The Whine List

 

Hey everyone...

It's been a few weeks since my last blog. I usually write when inspiration hits me. Sometimes 2 or 3 a month, sometimes a period will go by where there is nothing. Much like rain in Las Vegas. 

All the blog advice sites say to keep a strong readership, you should post on a regular basis.  Keep in front of the reader.  While I see the sense in that, I also refuse to blather on about stuff just for the sake of "putting something in front of my readers."  Many blogs become what I refer to as "WHINE LISTS."

I read a lot of blogs that pick a topic, whether politics, lifestyle, health, yadda yadda...and bitch and moan about whatever the talking point is. 

"I hate this...."

"I can't stand that..."

"They need to...they should...I would do it like this...."

Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of blogs that are insightful and helpful and interesting. I follow many of them. My hat is off to many bloggers that research, verify points they are making and argue their point in a coherent manner. Keep on, carry on, and God bless you.

What I am talking about are people who take a headline and form an opinion piece. (Nothing wrong with that). The thing with opinion pieces is that they are OPINION and not fact. Trying to make an opinion into a fact is a hopeless task.  If there are 5 marbles on a table, and your opinion piece goes on about why you think there are 7 marbles on the table, no natter how much YOU may believe it, and strive to make all others believe it, the math (research) shows that there are 5 marbles on the table. Period...unless math works differently in your world, in which case I will listen to your argument and make my own decision.  

Trying to make things fact that are conjecture or theory is a long row to hoe. Ask any politician.

If your blog is an op-ed, so be it. Good for you. We need that sort of thing, however, it's a thin line. Forcing or mandating beliefs generally does not work. 

So here I am, spewing forth my opinion about bloggers and facts. (LOL) it is an infinite circle. I am guilty if it too, and try to be mindful of what I pass along. In A.A. we have a phrase, "Take what you like and leave the rest."  Be aware of your Whine List.  Offer you opinion without a solution. Offer a solution based on fact and research. Insightful thought. Offer clarity.  

And with that, I will say...Good Day!

Here's a good little thing to read....The Self Help Book for People Who Hate Self Help Books. 

Available now:

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Pick your Battles

 Hey everyone. It's been a month since my last blog, dealing with back some issues that are being fixed, and redesigning my office.

I always cruise through various online sites and blogs and social platforms, and take in both side of everything out there, trying to remain as neutral as possible, which is hard sometimes. I try to practice what I preach. Occasionally, though, something will trip my trigger and I will rant or repost. Hey, we are all human beings being human right? 

There is so much finger pointing  and "I'm right, you're wrong" going on that it is hard to tell who the players are and what the end game is.  I will comment on things, trying to be neutral, although, as I said, it is difficult.  I see pages on all kinds of social media sights where it is extreme one way or another. We have forgotten that a middle ground exists, and right now that middle ground is a deserted landscape where no one wants to go.  It has become an us against them society and we have to deal with it every day, and we all have opinions. 

The point is there is all this input and no outlet. I talk to people that say they feel trapped because they feel as though they can not talk to people about anything (even the weather) without getting into a political battle. This is not good for the mind or the body. Isolation from everyday life is a terrible thing. Fear of communication is a terrible thing. So, here is what I do...

I pick my battles. I talk to people, and if it gets to a point of discomfort, I end the conversation. "I really don't think I want to talk about this further."  The other person can accept it, or reject it. If they insist on drumming on, I will say, "thanks" and get up and walk away. Sometimes the other person will call me names, say that I am scared to face the facts (their version of the facts) and so on. Remember, What you think of me is none of my business. It goes back to the North and Southbound roads. Maintain your direction if that is where your are going. 

When you pick your battles, avoid statement like you should, you have to, I know, you're wrong, I'm right, I did it so you should too, THEY SAY, now listen....you get it. 

I capitalized THEY SAY because 80% of information we think we know comes from THEM. If someone says "They say," stop them and ask them who they is. You will probably get and answer like "The experts."  

