight 93. "Let's roll!" The alternative is unthinkable. Pray today and always.

An author's happy moment

You know what fun is for an author? Going to the UPS store and sending off 17 copies of your book to people all, over the country. I was pleasantly surprised over the past week by that many requests for Joe"s Story: The Book of a Lifetime. The reason behind it I found out was that a visitor that made a book purchase recently is a involved in a reading club of some sort, his opinion got around to the other members and all of a sudden I'm at the UPS store filling orders. I love book clubs! There is a book reviewer named Redfeather that read Joe's Story a few years back and placed a review on the Amazon book store. Within just a few weeks I went through my entire stash here at my office and had to order more to complete the orders. Yeah, I love book clubs! Being an author has some very fun moments. I am looking forward to my book tour and hopefully throw in a few speaking engagements along the way.

In the preperations concerning my trip around Lake Michigan I hope to accumulate individual stories of events involving the lake. Hopefully I can meet many of the people involved too. It's really an awesome lake and the stories about it are too many to count. The oceans are incredible I realize but so is our very own and special mini ocean, Lake Michigan. Less the sharks, seals, urchins and whales of course. But then again that makes it way easier to take the family for a swim on a sunny day. I'd like to collect and catalog some of those family and personal stories so even those that haven't seen Lake Michigan can realize, from family picnics to ship wrecks the beauty and mystery of it. Maybe it will kick someone in the pants that can do something to stop the invasive species that are changing it's wonders. I'm not particularly looking forward to seeing fish flying everywhere and jumping into my boat.

Happy is the day when the mail is opened and another request for Joe's Story: The Book of a Lifetime greets my wondering eyes. Oh, happy day!.................Joe

Planning is confusing

I'm not one much for planning anything other than what is absolutely necessary. I wear so many hats I've grown accustomed to dealing with whatever I am faced with at the moment. It's taught me to trust my instincts and forge ahead no matter what. I'd say that it's worked so far because I'm still here and have life, business, and family still intact. I've accomplished pretty much what I've wanted to. So far, so good, as they say. My approach to some things is changing though and the response I hear from some of those people close to me is rather surprising. Over my lifetime I've been advised to make plans by a lot of people I admire. Now I'm making some plans and some of those same people are acting like I'm just a little bit wacky for doing so. Examples:

I'm writing, planning on writing several stories and publishing at least one more book.
I'm planning a bicycle trip around Lake Michigan.
I'm planning a bicycle trip across the United States and maybe back.
I'm planning a book tour and several talks on CO Poisoning dangers.
I'm planning the possibility of rebuilding another classic car.
I'm enjoy working and plan to for many more years and have no immediate plans or need or desire to retire.

Some of the advice I'm getting the past few months:

You work too much, slow down.
If you want to take a bicycle trip, you better take it now.
Don't waste your time writing, go on a cruise and enjoy yourself instead.
You don't want to tackle rebuilding a car, it's too much work.
Your book has been in print for four years, it's too late for a book tour.
You really should retire while you still have the time and health to enjoy it.

I don't plan and I should have. I start to plan and I shouldn't. I just can't seem to win here. I guess I should have planned on not planning. I'm so confused. :) But I'm still planning on doing all those things to the best of my ability and have a heck of a lot of fun doing them.

Dumb question

When you get a bunch of guys together you are just never quite sure in which direction the conversation will travel. Add to that the fact that some guys sort of embellish certain subject matter and we find ourselves questioning almost everything that is discussed. Being a guy is interesting enough but it really becomes enjoyable when a bunch of us get together to solve the mysteries of the world. My dad used to say that young boys destroy things in order to find out how they tick and they can build better ones when they grow up. I believe there is at least some truth to that statement. Also, I've found that there remains a bit of young boy in us as we grow older because we continue to question most things before embarking on a plan. Phew!

The conversation I was involved in over the weekend began simple enough. The usual greetings and salutations along with a few jokes and friendly ribbing before attacking more intellectual subjects. Someone mentioned Libya and the rebels taking over the country by force and how it was such a different approach than it was in Egypt and the increased toll in human life. (A little earlier as a group we had prayed for resolution and healing.) One thing led to another and it became obvious that we had some disagreement as to the right and wrong ways of revolution and then the American revolution, civil war, Russian revolution and the Indian fight for Independence were added to the mix as well. It wasn't long before differing ideas were being pelted back and forth like snowballs. I could see that this was going to be fun. I just sat back and listened. For the most part there were far more knowledgeable guys speaking than I. Spirited, would be a pretty fair evaluation of the situation. Finally I asked a question concerning the rebels in most all of those events. "What is the difference between revolutionary rebels and vigilantes?" No one knew. Boy, did I ever feel like a wet blanket. I thought it was a legitimate question but the others agreed that vigilantes weren't even in the same classification as rebels. Hmmm! I was just asking. Now I'm writing about it because my writing coach said to write about everything. I hope it accomplished something and I'm not just being a vigilante.

Those rules again

As far as being a big time author is concerned I am probably pretty small potatoes. A few magazine articles, a how to manual and one, not very well promoted book. Although I do feel that copies sold being over 2000 may stand for something. Writing has been quite a multi faceted experience: feelings of inadequacy, exultation, short lived megalomania, humility, gratitude, accomplishment, disappointment, frustration and joy all wrapped up in one project. One part of it that has been and is now especially trying is any dependency on someone else. Be it a writing coach, publisher, editor or, as it is at this particular time an artist. I have several different writing initiatives going right now and most of them require art work of one degree to another and they are just not getting the attention I was led to believe they would. It doesn't seem to matter whether they are professional or amateur either. I do know what the problem is though: Me!

From the very beginning of my writing career I was told and read through research that there are rules to be followed. In my lifetime I have been a bit of a rogue when it comes to what I felt were meaningless, silly rules. I think I related them to some type of aristocratic dynasty keeping the common people out of their little circle. I've been subjected to and resisted that controlling attitude because I felt it interfered with the growth of free thought. I've found that in many situations I was dead wrong about the reasoning behind the rules. #1 I was being the judge and jury in determining which was a valid rule and which was not. #2 I failed to realize that rules are a necessary part of writing as much as driving a car or building a pyramid. One mistake and it's all over. I'm trying to learn the rules better.

What does hiring an artist got to do with the rules? Evidently I have a lot to learn on that because in almost every case it has wound up in disaster, disappointment, unexplained delay and the job not getting done on time to meet the publishing deadline. My folks used to call it: Getting all of my ducks in a row first! That was rule #1 with them. So I am going back to the very beginning and attempting to get all of my ducks in a row before the next deadline. Some of us take longer to learn than others don't we? Another thing my folks used to say: Better late than never!