L'CHAIM! TO LIFE!

On another anniversary of 9/11, I am reminded of the Hebrew word L'Chaim, translated as "To Life!"

On that infamous day itself in 2001, I found out about 
the attacks as I was walking along a corridor in Building 3 of Folsom State Prison, on my way to my class at the vocational printing shop, where I was mostly trying to learn some computer skills. There was a shout from one of the cells, and a fellow inmate who also attended the class but had not had his cell opened for release yet, called me over as the small TV set in his cell had just shown the first plane flying into the World Trade Center. He was KW from Orange County and later would have an amazing story of miraculous escape to share. 

I continued on to the print shop and one of the computer experts had converted the antiquated large screen (we had no Internet access, of course) to a local TV channel and we watched in shock as the second plane crashed, and later as the buildings themselves came down. That period between the crashes and the unexpected collapse of the World Trade Center towers reminded me of the eye of a hurricane, with a terrible event, then reacting to it, then an even more terrible event transpired.

Of course, I was living in an isolated world back then, and the only real impact on my life was that my Jordanian friend, Abdullah, with whom I had enjoyed many heated debates over the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, disappeared from the print shop and Folsom itself. All the Arabs were taken away, I presume for their own protection. All prison inmates throughout California and probably the U.S., were put on a 24 hour lockdown that morning.

And then KW shared the story of his aunt. She was a highly regarded stockbroker for EF Hutton, working in upper floors of the World Trade Center. During visits to her daughter in Orange County, she faxed some work back to New York from a local office. The local branch offered her a job. It meant a pay cut, but her daughter was expecting her first grandchild, and she thought it would feel good to be nearby, so she accepted. 
That was just a few months before 9/11, and all her former co-workers died in the collapse of the towers.

And then, when I talked to a friend in New York, making sure she was okay, she had her own amazing tale of fortuitous escape. A friend of hers from California flew out on September 10th, on the red eye, for an important breakfast meeting at the World Trade Center. But because of jet lag, she overslept, not hearing her alarm go off. She was very upset about missing the appointment until she turned on the TV and saw how narrowly she had avoided a fiery death.

I'm sure there are lots more stories of such close calls, and in fact have thought it would make a great inspiring book.

It is unfortunate that we have to constantly be reminded how very blessed we all are to have survived the trials and tribulations and disasters all around us. Every minute of every day is deserving of our raising a glass and shouting L'Chaim!

Jerry

TAKING TIME AND SPACE

On this Monday, I posted the following on Facebook:

Jerry Gillies The start of a rare week, with absolutely nothing scheduled. Not a phone call, or deadline of any kind, or business or social meeting. A hermit-like existence sure to inspire new creative outbursts, but none are scheduled.

This got me to thinking about the value I place on creating unfilled periods of time and unfilled space in my life. When I was in Folsom State Prison, there was a one year period that I considered my best of my entire twelve years of incarceration (you can read my prison story in the Appendix of the free Moneylove Manifesto, which you can download at my other blog:

http://moneyloveblog.com/

though I didn't include this particular episode.) I had bribed the housing clerk to keep my cell just for me, single cell status. It cost me $15 a month, but was more than worth it in terms of the extra privacy it gave me to write and think and meditate.

Now, I guess it goes without saying, that like most writers, I am basically a loner. I love people, and even lived in a commune from 1994-1996, and really enjoy being a part of workshops with dozens or hundreds of participants, whether I'm leading them or just one of the students. But I also love opportunities to enjoy my own company, and have even traveled cross country alone in a motorhome several times. (Well, maybe I was cheating, because I had my two cats with me.) I've also crossed the Atlantic on the Queen Elizabeth II by myself, and have done extensive trips lasting months in Europe and South Africa. I'm fortunate, I think, to have a balance between liking the company of others and that of myself alone.