Remember the scene in Indiana Jones when Indy asked who was studying the Arc? THEY answered "Top Men." We come to find out that it was boxed up and put in a huge storage house, probably in area 51!! Same thing. "The Experts" refers to I have no idea what I am talking about.

You have to realize that there are people who research and people who just get input. Quit watching the news. That is my first piece of advise. Network and cable news shows are the worst for mucking up the waters. One says this is what's going on while the other channel has the exact opposite happening. There are many trusted sources online no matter which side you are on. It's up to you to sift through and find what you think is right. It's a tricky balancing act.  

Try to be Zen and be an observer of the things going on around you. Don't judge, but glean the positive things from all you observe and put them in your to review mental file. Remember, not all is right or wrong. It is all Here and Now. How WE run with it is up to us. 

Summer reading list should include The Self Help Book for People Who Hate Self Help Books

Available on Amazon and other E-reader platforms

Amazon            Nook, Ibooks and more

Have a GREAT day. 

ADD TO CART is not a therapy

 

No Doubt we have all felt the effects of solitude and separation- anxiety during the Pandemic of 2020. There are only so many re-runs of That 70's Show you can watch before you want a change.  

Some turn to various interests such as drawing, writing, music, painting, arts and crafts and the like. Others turn to online shopping. 

I actually got this idea from a meme I saw posted. 

Therapist: "And what do we say when we are feeling lonely and depressed?"

Patient: "Add to Cart."

Therapist: "NO!"

The meme, of course was meant to be funny. But there is more truth in it than we care to admit.  

With the way things are, we can't just go to the store the way we used to.  It's an adventure now. Masks, gloves, wrapping yourself in clear-wrap and the like. Then they only allow a certain number to people to enter at any one time and you are stuck in the cold, or the heat (Vegas in the Summer) waiting your turn to go in and try to maintain 6 feet between you and every other human being in the store.  UGH! 

So, society has embraced online shopping more than ever.  It is a good thing, you can get anything you want from the safety of your own home. Or is it?  We are forced into solitude and isolation by the rules. (You may insert your own rant here...I will keep my thoughts to myself). Humans by nature are not solitary creatures. We thrive on relationships and human contact. We need to feel the touch of a friend, have a shoulder to literally cry on, or just sit in a room and talk to each other.  Facetime, Zoom, Messaging, all that is fine to a point, but none of that replaces the human contact that is genetic to human beings.  (Or any animal that is not a solitary hunter).  

So, we hole up in our caves and try to replace that need with buying crap. Hey, don't get me wrong, I get a lot of stuff on line now instead of going to the Mart. Essentials. Stuff I would get on a daily basis. If I don't need t today, I can prime my way to delivery tomorrow. 

I am, of course talking about the online shopping experience that involves hours of boredom-scrolling through your shopping platform(s) of choice and buying on impulse. Things you would never think to buy or even want to buy if you were out in the shopping wild.  We justify it by saying to ourselves I am not doing anything else, why not treat myself to a.....(fill in useless thing you will never use here). 

Admittedly,  I have done my share of this too, but never to excess. I may think I need a new computer keyboard that lights up, buy it, and low an behold, I am typing on it now. Did I need it? Not really. But it is something I justify because I actually wanted it and did a search for it. Pre-meditated shopping! 

Only you can decide what is ADD TO CART binge shopping to fill a void in your life. But like anything else, admitting you are doing it is the first step. Only you can be your own shopping police. Be aware, be conscious of what you are doing and why. Get up, walk around and think Do I really need or want this thing before you ADD TO CART.  You might even save a little money!

You might do one more add to cart and order my book. The Self Help Book for People Who Hate Self Help Books.

Available on Amazon and Nook, iBooks and other e readers.

Have a great day!

        Amazon                                    All the Rest

                                       

If It Is Renting Too Much Space In Your Brain...Evict It!

