Simon and Schuster assure me that I
Will be consumed by J. R. Ward’s new book
But I am neither steak nor apple pie
And probably would be difficult to cook

“…you’ll love this riveting memoir.”

One longs to see a memoir riveting,
Setting in place with tongs the hot red steel,
Bucking the tail, and quickly pivoting
For another – a worker’s life is real

“Catherine Coulter and J.T. Ellison’s explosive Brit
in the FBI thriller The Sixth Day is now in paperback!”

One wouldn’t like to see an exploding Brit
Who would ruin one’s tweed country suit
Splattering English gore all over it –
That exploding galloping major brute!

But

Before the man went CRACK!
How did they ever fit
That pyrotechnic Brit
into a paperback?

It was a hot & sunny day in Arizona. Happily floating down a calm river, in between beautiful canyons & deep trenches, was Alex, Lindsey and her whole family. They had floats on their backs with water proof backpacks filled with camping gear, laughing, smiling and enjoying the ride down the natural blue waters, sliding through beautiful vibrant orange 100ft + Arizonian canyons surrounding them. It was coming to an end as their stop was approaching, Lindsey & Alex were trailing last behind Donny, Mrs. & Mr. Schuster, Lauren & even Tom. They approached a small crack in the orange wall, large enough for a few people to fit, where a meander of sand had formed from the cut banks of the river. At this meander, there was a wooden door on the wall. The rest of the family had already passed through the wooden door at this small island into an open green field. As Lindsey and Alex slowly washed up on the small orange shore, she dried herself off, and began to slowly open the door. Feeling oddly content, Alex came to a realization & stopped her with a question: “Lindsey?”… he asked as she slowly turned around and smiled at him. He sighed and calmly asked with a soft, almost defeated, tone of voice, “ … Is this a dream?” She then looked at him, subtly lost her smile, and began to open the door again. Alex slightly nodded his head up and down with understanding. He felt a great sadness but at the same time, a great acceptance of the situation. He got her attention one last time before she left and whispered "ok... I love you." She looked at him with a look of connection and grounded compassion and said "I love you too... goodbye Alex." "Goodbye Lindsey" Alex replied with a tone of finality in his voice. He held back his tears to watch her pass through the wooden door & happily jog through the grass field towards her friends & family & into the loving arms of Tom. He watched them walk away into the sun lit world that embodied the happy feelings he once felt. Once the wooden door shut on him, the temperature dropped & the river started to fill up the cave & wash away the meander. A devastating wave of tears and utmost despair overcame him, pulling his state of mind deep into an intense vortex of darkness within his own mind, destroying every sense of self, forcing his mind, body and soul to become one with infinite sadness.

On personal cultivation and development, also on duty, responsibility, altruism, service to the community/society/country, leadership and governance,  none in the world, even now, can match the wisdom of Confucius 600 BCE as expounded in his immortal classic THE ANALECTS.  



Book 4

Virtue attracts others and never stands alone


Book 7:

These things cause me concern-

if I fail

1. to probe deeper into what I have learnt

2. to reform myself when I have defects, etc

Give me a few years more so that I might still study when I am fifty

and as such free myself from my major errors.

Book 13

If a person has succeeded in making himself correct,

what difficulty would he face in governing?



There's a short chapter on this in THE GENTLE ART OF TAO LEADERSHIP-- A 21ST CENTURY PERSPECTIVE, Nov 2020, distributed by Simon & Schuster, published in Melb, to be republished in US this year.


At a Nobel Prize Writers' Conference held in Paris in 1988,

the following statement was declared:

' If mankind is to survive, it must go back 2,500 years to tap the wisdom of Confucius'

In response to a post on teamwork:

This is at the very heart of the corporate philosophy of Panasonic Corporation---the team is more important than the individual.

This theme is treated in THE GENTLE ART OF TAO LEADERSHIP-  A 21st CENTURY PERSPECTIVE, distributed by Simon & Schuster