Oh we think we’re so smart. We make so many choices in the course of our days. The positive is the product of our good decisions, and the negative, the result of the bad. But it’s the uncontrollable flow of energy that guides, attracts, and repels us from and to each other to learn what is in us all along.
Passion becomes obsession for a nature photographer, a famous actor, and his agent in modern-day Los Angeles after the photographer inadvertently captures pictures of the actor with an underage starlet.
Focus Lost, scheduled to be published in early 2019, will be Doug’s third book.
We all take probing looks into the mirror, expecting to find life’s elusive truths. We peer deep into the eyes of the person across from us wanting answers. But while the reflection is usually a pronounced part of the plaguing problem, the mirror casts more delusion than truth, creating the deception that we each are a separate existence, isolated and unconnected to others and our surroundings. To bring verity to this self-indulgent fantasy of staring into such a specious speculum, we should strive to see those that anger, frustrate, and are less fortunate than us. We are them, and they are us.
Just little bit farther; wait a little bit longer; one more time, and it’ll happen. Isn’t that what we tell ourselves? Grit, determination, perseverance. That’s the foundation of all success stories, right? But it’s also the script of most abject failures, too. We get so locked in on an idea, a direction, a destination, that we lose all perspective. Stopping would mean that we were misguided or wrong. But in the moments we admit how lost we are is when we may have the most clarity. To go any farther only moves us further away from what we really need.
Life is tough. People, places, experiences, seemingly stack up against us, conspiring to keep us from what we are meant to do. We fight, scratch, and grind, but at every turn, someone or something is ready to foil our progress. It doesn’t matter what we do. The world is against us. But maybe as we toil in the rubble of our attenuate aspiration, we should notice what is common in all these tales of contrived sabotage. Protagonist, antagonist, or supporting character, we are in there somewhere. We may play the victim, but the only thread in all the drama is us.
We want space — to be free and encumbered — to pursue whatever we want and become whomever we desire. But the experience is rife with change, uncertainty, and never-ending challenge. A moment of clarity and achievement quickly becomes despair and failure before we even have time to appreciate what has happened. It is this oscillation between aimless wandering and firm grounding that produces the sense of self we seek. We must rest in all experiences and learn what they have to teach us. In an instant, they’ll be gone, and the chains of responsibility will become our wings of freedom.
Being in front is often mistaken with leadership. But just because a person is ahead of others does not mean one is being a strong leader. So many motivations drive people to leadership positions, unfortunately, the least of which is the wisdom and benevolence needed to guide and direct others. True leaders knows how to achieve individual and group goals from any position. The more leaders are interconnected with their teams, the better they can assess and act in the appropriate way. To feel pressure to be in front is the greatest indication one is not deserving of the position.
We all need help and have benefited from teachers in all shapes and forms to get to where we are. They often appear without us even seeking them out, seeming to appear by the unconscious summoning of our needs. But the lesson we learn from many of these guides is not in what they offer but in how we respond. Although their intentions may be genuine, their advice is shaped from their experience and beliefs and may not apply. If we feel they are misguided or dissembling, we can just forget the unsolicited advice as easily as it was requested.
Drew Cohen from The Writer’s Block in downtown Las Vegas joins Cooper on the inaugural episode of “The Store Next Door”. Each show he’ll talk to owners, managers, and employees at some of the coolest book stores around. The podcast is brought to you by Rare Bird Books based in Los Angeles, a publisher of 50+ books per year, distributed world-wide by Publishers Group West. Special thanks also to John Andrew Fredrick from The Black Watch for the rights to use “Emily, Are You Sleeping” and “The All-Right Side of Just OK” on the broadcast.
Contrary to the popular misconception that people are buying books only from online retailers, independent booksellers are thriving and serving communities in ways their competitors never can. Each podcast, the booksellers will share about their local book scene, trends they are seeing in the marketplace, what got them excited about books and made them choose it as a career, the first book and last book they read, and so much more.
The Writer’s Block Book Shop is a retailer of books and other goods. Its stock includes new fiction and nonfiction books, writing supplies and stationery, games, apparel, badminton accessories and taxidermy forms. A print lab is located at the front of the shop, where handmade books and stationery are manufactured and sold. The property is also an artificial bird sanctuary, and contains an exhibition on the history of language, literacy, and publishing.
Whether you’re in the car, on the treadmill, or cleaning the house, you can take a walk with Doug and check out the retail gems down the street, around the corner, and in our own backyards in this exciting new podcast from Rare Bird Books. If you’re a bookseller and would like to be on the show or have a special store you would like to recommend, let us know.
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