 I had a coworker say to me, after a particularly frustrating day in car sales, "Don't let those people rent space in your brain for one more minute." 

I've held on to that over the years and have used that analogy many times. Whether it's coworkers, customers, relatives, or even things posted on Facebook or Twitter. If you take stuff on board and let it rent space in your brain that could be used for other things, you need to evict it!

The media, for all the cool stuff that's out there, is a perfect example of a vehicle that plants things in our mind and then keeps it in front of us. Even if we don't want to obsess over something, the media forces us to by keeping it in front of our face all the time. Whether it's politics, health, covid-19, vaccinations, how horrible things are in general, whatever it may be. We're in a society where forced obsession is the way of things, and it can be very scary. It's very hard to just let all of that go... but it can be done. 

If you can meditate or get inside yourself and center your being to where you can shut out all of the negative influences coming into your mind, you will find it much easier to let go of these things that you obsess about.

One thing you can do, is not watch the news or surf the internet... Facebook, Twitter, all those things where these negative influences come into your brain right before bed.

 The mind has a way, as you know if you've ever suffered from insomnia, of having everything in the world cave in on your brain all at once in the middle of the night. For some reason, that is the ultimate time to worry about shit. I have literally woken up in the middle of the night and thought about stuff to worry about that I would never think about during daylight hours. It's amazing the stuff that your mind can come up with. I try to tell it to stop thinking about it, and of course I start thinking about the fact that I'm not thinking about the thing I don't want to think about. It is, a vicious cycle.

There are many good meditations websites out there. But really all you need to do is find a good piece of meditation music on your music player, start it, close your eyes for 20 minutes and just concentrate on the music or the sounds of nature that are playing. If you find your mind wavering just bring it back to your main thought of "I am meditating nothing else is coming into my brain other than the music or the sounds of nature." There are a lot of guided meditations out there. I use the ones by Deepak Chopra a lot. 

I've heard it said many times that the brain cannot think two thoughts at the same time. If you're anything like me, your brain tries very hard to disprove that theory. Again meditation, zeroing in on one thought, one color in your mind, one sound of nature, will help you to get rid of all of those thoughts that are hammering into your consciousness. 

I heard a speaker in AA once referred to the thoughts in your brain as the committee. The committee will always try to convince you one way or another. Think of it as a bunch of old guys in white powdered wigs sitting across from each other and arguing why something is good and why it is not good. The committee will be the first to tell you why you should do something that's bad for you, and why you shouldn't do something that's good for you. I talk about the committee a lot in my book The self-help book for people who hate self-help books. 

Don't get these confused with voices in your head because that is a clinical diagnosis for a much deeper problem. Every human being has thoughts racing around that we seemingly have no control over. The only thing we can do is try to override those thoughts with other, hopefully better thoughts. 

Again you're not going to achieve this on the first day of rushing into doing a meditation. It will gradually, over several days or weeks, first become a habit, and become easier as you go along because you learn how to focus on the now. Remember that living in the now is the key to serenity and keeping yourself from obsessing over things that are beyond your control.

Please follow these links to my book The Self-Help book for people who hate self-help books. It's available on Amazon and also through nook, iBooks, and several other e-readers by clicking the link below. Have a wonderful day.

AMAZON                                     NOOK, iBOOKs and the rest

I understand that you are so concerned about me, but...

      I posted something on Facebook recently and was "Put in my place" by people I don't even know. Trolls, maybe. But here is the thing. Why are you, a person who knows nothing about me, so concerned about my opinions, feelings or beliefs.  

     It is almost like you  have a resentment because you have a resentment against me for making you have a resentment against me... filling your mind with shit that isn't any of your business in the first place. It's like a double secret resentment. It's like being mad at me for making you mad at me. It makes no sense.  😕

    Instead of being so concerned about the way other people are, even people you don't know, perhaps one should examine why you are reacting the way they do. Is this a need to try to change someone's way of thinking? Is it misdirected concern that if someone thinks differently than you that their world will come crashing in on them? Or, maybe it is a mechanism to verify to yourself that you are right and they are wrong.  OR maybe is is simply a co-dependent reaction to try to fix people. 