With so much rapid change occurring the the world at an ever-increasing pace, it's vital that we each give ourselves time and space for surprises, for those unexpected events or transitions from the way things were to the way they are going to be. Part of the current unemployment crisis is because many people so filled their lives with the work they were doing that they didn't have the time to realize the old parameters were changing. In my father's time, you worked diligently for a company and could expect to be rewarded with guaranteed job security and a generous pension. What a shock it must be to have that traditional expectation dashed to the ground in today's world. I've talked to many people who are doing well in today's economy. Most of them gave themselves time and space to explore new areas, new uses for their talents and skills, so they had an alternative when all hell broke loose.

How are you with empty time and space? The degree to which you can see these as golden opportunities may indicate whether you have room in your mind and your life for dramatic new events.

I remember a workshop my friend, Jack Canfield, did at a psychology convention some years ago. He borrowed an exercise from our mutual friend and pioneering psychologist Jack Gibb. After introducing himself to the sixty or so participants sitting around a hotel meeting room, he shut up and didn't say a word. Five minutes went by, then ten, then twenty. Grumbling among the participants started. We had all paid for the workshop, so there were some shouts demanding money back. One man stood up and said he was going to create something positive in the adjoining room, and anyone was welcome to join him. Many did. All through this experience, I was thinking to myself, "I would never have the nerve to do this in a workshop, especially one people had paid for." But Jack did, and he trusted that it would produce valuable insight, and lots of material we could all work on about two hours after the workshop began, when he began to conduct the organized part of his program.

How do you think you would have reacted in these circumstances? I once went on a thirty day Zen retreat. While in prison, one of the things that made it bearable was that it was easier than the retreat. As horrible as prison food is, it was tastier than the bland brown rice dishes the Buddhist monks served. And we had to be silent 23 hours a day, except for one hour during a class in which we could ask questions. There was no reading allowed, no phone or TV or radio. And it cost $3000! Oh, and the beds were straw mats, much less comfortable than prison bunks. Of course the big difference was that I could leave anytime I wanted, not so at Folsom. But it produced a powerful realization of the power of silence, and the rewards of inner experience. Doing that inner work is what saved my sanity in prison, and allowed me to go through the twelve years with a sense of optimism and positive creative energy.

Time now to go back to my week of empty time and space, sure to fill up with some more ideas and happy surprises.

Jerry

THE WAITING GAME CAN'T BE WON

First of all, let me say this: There is nothing wrong with once-in-a-while wasting time, getting caught up in a completely nonsatisfying and noncreative and nonproductive waiting game.

We all do it, in business, in personal relationships, in living normal lives.

But we should also understand that there is no way to really come out ahead when you even temporarily postpone living in exchange for something you are waiting for down the road a bit. I reaffirmed this for myself in recent weeks as I discovered that I was playing my own waiting game. For one thing, I am waiting to hear from the powers that be whether I will be released one year early from my three year parole commitment--and thus free to get a passport and travel and generally get on with my life. If you a newcomer to my blog and life story, you can catch up by going to the very first posting on this blog, WHERE IN THE WORLD IS JERRY GILLIES? or by reading the Appendix in my free ebook, The Moneylove Manifesto, available at: http://www.MoneyloveBlog.com

Then, I am waiting for two major mentions of my Moneylove Club audio subscription series in two very widely distributed newsletters. Both have been promised by the publishers, who say they are huge fans of my work, but obviously promoting my site is not one of their major priorities as this has been going on for several months now.

So how am I dealing with this? Well, for one thing, by realizing I was indeed playing a waiting game, and understanding that this is not a winning strategy for me or anyone else. Yes, all three of these events can profoundly improve my life--but giving up present time action and momentum isn't going to make them happen any faster. So instead of waiting, I am now doing, being, preparing, and affirming the results I want. I am planning some of the initial traveling I will do once I am off parole and able to get a passport. I am producing my audios as if I already have an audience of thousands, rather than the dozens of charter subscribers now enrolled. And I am exploring other ways to reaching a wider audience, writing articles, looking into affiliate arrangements, and putting myself out there more rather than waiting for others to do so.

Oh, there are still moments of frustration, even anger at being at effect of other people's decisions rather than at cause through my own efforts. But then I remind myself that other people are never responsible for our success or failure, unless we turn over that responsibility to them.

