Just Jazzing

This book is composed of sayings, thoughts, statements, and ideas mostly from the author’s own unique perspective. This is wisdom he has accumulated over his life. He didn’t simply copy something he had read or heard but combed his own mind deeply to come up with them. He wrote what the Almighty God put on his mind. If it seems that you have heard them before, it’s only because he must have had similar thoughts as someone else. He wrote these sayings sitting in his library/study while contemplating, some while at the local library, some while driving along the highway, others while on daily walks. While at home, he usually wrote while listening to smooth jazz on his radio or TV and sitting in his comfortable Lay-Z-Boy with a warm blanket—especially during the winter and spring months of 2021 and 2022.

The author could almost perceive a saying in any situation that he thought of. Important lessons are in everything we do if you look for them. Some will say these ideas go without saying, but the Almighty forced them into his consciousness for a reason.

Some of them may not seem powerful, but they are what came to him as he sat in his chair, held his pen, and engaged in freewriting. The author is seventy-four-years old, and these ideas have evolved into his approach to life. He admits that a few of these ideas are not quite completely his own. He gives credit where it is due. Some of these ideas were adapted from radio, TV, Internet, and restructured for his own taste. In only a few cases, if any, did he take direct words from others. He put this book of ideas, statements, thoughts, and sayings together one at a time.

Over the years he recorded some of these ideas in his subconscious mind, and finally reached back for them. They came from family, his years of education, and people he met along the way. Most of them are new creations from his own cerebral consciousness.

In pursuing his college and university education, he is sure he got a good bang for his buck. There are lots of regrets in his life, having pursued a higher level of education is not one of them.

Forgive him if he used a few of these sayings from other of his books, sayings from any other books or sources, or some of the more common sayings that we hear every day. He made every effort not to do so. He may not have met his objective in all situations in this regard, in some cases it is difficult for him to remember if he used an idea before. He had nothing but his memory to rely on, and his memory is not all that reliable. He didn’t take the time to go back and read all his books and compare ideas.

He believes most of these statements are true to life. The author would never make a statement that he didn’t believe was true. He does agree with all the statements and ideas he has made, even though some of them are restructured and revised. After seventy-four years of soul searching, these ideas thoughts, sayings, and statements come from the depth of the author’s soul.

These ideas usually came to his mind rather rapidly but faded like snow in a hot frying pan. Some of them he was able to recall, but many of them were lost forever. He didn’t always have a pen or paper handy. His short-term memory is not as good as it used to be.

He writes from the perspective of his experiences from the time he was a child on a dirt farm in East Texas, to college, to the Navy, back to graduate school in Houston, and on to his many years in Chicago. He had a multi-problem family: alcohol, mental illness, physical and mental abuse, philandering, etc. There was no electricity for many years, no gas, no telephone, and no running water. For years they didn’t even have a well. They didn’t get these things until later in life. They had no transportation for many years, and his father worked on the Gulf Coast, and came home twice a month. He had to walk a muddy-three-mile road to catch the bus to school during his first several years of school. His family gave him no preparation for school.

Life hasn’t always been easy, but he has survived and thrived. It was rough plowing a mule from sunup to sunset in East Texas, being isolated in a rural area; getting an inadequate elementary, junior high, and high school education; and going to college where he was out of place. But he didn’t let any of these things deter him. He kept moving and grooving though he was against the odds. He stumbled, fumbled, bumbled, and mumbled his way through school. He still doesn’t understand how he made it himself, but he considers himself fortunate. He knows he probably only made it with the help of the Almighty God. God sometimes perform miracles through other people. He feels that God put him in this situation for a reason. In the end his situation was for the purpose of promoting his growth and development. These sayings came from his many life experiences.

Of all the sayings he wrote, some he felt were not appropriate for the book—those he discarded. Some of the categories denoted by the chapters are artificial. A few of the sayings could have just as easily fit in another of the categories. He had to decide on one or the other. Check out this and other of his books @ www.willisjay.com.