    Co-dependency has many many faces.  YOU are not responsible for making someone happy, or making them think the way you do. No matter how right you may think you are, there are people who will not agree with that, or even will set out to, or worse yet, prove you wrong. There is a lot of that going on in society now. The best you can do is just try to detach yourself from the craziness. The truth is, the masses don't care what you think or post on FB. That goes for me, you, everyone. Not everyone agrees with what I write here. That's ok, I do not care. I am not trying to change anyone's mind. I am just an idea starter. A couple of good ways to take yourself out of the fray: Quit watching the news for a couple of days.  Avoid the temptation to make a snarky comment on FB just to be part of the crowd. I call it HERD ASSHOLISM.  Do research before you start telling people how to be or think. Then don't tell them anything!  Nothing is worse than someone who is uninformed informing you how to be.

Here's an idea, check out my book  The Self Help Book for People Who Hate Self Help Books.

           Amazon                                     NOOK iBooks and the rest

Have a GREAT DAY!

 

THE EVER PRESENT 'WHAT IFs"

 What if...What if...What if...I cover this a lot in my book.  

The WHAT IFs can be a very time consuming and brain wracking thing.  It goes straight back to not living for today. Worrying about the things you can't change. Again, I address that in my book The Self Help Book for People Who Hate Self Help Books.

(From Chapter 2)

We as human beings being human always wonder what if?  What if I had gone to college? What if I hadn't gone to college?  What if I had married my High School sweetheart? What if I HADN’T married my High School Sweetheart?  What if this, what if that?  Truth is, there are no right answers, and second guessing yourself at every turn serves no purpose.  It leads to self-doubt and lack of true happiness. 

 

True happiness is the realization that life happens every day and you have the choice to be part of it, or to sit on the sidelines watching it, afraid to take part because the outcome is uncertain.  You have no doubt heard the old saying, “The only certainty in life is death and taxes”.  (And, of course the certainty that unless you live under a rock, everything you say and do ends up online somewhere. Again, I will discuss this later, because it is a powerful influence on how we do things).  I do car sales right now in my life. It is a commission only business.  I am always under the gun to hit quota, make as much as I can this month because you never know what will happen next month.  It is not for the weak of heart and spirit. Scared the heck out of me when I started.  Today I may be sweating how the mortgage is going to be paid because I didn't sell anything and in less than 24 hours I may have made enough to pay 4 months ahead.  Another movie reference comes to mind. (And I will use a LOT of them throughout this book). Tom Hanks in the movie Cast Away was able to get off the island because the storm provided half a porta potty  that he then used as a sail for his raft. Once back in civilization again, he took on a whole new view of life.  He took some chances because on any given day “You never know what the tide will bring in... I guess you need to just step out of the comfort zone and set your focus on letting things happen the way they are supposed to and let go of micro-managing every single tiny thing in your life. See what the tide will bring in. There are times you just need to not give a damn.

It is entirely okay to think about the future and make plans, but do not obsess about outcomes. The sooner one learns to let go of outcomes, the better off your stress level becomes. Lower stress leads to better health. 

For instance, the current social environment is full of what if moments. What if I get Covid? What If I get the vaccine? What if I don't? What if I have a reaction? What if I don't have a reaction. It is really truly enough to make you crazy, and make you sick. The FIRST thing is to try to not change someone else's outcome.  If, for instance, you have an strong opinion about something, let's say getting a flu shot, and you believe fully in doing that, and have a friend who is against it, trying to force them into your way of thinking is usually futile. What if I don't get the shot and get the flu? The other side of it is what if you don't get the shot and don't get the flu?