I learned a lot about waiting during 12 years in prison. Waiting a week to make the one 15 minute phone call we were allowed, waiting for mail, waiting for a quarterly package of food treats, waiting in line for a shower, and for meals. And I came out with a lot more patience, and also knowing that the waiting for anything doesn't have to be the primary event happening in that moment. It's what you are thinking and doing and feeling during those waiting times that decides your success. It's what makes you a human being rather than a lump just sitting on a shelf waiting for something to happen.

You can waste a whole life being that frog in the pond waiting for a Prince or Princess to come along and kiss you. In the meantime, you could instead be practicing kissing some cute frogs, taking a course on The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective Kissing, taking vitamins to make your lips the softest, most desirable lips anyone could imagine, or think about whether life in a beautiful pond in the middle of a beautiful forest, isn't preferable to life in a cold castle with a partner who is a member of the notoriously inbred royal persuasion.

(I know, it's one of my silliest analogies ever--but I don't care!)

Jerry

RAMBLING THOUGHTS FROM A RANDOM THINKER

So, as I realized I had no specific subject in mind for this edition of this blog, the words "random" and "rambling" popped into my head. Things popping into my head are what I usually describe as random or rambling thoughts--spontaneous. A sort of personal brainstorming done without judging or editing. It's a practice I highly recommend to anyone wanting to stir up their creative juices.

The dictionary describes "random" as occurring without definite aim, reason, purpose, or pattern.

Well, that certainly describes a lot of my creative process. I've often heard novelists talk about how they start with a character or two, set a beginning, and let the characters do the rest. And often the work I get most praised for is work done spontaneously, in the moment, just allowing stuff to pop into my head and then sharing it.

This is very similar, at least to me, to the term "rambling." The dictionary says rambling is:

"to wander around in a leisurely, aimless manner." So as I have these two terms pop up to describe how this entry is going to happen, I end up talking about these two terms. That is certainly leisurely and somewhat aimless, wouldn't you say?

Another definition for "rambling" is: to take a course with many turns or windings. And doesn't that sound like a definition of life itself?

DO YOU HAVE A FREE RANGE MIND?

When you go to an elegant restaurant, "free range chicken" is considered a superior version of the old cooked bird. I guess being free to roam over the range makes for a happier chicken. Of course, then there's the existential question of whether you would rather eat an animal slaughtered in the midst of its happiness or one whose slaughter put it out of its misery? I'll have to think about that, randomly and in a rambling way, of course.

But I do believe that having a free range mind, the willingness and ability to allow your mind to wander leisurely and aimlessly down all sorts of winding internal roads, will make you more able to come up with worthwhile creative thought.

Some people are not capable or comfortable with an improvisational mindstyle. They much prefer having everything they say and do scripted precisely. I guess it's like trying to compare apples and oranges. Then again, wouldn't it be better to compare two other more incompatible

items? After all, apples and oranges are quite similar--both sweet, tree grown fruits. Both vivid versions of the same primary color, and often found together in fruit bowls or on Carmen Miranda's hats (I know I date myself here). It would make much more sense to use two other items that really are rarely found together, like "frogs and screwdrivers," or "broccoli and pelicans," or even "apples and scooters."

Then again, we probably will continue to use "apples and oranges". Things don't have to make sense to make a point. Which, after all, is my point, arrived at in my random, rambling way.

Jerry

And to view another side of this random thought machine known as Jerry Gillies, check out http://www.MoneyloveBlog.com

LESS NEWS MAY BE GOOD NEWS

I have, for at least the past 15 years or so, been disappointed, frustrated, angered, and sometimes simply astonished at some of the current deficiencies in the news media I was once a part of. So many times even national network anchors report on stories which they obviously have not checked and usually have no historical knowledge of from which to place the story in perspective.It's as if they never read newspapers or books on anything happening more than a few months ago.

I enjoy it when Jay Leno does one of his famous Jaywalking bits, where he asks ordinary people very easy questions, like who fought in World War II, who's the Vice President of the United States, and is President Obama a Democrat or Republican? It's shocking and funny how many answer incorrectly, and some of these people are college students or even teachers. But I'm not sure most so-called news people in today's 24/7 media could answer any better.

