My Life's Lessons

I've walked this planet for over 50 years now.

It feels at times like I have been here forever.

If feels at times like I just arrived.

What have I learned?

I've learned that joy is fleeting.

That love is temporary and conditional.

That friends are more precious than gold.

That some friends were never friends at all.

That a job is just a job. Unless it is doing what you love.

That a house is just a building. But it can be a sanctuary if you make it so.

That deserve has nothing to do with it.

That raising children is the most rewarding and hardest thing you can ever do. Because they are your blood. And what happens to them, happens to you. My dreams for them will never die.

That we are in most cases in this life powerless. The only power we have is what we will do, what we will feel, and the love and benevolence we share with those we care about.

The rest of the world, employers, businesses, governments, do not care if we live or die.

I've learned that you do not give your soul and your heart to a corporation. That your best work is not what you can do for some heartless and soulless company. Save that for what you love. Pour yourself into what you love, and you will be rewarded. Not in riches but in filling your heart.

I've learned that marriage is not about a partnership. It's about a legal document that turns your life over to the courts and lawyers when it ends. Don't ever marry. If you love someone, live with them and love them. But don't turn your life over to the fucking government.

For they are as corrupt and without a heart as anything that exists.

What I have learned of politics in America....

There is no discernible difference in party or in the candidates. A long time ago a group of brilliant and inspired people conceived of a government that was of, by and for the people. Where the rights we had were inviolate, sacrosanct, and inalienable.

Today, lawyers and corporate hacks and power hungry egotists all vie for your vote on the TV screen, and with millions of dollars paid to them from corporations and special interests.

How many of the representatives today are farmers, tradesmen, carpenters, fishermen, and people truly from the community? Answer, practically none. They are mostly lawyers and former corporate executives.

This country as our Founders envisioned is dead. The only rights remaining that we have and should never yield are the First and Second and Fourth amendments to the Constitution. The Second allows us to protect the others. Our Founders knew this. Once that is gone, we are mere subjects, like we were 230 years ago.

I've learned that it is possible to lose every time. You can try with all your might, but you can still lose. There is never a guarantee of success in this life.

But there is a guarantee of failure, if you quit.

I have learned that money and possessions mean nothing.

I had to learn that one the hard way, because I lost all that I ever had.

But what was gained from that immense loss was freedom. A gift I had never known before.

No longer can anyone hold a job or a house or a mortgage or anything over my head. If I want to tell the world to fuck off, I can. Because I am willing to pay the price. In fact, I am willing to pay a price higher than almost anyone I know.

That is the gift of pain and loss. When you have nothing left to lose, you are free.

I have seen far too much pain in this life and in this world.

But I have also seen the most amazing things. The most beautiful things. And I've opened myself and my soul to the world and the universe around me.

No longer encumbered by the stresses of a long commute and a hellish job, I walk the world with cameras and watch nature in all her glory. I may never make a dime or be barely able to survive in this materialistic world, but what I will have is beyond all the riches I could ever amass.

At almost 53 years old now, I have lived a lot.

I have married, owned a home, had a career, built a life.

And then lost all of it.

I've felt the stings of abuse and violence.

I've learned what betrayal is, on an immense scale.

I've learned that I can fail just as badly, when driven to my knees.

I've watched my mother die.

And I have cried enough tears to fill a river.

What have I learned?

That I am so very human.

And that to be human means to strip away the bonds and the shackles of a life that has been determined by others. To no longer allow the will, the force, and the power of other people to control it.

I stand as myself, against all forces of man, and against anything that will lay me low. And I am willing to give all I have to protect that right. No one will ever hold power over me again. And that means I have to be willing to lose my life, if necessary. And I am prepared to do that.

I am also prepared to travel the rest of this road alone.

There is peace and joy in nature and the world around me.

And that is my salvation.

It only took losing and giving up all I had and once dreamed of to find it.

The biggest lesson of this life.

Was to stop fighting.

And. Let. Go.