Life is a crap shoot. A hand of Poker, one hit at the blackjack table... what if  I hit on 15 and bust. What if I hit on 15 and get a 6? What if I hold and the dealer has 14 and busts? The casino is the center of the universe for What IFs! You can what if you entire life savings into oblivion if you are not careful. 

Bottom Line...Don't worry about outcomes. Just make decisions on the facts you have in front of you and take your best guess, because really, life is just a series of best guesses. 

For more, check out my book! Available on:

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I would like this to be the year of the book!

 

Hello and welcome back to my blog page.  I have, as you know been away from my blog for a while, mostly because I did not know quite which direction I wanted to go with it.  

It started as a collection of random thoughts and ideas and really no direction.  I found that I got bored with trying to think of new, witty and fun stuff to write about without getting political. After a while I decided that maybe I would get political, and I wrote a blog to reflect that. I let it sit without publishing, mainly because it just felt out of my comfort zone.  EVERYONE and their dog was doing political blogs, and a lot of them were just rehashing crap from other blogs...I found that was the case with me too. 

    So after a lot of reflection, and just letting it come to me when it was ready, I realized that since I had written a book about Self Help, and I was now a published author that maybe I would just blog what I know. 

    I finished the book and published it in April of 2020 during the beginning stages of the Covid Pandemic because I had the time.  It was great to see it in print and I was very proud of what I had done.  TO date, I have sold several copies and, of course, would like to get the word out even more.  I would love for this to be a good selling tool for people who just want some simple answers to every day stuff like relationships, co-dependency, sobriety and the like.  I have in the last year, since the book has been out, brainstormed more that I could have written about, so I thought I might just put it here. Again, my goal is to try to write and share as often as possible, but as my book took a long time to write, I can not in all honestly say I will share something every week.  I write when the thoughts hit me. 

    I am currently also writing a children's book the I hope to have done by Summer 2021. I will keep you informed on that.  So, off we go into this new and hopefully improved blog. The Self Help Blog for People Who Hate Self Help Blogs.  

    The BOOK is available on Amazon an through Draft2Digital for Nook and Ipad. 

Amazon Link          nook, ibooks and others

Thank you and Keep It Simple 

 

It's been a Long TIme

It's been a long time.

It's been forever since I posted anything on this site. With the way things are going in the world I find it hard to really think of anything positive to post that wasn't politically oriented. While I have my thoughts on politics and who I think should be president I try to keep that out of this platform, as I speak out on other platforms aligning with my political agendas. I wouldn't even call them agendas... they're just beliefs and hopes.

 So I guess what I'll do is talk a little bit about my new book which we've talked about before which has now been published. I'm very proud of it. It's called The Self-Help Book for People Who Hate Self-Help Books, and is and has been available on amazon.com Barnes & Noble.com iBooks and most other e-reader services. Already sold several copies which makes me very happy, and had an author in Australia do a review on the book which really warmed my heart. It's a simple book less than 100 pages dealing with basically simple ways to look at life and some ways of thinking  to make your life better. It took me 3 years to write it and, a lot of edits. But the final result is something I am very very proud of. I hope in my heart that those reading this blog will go to Amazon or Barnes & Noble or iBooks in order a copy for yourself I'll put the links in here too as well so you just have to click. Amazon /  All other e readers

I'm in the middle of a new book which is an entire departure from the self-help realm. It's a children's book about a bunch of farm cats and I'll be having a preview up on Amazon and Barnes and Noble soon.

It's been quite a year I am still selling kias and loving my job, and in the midst of all of this pandemic craziness, still enjoying what I do. I've sat and stared at this blog many times wondering if I should get political or not and have decided not to. Those of you who know me know my leanings and those of you who don't it really doesn't matter. My father-in-law, rests his soul, had a great saying. "Nothing matters much, and very little matters at all." When you look at all the weird crazy stuff going on in the world today the only person who can change it is you. One person at a time. No matter what your religious beliefs socio-beliefs or political leanings the only ones who can change anything are we the people. One person at a time.  God bless us everyone, and God bless America.

