Paul's Side Bar
This is my page to write down about some of the people that have had a part in making me who I am today. Their wisdom and our personal encounters have had a huge impact on my life.
I haven’t thanked them all in person but, do we ever when we have a chance? I thought by sharing these writings, they would somehow know how grateful I am for the moments we’ve shared.
LIFE AND DEATH...THE BOOKENDS OF YOUR LIFE
My good friend, Jack Cannon, once revealed to me a very personal insight he had harbored for quite sometime. You had to know Jack. He seldom revealed anything except on the editorial pages of the newspaper he wrote for. Jack was a short, tough, Korean-vet whose square, Irish chin, was always looking for a good fight. Jack offered no slack to weaknesses, his own or anyone else’s.
So, for Jack to expose any of his personal views was rare and normally took the better portion of a bottle of Johnny Walker Red. This was a rare occasion.
Jack began by confiding in me that he viewed life and death as nothing more than a set of bookends. And, in-between the bookends of our lives, lies a number of books that reveal the truth, the soul, and story of our lives. Most of our libraries, he said, are filled with wonderful short stories of triumph, heartache, success, and failure.
It seems only natural, Jack said, that we would mentally enjoy re-reading books that would make us feel warm and wonderful inside. (Unless of course, we had masochistic tendencies). Books that are filled with memories of our great achievements and loving events are always more fun to read.
Books filled with bad memories of failures, love lost, loved ones lost and pain, would seldom be picked up on purpose, said Jack but, rather are thrust into our consciousness whenever we feel vulnerable...or our senses are interrupted by a similar circumstance. These books can cripple the spirit and force us to live in the shadows of what we might have been. If dwelt on, these books can also corrupt any future great books we were planning to write because they create energy, an energy that can easily be transmitted and cripple other spirits.
Jack had this visual of God walking into His library. God’s library held millions of books of all the people He had placed on earth. Jack wondered which books He might pick up and read. Jack thought that, God, like most of us, would choose a book that was interesting, had some life, some verve. A book that had a lesson to be learned. Maybe a book of love lost and won and lost again. A “Gone With The Wind”-type of book. Or, maybe a thriller, the kind Clancy writes.
According to Jack, the question you must ask yourself is...would He (God) check-out one of your books?
Thanks Jack for letting me be a part of your book.