Jim's quiet musings . . .

Headin' into the final stretch....

Twelve more days here and then I'm gone, like the wind. Picking up Jims World and moving it to a new location after ten years in the same spot. That is the longest I've ever stayed in one place in my life. Currently, I'm sitting here in my middle room, surrounded by boxes and clutter but the rest of the house is beginning to look vacant.

It echos now.

The bank assessor came by today and it looks like the closing is right around the corner. A lot can happen in five months. My days remain organized and peaceful in the midst of all this chaos though, as I am careful to structure every day the same so I will have some grounding to look forward to. My routine is getting up, checking and sending e-mail, showering, doing my workout and stretching exercises and then making my JeeeMcmuffin.

A JeeeMcmuffin is easy really....you just half a sour dough English muffin, toast it, top it with some mayo, a slab of cheese, fry an egg and throw that on there, sprinkle it with a little onion salt, some pepper and table salt, fry up a greasy pork sausage patty and toss that on there and PRESTO! A JeeeMcmuffin. I swear, on a clear day you can hear your arteries hardening.

Then......I go for my walk. I'm up to five miles a day now. I was doing four up to last Wednesday and suddenly thought I'd bump it up a notch. Well, let me tell you....that one extra mile makes all the difference in muscle pain. Yessiree! Been a bit stiff lately but I'm pressing on. For the next twelve days remaining here I'm gonna stay at the five mile limit until I move and then we'll see.

I've started my last college course on "Society and the Individual," and man is this class interesting. Right up my alley with the recent conversations I've been having with Chris, who is sharing his Belfast Philosophy with me, concerning the separation of Church, State and the Individual. Some interesting perspectives are discussed in my evening college class, which brings my life of social deviance into a better limelight. My research paper will be titled, "Living Outside the Box - A lesson in Social Deviance."

But all that neat shit aside and back to the food thing.....

I love food and I hate dieting. So, in my class the other evening, the professor showed us a taped lecture series by a famous Social Psychologist who was talking about stress and how to manage it. She quoted Red Fox as saying, "What do all those health nuts do when they are in the hospital dying of nothing?" Makes you think. Then she said something that really hit home with me...."Can you imagine eating low fat food when you're pissed off?"

Ha! Never! So there, I've got a brand new outlook on life.

Speaking of new outlooks, a recent forwarded e-mail landed in my lap and had some really nice thoughts in it that I thought I'd share with all of you...I'm not much one for regurgitating things found on the internet, but since some of these applied to my life and my philosophy, I thought I would include them in tonights blogging...



1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve
great risk.

2. When you lose, don't lose the lesson.

3. Follow the three Rs: Respect for self, respect
for others and responsibility for all your actions.

4. Remember that not getting what you want is
sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.

5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them
properly.

6. Don't let a little dispute injure a great
friendship.

7. When you realize you've made a mistake, take
immediate steps to correct it.

8. Spend some time alone every day.

9. Open your arms to change, but don't let go of
your values.

10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best
answer.

11. Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get
older and think back, you'll be able to enjoy it a
second time.

12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the
foundation for your life.

13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with
the current situation. Don't bring up the past.

14. Share your knowledge. It's a way to achieve
immortality.

15. Be gentle with the earth.

16. Once a year, go some place you've never been
before.

17. Remember that the best relationship is one in
which your love for each other exceeds your need
for each other.

18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in
order to get it.

19. Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.



Some of these really hit the nail on the head for me, especially the lessons I learned in the last five months, which relate to some of these thoughts. But, the one that really hits home is number one. I am hoping to blog on the subject of risk someday soon, as my life has been filled with it and I consider myself a risk taker of a certain sense. I have embraced risk and I've tried avoiding it, suffering anxiety and stress on both fronts, but finally realizing that risk does not include anxiety and stress in the package deal, it is something I created all on my own.

Number 19 is pretty cool too!

-Jeeem-