I wanted to send this letter to you with hopes to shed light on a few things. First and foremost, I wanted to thank you for opening my eyes to things I might have never seen before. The truth is we live in very strange times, which is namely because of you. But then again, you already knew this.

Thanks for the cheaper gas prices, by the way. Thanks for the drop in violence. And thanks for the forbearance plans, which means very little at this point but still, thanks for pointing out that our attention to detail is not what it should be.

I have seen some really cool things over the last few years. I have been invited to places I never thought I would see.
I was part of a wellness retreat on the beach in San Diego. I saw the sunset in Los Angeles a few times. I’ve been flown across country in first class, which is not a bad way to fly.
I have spoken in schools and in front of political stages. I was invited to be part of different initiatives and spoke on different recovery panels. I made the news a few times, which was something that I never thought I’d see.

The best drives are the early drives when the sun comes up. No one else is on the road and the mind switches into autopilot.
The best part of this is the music you choose. And me, I love playing the older songs like the ones I grew up with.
I love the classics that allow me to fall into a time warp. Next, the road is just something I am on. My mind knows what to do. I know when to brake or switch lanes but the music has me someplace else.

There was a time when I was younger and trying to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up.  Here I am at the age of 47 and I laugh because I’m still trying to find out.
I remember when members of my family told me it was time to grow up. I was told there is no fast lane to success.
It takes hard work.
I was told to get ready to make an honest living. I was told about this thing we call “Corporate America,” which was this huge thing to me at the time.

Dear America,

I find myself now, sitting in the quiet of a Saturday morning. I keep coming to the idea that I should be learning something from this.
Last night’s rain was intense and left the grounds soaking wet. The sky is gray.
I can see this from the window in my loft. The wind is light, which I can tell because the branches in the trees are without any movement. The Earth itself is quenched and the mountains behind my home resemble an artist’s rendition of a sleepy morning in an Upstate life.

They go back with us a long time. Don’t they?
These are the names from the neighborhood. They are the friends from the old days. They are the kids from the block that we grew up with.

Did you ever read comic books? I was never much for them. I knew about the heroes but I never knew all the story-lines. I knew about Superman, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. I remember the movie. I remember when Clark Kent realized who he was and what he was capable of.

There used to be the occasional nights when The Old Man was home early from work. The entire family was in the family room. There was me, of course, and then there was Mom, The Old Man, and there was my brother Dave.
There used to be this thing they called sitcoms on television. There were shows like Three’s Company, or All in the Family.
All in the Family was the best.
Then there was Cheers, there was Too Close for Comfort and One Day at a Time was pretty good too.

There are different paths for different people; however, there are some that find themselves hurting or wondering if there is any true meaning behind the words personal redemption.

Safe to say, to overcome an obstacle we have to overcome obstacle-thinking. In which case, rather than estimate our limitations, we have to assess our abilities to create a stronger path of navigation.

This is a page out of Life Volume 1:

In times like this and when there’s nothing else to do but shelter in place, the only thing we can do is find some way to replace thoughts with action. Otherwise, we run the risk of losing our sanity.