The Gift You Give . . .

. . . is the gift you keep.



I remember reading the Parade interview with Reese Witherspoon about a month ago.

In it, she noted, “Someone said to me once, ‘No matter what breakup you went through or what new love you find—the love you remember, like the love you now value, is yours. Whatever love you once gave to somebody else, it doesn’t go away. Even if it is only remembered love, it belongs to you.’”

As we move into 2009, I want to wish all my many readers the best of new beginnings, personal growth, and lifelong learning. Not to mention robust health.

And remember, as my good friend Neil Young once pointed out, "Love don't care if you're wrong or right / Love don't know if you're black or white / Love ain't looking for perfection / Love's the answer, Love's the question."

Or as I've been known to sing, "Tell me you love me / And I'll show you it's true."

Love and Be Loved.

There's your meaning of life.

About last night . . .

Three nights ago, actually . . .

The quote does not apply. The motive was not at fault, 'twas the execution.

The execution, polluted by cowardice and dishonesty, there's the true remorse.

The motive was to share joy, to share love.

In the execution, both were lost.

That apotheosis of oxymorons "conventional wisdom" will cite naivete, misguidedness, unrealism.

To the degree that it'll never happen again, the cw is right.

That a more universal love can't be conceived of is tragic.

But that there was joy is trumpeted by the mutest of testimonies, and the ever more muffled echoes of erolalia . . .

I hope again for forgiveness.

Forgiving myself may be the hardest thing I've ever had to do.

True remorse . . .

True remorse is never just a regret over consequences; it is a regret over motive. -Mignon McLaughlin, journalist and author (1913-1983)

Now I Live STRONG

Well, it's been a fun past few months...GIST last summer, starting, oh, probably by mid November '06 at least.

I remember going to the doctor feeling a little off then...He gave me some slightly mistaken info about some other ailments, but maybe I just didn't ask the right questions...

Then the 8/1/07 scoping and discovery of the GIST--GastroIntestinalStromalTumor, for those of you playing along at home, or simply wondering what's the acronym and no explication? You call that writing???--Followed by Gleevecification to shrink said 8.5 in circumference GIST to manageable 5.5 size, then surgical excision on 1/23/08, at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Followed by a period of recovery and some attempts at followup Gleevecification, soon aborted, after obnoxious side effects, and an attempt to follow in the footsteps of a friend who recently passed her 8th anniversary of no recurrence of GIST! Yay, Bev! You go, Girl!

Followed by the discovery of a recurrent tumor in CT scan of 7/17/08, followed by more surgical excision, 8/12/08, followed by Gleevecification, now and forever, Semper Fidelis!

So that's my story in shorthand. Working hard to drink lots of H2O and Honest Tea--Jasmine Green is my current fave, along with copious complements of fresh veggies and fruits, and avoiding salted, pickled and smoked foods, though not entirely. Just mostly.

Now I Live STRONG.

CANCEL Cancer.

Not the critic...

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

In Memoriam . . .

So You Want to Be an Entrepreneur...

...Interesting thing about that word, "entre preneur," which is French for "between buyers." It's the word I remember missing on the SAT, puzzling over it for several minutes. Should have moved on, but it seemed so familiar....

But it wasn't as much then as it is now, and now I, among many others, am an entrepreneur.

My first entrepreneurial effort was my famous "1st National Tour." Took the old guitbox, wrote a mess of songs, then knocked on doors in college towns and started selling mini concerts. 1 song for a dollar; 3 for $2! Plus, every paying audience member got a free coupon good for one free concert when I "hit the bigtime!"

Made it coast to coast, but have yet to hit the bigtime.

Sorry to keep you guys waiting!

These days I tutor SAT and AP Lang and Comp prep, with an emphasis on vocab building and improving / refining writing skills.

This summer I'm embarking on a new venture: selling t-shirts. Stay tuned to this space for more details...

In the meantime, pick up a copy of Barbara J. Winter's Making A Living Without A Job, and visit her website
href="http://www.barbarawinter.com">http://www.barbarawinter.com

for plenty of good ideas about how to start your first entrepreneurial venture, as she asks--and answers--the melodious question: What would an entrepreneur do?

Tell her the HepCat sent you!

Joy, Jay