When I left the house this morning I made a mistake and turned on the radio. My station of choice is NPR. Most mornings I listen some interesting talk about odd things and all is well. Not so this morning. The first words I heard, I’m talking about five minuets into my day, “The economy is bad and they say next year will be worse”. Good morning world ! Glad you showed up to share that great news!

Sorry, just had to get that off my chest. Just shows you who we are. Paul Harvey used to talk about (I know I’m dating myself) a radio station in Kansas City called “The Good News Station”. Their programming format was to talk about all the good things that were going on across the world. They went broke in six months because no one wants to hear good news. We like to hear how bad things are. Good news just doesn’t sell. Sad.

When you are bombarded by apocalyptic economic news perhaps you are supposed to feel that somehow you are better off than those poor guys that are going to lose their jobs. But job loss should not be anything that you fear. The cliché is that “when one door closes, another on opens”. What makes that a cliché is that most times, you are so busy staring at the closed door, wondering what happened that you fail to see the one behind you that just opened.

I’m speaking to you from experience and I’m not going to lay my life out in front of you because most of you would think it was a great work of fiction. Truth is, sometimes I think it was a great work of fiction myself and I lived it. That can be said of anyone who has lived a full life or “stomped on the terra” as Hunter S. Thompson used to say. All I lived on was faith. I’m not talking faith in some religion. I’m not talking faith in some system. I’m talking faith in ME. That is all you need. I wanted to be a college professor. I had no idea how to get there other than go to school, so go to school I went. The last summer of my Masters Degree, I had to finish up and get into my PhD program. With virtually no money, only faith and desire, we gave up the lease on our apartment and moved into a tent at a State Park near the college. My wife, small son and I lived in this tent and wrote paper by lantern light. We had no idea what the future was going to bring but were on a grand adventure, camping our way into the world of academia. The end of the summer, my faith paid off as I was accepted into a PhD program and was also granted faculty rank. My degree cost me nothing financially.

I have told you this story because we had other options. I could have continued bartending and spent the next seven years chipping away at a PhD living in our nice comfortable apartment. But three months in a tent rewarded me with the inane desire to finish my program in two and one half years and the faith in myself to believe it would happen. I missed my mark however, by three weeks. I wish I could tell you that I am the most brilliant man on the planet. No, the truth is, I am just a normal guy with abnormal faith.

Have faith that everything is going to turn out exactly how you believe it will. Because it will. If you believe badly, it will turn out badly. You are the architect of your own future and you can’t remodel your past. It is just that, past. The future is not here yet so have faith today. I would like to leave you with the words to one of my favorite songs which is also taped to the mirror in my bathroom, “The Cape” by Guy Clark.

Eight years old with a flour sack cape Tied all around his neck

He climbed up on the garage Figurin’ what the heck

He screwed his courage up so tight The whole thing come unwound

He got a runnin’ start and bless his heart He headed for the ground

He’s one of those who knows that life is just a leap of faith

Spread your arms and hold you breath And always trust your cape

All grown up with a flour sack cape Tied all around his dreams

He’s full of piss and vinegar He’s bustin’ at the seams

He licked his finger and checked the wind It’s gonna be do or die

He wasn’t scared of nothin’, Boys He was pretty sure he could fly

Old and gray with a flour sack cape Tied all around his head

He’s still jumpin’ off the garage And will be till he’s dead

All these years the people said He’s actin’ like a kid

He did not know he could not fly And so he did

Thanks for indulging me. Dr Jim