ANOTHER SNEAK PEEK CHAPTER FROM MY UPCOMING BOOK

Well, I have not posted a blog in about a month. The writing time that I set aside every day has been taken up with the book I am writing.  I hope to have it done and E-published within the next 3 or 4 months. Meanwhile, here is a sneak peek at one of the chapters.

From the book 'THE SELF HELP BOOK FOR PEOPLE WHO HATE SELF HELP BOOKS ' 
©2017 Speedcat Productions

CHAPTER 10

Sand Dunes

Have you ever felt like you are climbing a sand dune? You start at the bottom, and begin climbing. You get a little way and then slide down. You know if you can get up to the top, that the answers are right on the other side. It's a long way. It's hot and it's, well, sandy. It's in your shoes, it's in your shorts and chafing places that sand really should not be.

We do this to ourselves all the time. We beat our heads against the wall trying not to get a headache while hoping to figure out answers that are on the other side of the dune. We somehow have this Hollywood vision of sweeping vistas and a beautiful mountain landscape waiting once we reach the top of the dune! Sometimes it's a mirage.

Here is a thought. Sometimes it might take a little longer, but maybe walking around the sand dune might be a better answer. You expend less energy by walking instead of climbing, and you don't get sand in your crack.

If the answer is on the other side of the Dune, it will still be there whether you go around or up. (Some people even try to dig a tunnel through the dune to get to the other side....but that image is just too horrendous to even think about....

I have learned that when you get to the other side, it's easier to handle whatever you find there if you are not exhausted from getting there. Because, sometimes the answer is not what you expect it to be,

Expectation is the key word here. We all have expectations. They can involve work, upbringing, marriage, dating, friendships and pretty much everything you do with a vision of what you desire out of something. Even a pet, or new car...If it isn't what you picture in your idyllic mind, you are disappointed and unhappy. Why? Part of it is expectations that others have planted into you. “I just got this great Jack Russell Terrier. He is the perfect dog...... So off you go to get a perfect dog of your very own. You bring your Jack Russell home and he barks all night and tears everything up and becomes your worst nightmare. You call your friend and chew his ass because he planted these expectations in your head. He didn't mention that he lives on a farm. You live in a one bedroom apartment in the city. Expectations depend a lot on the perception you garner from what others say. Be it friends, relatives or advertisers. Advertisers are the worst for planting expectations in our heads. Climb the sand dune and the world is better on the other side. What a large pile of crap.

Now, here I go again telling you that positive thinking is not what you should subscribe to. Not at all. We all have to have expectations, and not all of them are going to pan out like we want them to. It goes back to how we react to the outcome. If you go into things without depending on a particular outcome, you will find things work better in the long run. If things work out the way you picture, great. If not, Then take the pitch as it comes. Sometimes when you are looking for a fastball, a curve ball comes sneaking up to you. You have to be ready to hit whatever is pitched no matter what you might think it's going to be.

I told my wife when we first moved to Las Vegas where people do NOT know how to drive, 'Here is what you do to survive driver here...(or anywhere really). Be aware of those around you. Think of the craziest, stupidest off the hook thing they could possibly do...and prepare for that! That way when they do it, you are not taken by surprise.

One more thought about sand dunes. They are fluid. Always moving and being reshaped by the wind. They are not stagnant like a huge rock wall (which as we said before is also changing constantly, but at much slower pace). Sometimes if you have a goal, and you climb the sand dune to no avail, and you don't have the ambition to walk around it, maybe just leave it be for a while. Come back to it later. Maybe the winds of change will reshape it and even make it a smaller hill to climb.

Life is a desert of shifting sand dunes. Unpredictable. Erratic. Harmony changes into dissonance, the immediate outlives the profound, esoteric becomes cliched. And vice versa.  – Ella Leya

Remember this when you look at ALL YOUR FRIENDS on Facebook...

