Howard Start's A Book - Has He Lost His Mind?

I'm not sure what inspired me to attempt such a massive project, but ideas kept popping into my head over the last few days.  I assumed that my first real book would be about RVing, or full-timing, or just following dreams.

But nooooo.  I had to start a whole "The World According To Howard" thing.  Actually, I've started with the title "Internal Conflicts".  The subtitle is "A Regular Guy's Attempt To Get People To Think More And Live Richly". 

At this point, I'm not really sure where I'm going with this and it's likely I won't go anywhere.  :)  But it will keep me occupied off and on for awhile as it morphs into something.

The premise is that we all have internal conflicts about how we should live our lives.  We have conflicts about our political, religious, and societal beliefs.

But, I think we are all more alike than not and if we start thinking for ourselves rather than blindly accepting who we are from outside influences, we can come together on the vast majority of issues even if we disagree on a few big ones.

For example, let's use the red state/blue state analogy from the 2004 presidential election.  My theory is that we are a nation of purple (red & blue combined for the art-impaired :)) people forced to be red or blue.  Yeah, we might be red or blue on particular issues, but my guess is there is a lot of crossover on both sides - a great majority of purple.  Not to mention the legions of purple people in the 45% that didn't vote at all.

What if a leader appeared that could harness the power of the purple people - the people that agree on most issues and agree to disagree on others?  What if our leaders and the media stopped perpetuating the perception that we are a divided country?

Our current system forces the appearance of division, but I don't believe that to be reality.  If we sat down and interviewed every single person in the country to find their views on multiple issues rather than just a few, I think we would find great consensus.  Just a hunch - I could be dead wrong.  :)

Also, I believe that by realizing that so many people are on the same page and have desires to change similar things about their lives, community, and country, we will become less apathetic and more involved in making a difference.

Another premise of the book is to show that we have options to live richer, fuller, more meaningful lives if we just start focusing on who we are and who we want to be rather than on who we've been conditioned to be.

Another theory - if we start concentrating on joy and passion and purpose, survival will not be so difficult.  It comes full circle - the struggle to survive and make ends meet keeps us from thinking and pursuing greater purpose and simpler lives.  We just try to get through each day, each week, each month, each year until that magical retirement date appears - if we are lucky.

My idea is to explore all this from the viewpoint of a regular guy who is still dealing with conflicts and continuous personal growth and change and not from the viewpoint of people that are considered to be experts in a variety of fields.

My intent is to demonstrate how views of the world can change over time for individuals and that it is okay to have seemingly contradictory opinions on life.  One of the biggest dangers is allowing ourselves to be classified AND to just accept that broad classification as who we are.

For example, if I throw out an opinion, society automatically slaps a label on me based on that one opinion.  Unless I resist, society has a pre-conceived notion about my whole belief system.  It could be right, but chances are it is very wrong.  It could be right today and wrong tomorrow.

Though I have expressed opinions in this Journal from time to time, they have been more related to condemning the "status quo" of our society.  My rants about government have been politically neutral for the most part and I have left religion out although we do talk about spirituality.  I just didn't want a varied audience to stop reading just because we may not be in the same "camp." :)

So in this book I want to throw out lots of different opinions that I have formed over time.  Some are completely different from the ones I had 20 years ago or even 2 years ago.  Many appear to be competely conflicting, and in some cases they are.  If folks want to label me based on opinions, they better have a full label gun, because one or two won't cut it.  :)

I don't care so much about whether people agree or disagree with my opinions, but I do care that all opinions from all people are carefully considered.  One opinion that is politically incorrect or radical does not make that person a throw-away person.

In summary, I believe that our decision to pursue passions, dreams, and happiness before the traditional age can be extrapolated.  If we can create a groundswell of folks that are willing to fly in the face of traditional, robotic lifestyles, individual lives will become better and that will lead to a better world over time.

The book's goal is to lead people of all walks of life to the deep thinking and reflection that would promote different life choices.  Without such reflection, the day-to-day, as horrible as it seems to us now, is still just too easy to maintain.

Why now?  Because I believe that our people are ready to discover something more out of life.  If I, as an intense corporate capitalist that had a dream life according to most standards, was looking for something more, I am betting that a whole lot more people are just looking for a little inspiration from someone they can relate to.  :)

So there you have it.  Howard has completely lost his mind.  Here's a corporate business executive turned vagabond that is attempting to make the world a better place with a book that tackles politics, religion, and society in general with a "New Age" type approach to improving individual lives.  Oh, and he has absolutely no credentials to write such a book.  Yep, he's lost it. :)

Comments

[Sharlene Parker]

Howard, You have not lost your mind. I can't think of anyone better qualified to write about improving individual lives than you. Your struggles to abandon what you have been taught are the "right" things to think, to believe, and to do are very interesting.

The changes in political, religious, and societal viewpoints is all part of those changes. Many people will be able to relate to the journey that you and Linda are embarking upon to achieve personal fulfillment after choosing to leave the corporate world behind, and I'm sure it will inspire anyone who reads it to reexamine their own lives to see what could be done so they, too, can achieve happiness.

Not everyone may choose to take the path that you and Linda have, but your writings may help those who are struggling with the thoughts of "well, I have those things that are supposed to make me happy, but now that I'm here, I'm not satisfied...." to find a way to make their own happiness. Your writings will also demonstrate that they are not alone with those feelings of dissatisfaction.

Just my humble opinion.....

[Bev]

I enjoy reading your daily adventures in rving. With respect to your book writing, Howard, I think you spend too much time analysising life. Sometimes you can analyze it to death. You should take one day at a time and enjoy it and not try to analyse why the sun came the next morning but be thankful it did. If eveyone's lives were the same belief, there would be no one to disagree with and make life interesting. You seem to be struggling internally and are not a very happy person although you are doing what you say is your dream.

[Howard]

Hi Bev!
We're comin' to Texas! Is that golf offer still on the table? :)

As for the writing thing, I do analyze lots of stuff. That's part of who I get to be in this lifestyle. I love deep thinking and pondering - no time or energy for that before. So contrary to how it might appear, I enjoy the analysis and conflicts and all that stuff that makes peoples' heads hurt. And I've never been happier!!! :)

[Howard]

Sharlene,
Well said! You captured very well my long-winded point. :) Thanks for the vote of confidence.

[Jo Wishnie]

Wow, that's deep. And no, you haven't lost your mind. I understand what you're talking about. There are lots of people feeling exactly what you are talking about. If you are successful in figuring it out and verbalizing it in a book, more power to you. It's the kind of stuff our inner voice says to us, but most people just block it out and keep going on with their unhappy lives. Free the masses!

[Carol White]

Hi Howard -

I think you have a perfect idea to start a new blog with -- separate from this forum. Link them together for people who want to see both -- but you'll develop a whole new audience there for your thoughts and ideas. What you are describing is perfect blog material -- and then you'll have much of your book written down and also get some feedback along the way which could really help the book effort.

We're here for you! Live Your Dreams!

Phil and Carol White
Live Your Road Trip Dream
www.roadtripdream.com

[Howard]

Carol,
Thanks for the blog suggestion. You were not alone with that one. :)

I'm not sure I'm ready for all the feedback, which I would probably obsess about. But I'm thinkin' about it. :)