What’s the best advice you’d give to someone younger than you?

We use our experiences to make sense of the  path we are on, but sometimes completely new destinations and new companions become central to our agenda.  Then the comfort and confidence we expect and are accustomed to are hard to find.

We can make sure we have spiritual, mental and physical refuges when life’s turmoil seems to be in every lane. Live joyfully and confidently.

What’s your top tip to be successful in life?

Far too many humans never grow up, and the world is caught in the vices of juvenile pseudo-luminaries.  Night life, with its scarce moonlight, has not been able to properly define success. Success, to be identified, needs the light of day.  It is shallow and short-lived if its contributors are handrails and training wheels.  There comes a time when the child needs no escort to school, and the parents know their supervision of the child ends, and the child’s greatness is in the child’s hands.

Never stop growing your grasp of knowledge, your grace to others, and your greatness.

What’s a book, movie, or TV show that you wish you could experience again for the first time?

This title belongs to a book, my sister’s, which I peeked at over five  decades ago.  I am now recognizing that it was the most likely spark for my personal obsession with flight. I do not mean aircraft.  I mean flying without wings or other attachments. 

I fly in my dreams, in my songwriting, in my pursuit of life-changing truth, and in my imagination of what our world might become.

What’s a common misconception people have about happiness?

A common misconception people have about happiness is that it can be achieved  by accumulating objects that bring delight or satisfaction. Of course that is happiness, but it is transitory because it prepares the field for futility and emptiness when the objects disappear. A variation of this arrangement is that happiness is merely the feeling and that feeling can be experienced at will through chemical means.  This approach leads to abuse. Happiness then may be seen and experienced under any of life’s circumstances. Happiness is an emotion and also an attitude.  Might I be happy at the funeral because I met the deceased’s son or daughter?

What’s a cultural tradition from another country that you wish existed in yours?

Tables seem to work against the nourishing effects one expects at dinner time.  Even the Greek word for the posture at meal time is fascinating.

συνανάκειμαι – I recline, I sit with (to eat) contains two prepositions, sun and ana.

What are the biggest mistakes people make when visiting your country?

Here are two related mistakes.  Immigration and mentally laziness.  Immigration has certainly proved itself to be the catalyst of humanity’s most momentous ventures. The variations of humanity tell us that people have been on the move: visiting and exploring.

Explore a country with brain turned off

Turning off one’s brain is going to land a person in stagnation. That is a huge mistake, even though there is a sort of shut down at night when we sleep.  Visiting a country and planning to stay without a proper invitation is a humongous error. These two mistakes seem to happen quite frequently.

What’s a song that always puts you in a good mood?

Robert Desta Marley

I’m a living man

I’ve got work to do

So if you’re not feeling happy

And you must be blue

What’s the best way to build self-confidence?

Have you noticed how many of the abysses of life in the 21st century are the result of attempts to cancel others and foster a,f return to the bad old days?  I have built up self-confidence by practicing reliance on trusted contributors to life.  I mean living, not cycles of birth and death. Doubtless you have enjoyed heat and light from the sun, and refreshing and lubrication from water, and both of these are known to end life with regularity.

There are many, and they are convincing. I eagerly confide in and care about my interaction with earth, water and the sun, even though I know that they contribute to sorrow, tears and death. They are more reliable than the political, traditional and religious luminaries.  Emphasizing the old, the bygones, people think they have the best of everything. In fact yesterday is gone and not returning. Not even Eden or any of the ancient civilizations can water this confidence seedling. No mom or dad, uncle or best friend suffices. They are all too fleeting. Genuine and effective self-confidence is truly rare and extremely precious. The checkout clerk of my confidence building has been the ancient that matures.