I am currently writing a book. I have been working on it for quite a long time, because it's the kind of thing you have to write when the mood hits you, and you have a great thread of thought...much like a blog. It's a chance you take that anyone will be interested in what you have to say.  I enjoy writing, and I hope to someday E publish this book. If one person reads it and it helps them, then it was worth taking the time to do. 

The book is called The Self Help Book For People Who Hate Self Help Books (c)2016..... 

I have read a ton of self help books, some great, some not so...but most have one thing in common. They are written by people that have a lot of letters after their names. All good...not dissing anyone. I am writing mine from just years of observation and experience. I would like to share one of the chapters with you here, just because social media is such a thing now. We are get pulled into the Facebook Rabbit Hole. So here we go. This chapter from the book is called: 

But I Have 4627 Friends on Facebook

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

Okay. Take a DEEP breath. All but about 12 of these people are not your friends. Maybe a few more or less. Go through your "Friends" on Face Book and write down the ones you would trust your kids, Dog or Spouse with. Who can you call as a house sitter if you have to go out of town? Yup. Short list. Multiply all this by the number of friends on Twitter, Voxer, Snap Chat Yadda Yadda Yadda and you still end up with about 12. So why are you sharing you most personal stuff with total strangers? And why do they think you really care about what they eat every 42 minutes? It's really gotten out of hand. Okay, so I am an entertainer. I have a couple of Face Book pages. I think I have a total of about 2500 "Friends" between the two pages. I perform and send invites to everyone. I figure asses in seats means ticket sales. But, at lets say, Christmas Time, if I want to send out a personal greeting to people on my pages, there are only MAYBE 30 people that I feel I know well enough to invade their personal space. And some of them are iffy. Don't let the number of "Friends" you have in cyber space lull you into a false sense of being all that. We are really not that important to anyone but ourselves. We measure our success in terms of likes, shares and comments. We have all done it. We have liked some crap on Facebook that we didn't spend more than a 10^th of a second looking at because the person is our “Friend” and we want all his “Friends” to see that I am his “Friend”...What a crock. In the great scheme of things, it's meaningless. There is no personal contact. It's an illusion that we have all these friends that we “Connect” with when we sitting at home in our underwear at 2 AM looking at our Facebook page because we have forgotten how to really communicate.

When something goes wrong and we put it on Facebook or instagram or Twitter, whatever your social media of choice, we get responses of condolence, prayers, advise, whatever from all these people we don't know. But how many of them are responding because they are really praying for you, and how many are just doing it because you had 231 other people do it and they want to feel like they are part of the collective conscience. That's all good and well if they actually say a prayer for you. How many times have YOU said someone was in your prayers and never thought about them again??

As a sales person, I sit and hand write 5 to 10 cards a day to clients that have bought cars from me. People I work with are astounded by this. That someone can actually sit down, with a pen and a blank card and envelope and write...in your own handwriting mind you.....a couple of sentences to another human being. It does not involve a keyboard, an e mail address or a data plan. It's olden days stuff. I actually had someone ask, “What do you do? Mail it?” It's a damned shame. It's a shame that these guys are missing out. I get calls from these clients thanking me for taking the time...(2 minutes) out of my day to think about them. Oh, and they come in and buy another car.

I have all my clients in an e mail database, I have a ton of them on Facebook, and yes it would save a lot of time and postage to just bulk email a big “How have you been” to 400 people at the same time. But, it's just another email. Lost in 50 others they just got. But when someone goes out and opens the mail box and there, nestled among the bills and junk is a bright blue envelope, with their name and address hand written upon it, well, That's special. Someone once said, If you can count your friends on both hands, you can count your REAL friends on just one hand, and out of those 5, maybe two are true friends. Be careful who you share your thoughts, loves, fears and food pictures with. All of it will be in cyber space, uh, FOREVER!

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Hope you got something out of that. I hope to be done with the whole thing sometime this year!

Have a Great Day!