When I was a newsman for WRVA Radio in Richmond, Virginia; KYW Newsradio in Philadelphia; and NBC and WINS NewsRadio in New York, we were held to much higher standards. We were expected to be well-read, educated in current events and history going back at least 50 years.

I became nostalgic for this bygone era when I tuned in this past weekend to one of my favorite news and information shows, Inside Washington, which originates on the local ABC television station in Washington, D.C., and is carried in selected other markets. I catch it online every week. http://www.insidewashington.tv/

In this particular edition, moderator Gordon Peterson opened by commenting on the controversy surrounding Shirley Sherrod, a black women condemned and fired for making a racist remark during a speech. Except she never made it, the whole story, which started with an edited and doctored video posted on a conservative website, and then was trumpeted by Fox News, was a big lie, as in the kind of Big Lie perpetrated by Hitler's Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. Even the Obama Administration acted stupidly and prematurely, and followed the herd mentality by firing her. The President has since apologized to Sherrod and offered her a better and bigger job. But it does point out the deficiencies of today's news media in terms of accuracy, diligence, and integrity. Gordon Peterson said:

"Some of you may remember the good old days of newspapers, TV and radio news, when you had hours to work on your story, and your editors and producers had plenty of time to sift through your stuff for accuracy. If you remember that, you're a dinosaur! Welcome to the blogosphere, the burn-out pace of online news, and the 24 hour instant deadline."

Well, call me Tyrannosaurus Rex, because I do remember that time. I remember one story at KYW NewsRadio in which Andrea Mitchell (yes, that Andrea Mitchell) and I worked for a couple of weeks checking out facts before we were allowed to go on the air with our report. I'll admit there have been times over the years when I wondered where I'd be if I had stayed in that career. It was fun and exciting. Andrea still seems to be the hard-working and impeccably prepared reporter she was back then when we were colleagues and friends. But she and a few others are rarities, dinosaurs if you will. And I'm happy to have quit when I was ahead, and the quality of news media was way ahead.

Jerry

(If you haven't discovered it yet, check out my prosperity blog, from which you can download my latest book, an online edition titled The Moneylove Manifesto, and even access a free sample audio from The Moneylove Club. http://www.MoneyloveBlog.com)

BOREDOM CAN BE FASCINATING!

Thinking about this subject of boredom got started with a satirical comment I posted on Facebook:

I hear Apple is working on an app that would send out an electric shock to anyone who posts anything boring or useless on FB. If it's true, are any of us immune?

And this evoked some of the most interesting comments I've ever gotten on Facebook. Which led me to the belief that "boredom" might be an interesting topic to write about (or ironically, I could be boring the life out of you merely by bringing it up!).

Focusing on this subject, which incidentally is the antidote to boredom--focusing with attention on anything intently out of all the things we could be paying attention to--brought me to a major self-realization. I am almost never bored. Even during 12 years in the dreariest, dullest, most tedious and enervating environment of all: prison, I was never bored. Of course, I'm one of those arrogant people who finds his own thoughts profoundly fascinating.

I like what Wikipedia says in its definition of boredom:

"An emotional state experienced during periods lacking activity, or when individuals are uninterested in the opportunities surrounding them."

And some scientists studying the subject seem to agree that it's not that people are bored from the lack of things to do, but from the inability to latch onto any specific activity. This reminds me of the term I recently coined, "Scatterholic," to describe someone who cannot focus on one thing at a time and therefore dilutes his or her creative energy.

I also like what Anna Gosline said in the December, 2007 edition of Scientific American Mind:

"Don't blame your job, the traffic, or your mindless chores. Battling boredom, researchers say, means finding focus, living in the moment, and having something to live for."

I think that is the also the secret to battling poverty consciousness and any other obstacle to a creative, loving, healthy and prosperous life.

A lot of people must find this subject interesting, since there are over 12 million results when you Google "boredom."

As you may know, one of the ways I kept my sanity in prison was by writing cartoon gags, some of which major cartoonists then sold to national publications like Saturday Evening Post, Wall Street Journal, and Parade. And I get these snippets of inspiration in the most unlikely places (which is one of the things that keeps me from ever being bored). Even in writing this piece, one just popped into my head:

Scene: Woman to man at party.

Caption: "You're definitely the most interesting man here, and you still bore me silly."

And the saddest fact in all of this is that some of the most boring people on the planet actually believe that they are endlessly interesting.

Jerry

Now, for some really interesting stuff on prosperity, check out my other blog,

www.MoneyloveBlog.com

THE MOST ESSENTIAL FREEDOM OF ALL

So it's Independence Day here in the U.S. I remember how strange it seemed spending the holiday in London back in 1985. I suddenly realized my British friends really didn't care to celebrate the anniversary. This brings to mind the recently released statistic that 20% of U.S. citizens don't know who we won our independence from. One friend, an American, was married to an Englishwoman who was minor royalty...22nd in line to the throne or something like that. So they were invited as special guests to the garden party at the U.S. Embassy to celebrate the 4th, and took me along. A festive event, but certainly surreal.

I've been thinking about personal freedom a lot recently. When I was in prison, I outlined a book that is currently on my famous "back burner," The Great Escape--12 Essential Freedoms.

The most essential one I think is the one offered by Christopher Morley:

"There is only one success--to be able to spend your life in your own way."

That's really what freedom is all about, isn't it? On several occasions I've had the rather arrogant thought that I am more uniquely qualified to expound on freedom than most people, having spent 12 years in prison, and feeling that I hadn't lost my freedom at all--just my freedom of movement through the physical world. Inside my own head, I was as free as the proverbial bird, free to stretch my wings and take off in any direction. Free to think, to reflect, to meditate, to daydream, to imagine, to have any opinion I chose on any subject in the universe. True, there were harsh realities to deal with, but with such an abundance of internal options on which to focus, these were largely insignificant and usually easy to ignore.

But more recently, I had the further realization that we all have that ability to create our own freedom, in prison or out. Some people create their own prisons of limited freedom without ever getting involved with the so-called justice system. All have the ability to escape.

I just posted a comment on my Facebook page about the fact that I was planning to spend July 4th alone at home to celebrate my Personal Independence Day. And then I exercised my personal independence by changing my mind. In about an hour, I am headed for lunch at Red Lobster, where I will order one of my favorites, their seafood gumbo served in a sourdough bread bowl with a salad featuring wood grilled shrimp. I am celebrating a small but very satisfying victory. Some of you know that a continuing interest of mine is poker. And last night I entered an online Razz (7 card lowball stud) tournament for $5.50. There were 55 other players from all over the world, The Netherlands, United Kingdom, Russia, Germany, Australia, Canada, Austria, Italy, Brazil, etc. I came in 2nd and won $112.50. Not a huge amount of money, but certainly worth celebrating with a delicious lunch. And it moves me further along in my education, which I hope will lead me to a slot in the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas next year.

In response to my Facebook item, I got a message from my old friend Gregg Sanderson, whom I first knew in Miami in the 1970s. Marla Sanderson recently took over as minister of the Church of Religious Science in Largo, Florida, so they moved from Nashville back to Florida after some thirty years away in such places as Las Cruces, New Mexico; San Diego; Nevada City, CA. In his message, Gregg sent me a link to their newsletter and an article by Marla on Personal Independence Day, so I decided it would be perfect to share that with my blog readers, as it coincided with so many of my own thoughts on the subject (don't we always adore the writings of people who largely agree with us?).

http://www.consciousliving.org/newsletter.html

Summer is a great time to explore and exercise your personal freedom. I still vividly remember the sense of freedom I would get during summer vacation from school. I was suddenly free to do whatever I wanted with an entire day. Sometimes this was scary, sometimes boring, but always life-affirming. I loved that sense of freedom so much that I became determined to always be able to live as if I was on summer vacation from school. And most of my life I've been able to do that. I wish the same for you.

Jerry

By the way, another way I exercise my personal independence is by having another blog, independent from this one, focused mostly on prosperity, but certainly with a similar philosophical view of life, liberty, love, and the pursuit of happiness. Check it out.

http://moneyloveblog.com/