Long Trips To Nowhere: Collection of Months 1, 2, and 3

By Allan R. Wallace

Three Months of Daily Thought Provokers.
Discover and live your personal calling.

Consider it a challenge. You certainly won't agree with every quote, poem, or thought – but by maintaining an open mind each daily read will prove, again and again, your existing aptitude for harvesting wisdom from any source. Discover and live your personal calling. You can do this.

Your true life
You will never discover
If you hide on your bed
Under a cover

Long Trips To Nowhere.
Free yourself starting today:

Live ahead not behind,
crafting not replicating,
choose adventure rather than to be sure,
for much of life's joy is found in surprises that overtake us as we dare.
Allan R. Wallace

May each daily entry guide you to long and rewarding paths.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Allan R. Wallace
• Release date: Oct 12, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301412310

Allan R. Wallace

"If you view change as a problem rather than an opportunity you'll always be too late. Visionaries and crackpots are always too soon and pay a high price for their insight.We can accept that." ~ Allan R. Wallace

Book preview

MONTH 1 INDEX

DAY 1

DAY 2

DAY 3

DAY 4

DAY 5

DAY 6

DAY 7

DAY 8

DAY 9

DAY 10

DAY 11

DAY 12

DAY 13

DAY 14

DAY 15

DAY 16

DAY 17

DAY 18

DAY 19

DAY 20

DAY 21

DAY 22

DAY 23

DAY 24

DAY 25

DAY 26

DAY 27

DAY 28

DAY 29

DAY 30

DAY 31

The Beginning

Also By Allan R. Wallace

DAY 1

A Quick Quote:

Life, love, and liberty – these three:

to experience them,

you must risk them.

A Deeper Thought:

Technology is famous for removing middlemen from tasks.

Disintermediation.

I'll invent a name for something sinister that is often overlooked.

Introintermediation.

We may no longer travel to a box store to shop for headphones, ordered from a warehouse, that orders from a jobber, who deals with manufacturers. We can now use the Internet to place an order directly with the source. The extra layers were disintermediated. Tasks have become simple.

Technology has instead introintermediated itself into our relationships. Our lives and awareness-of-self are being sundered from immersible reality by technological distractions. Our loves are separated from us by a lack of ability to concentrate, and constant allowed interruptions.

Once guaranteed human rights (liberties) have been usurped into technology controlled privileges for which we may be allowed to qualify and pay. Our short attention spans have us electing charming actors who fake sincerity – we quickly accept their massaged emotional images rather than objectively examine their history.

We have become simple.

Will you attempt to discover and regain your stolen treasures?

and Some Imperfect Poetry:

Relationships are where everything is at;

God, people, and my silly yellow cat.

This book is dedicated to my kiddos:

Shelley, Phillip, Matthew, Lydia, Elizabeth.

I pray that you prosper, even as your soul prospers.

When my children were young we would occasionally pile into a car and drive off in whatever direction seemed interesting at the moment. Without plan we might arrive at the Grand Canyon, or Las Vegas, or at a previously unknown mountain cabin by a lake. We had many excellent adventures.

We lived in serendipity – a much better neighborhood than living in ignorance. Together we learned of each other, our world, and the many surprising opportunities that hide over just one more hill, beyond one more curve in the road.

Recently my younger son, now grown and living half a world away, told me he was going to take an extended car trip. Matthew wrote, I miss those long trips to nowhere.

I miss them too.

May this book's short entries guide you to long and rewarding paths.

Thinking out and using fine new cooking wares

Finding quotes, thoughts, pleasantries to mix

Add a few mental arguments to heat

The many new trails and chances you meet

Stew up your life journeys fulfilling and sweet

DAY 2

Sauntering

I was more a man of words and images than the more direct senses. Yet at some point I realized how much was missed by being so focused. I began to consciously listen, to visually examine, to touch and feel first. My mind now makes connections once denied me by automatic preferences made in ignorance. I've gained additional worlds, and routes to travel between them.

Henry David Thoreau said sauntering is an art! I like that. As we saunter along beach and shoal at the oceans edge there is so much to peacefully witness. A glance at the boardwalk rambla will find runners, bikers, and even most walkers focused tightly and seeing little. In contrast, this sauntering stuff is not an assignment, it's a joy. Make it personal.

When sauntering through forest and meadow, or stopping by a pond, there are deeper thoughts as well as nature close to our hands. By paying attention to what others miss, and thinking more, we develop more like ourselves and less like everyone else.

The world desperately needs more of the quite valuable, real you.

Leave the cell phone at home. Bypass crowded areas and find your place to be alone with your thoughts. If that scares you, you need to meet yourself and become comfortable with your own company. Now slowly wander down quiet paths where nature weaves her tapestries; noticing everything. It's okay to stop and admire or question one thing. It's okay to let your mind wander instead of your feet as you rest in the shade or by a stream. Relax. Enjoy. Linger where you wish. Taking notes can be a good idea. It is your art, develop it your own way as you freshly interact with your real life.

I like to say my short novel Uruguayo Shade is art,

And the whole thing may be the smallest cogent part.

To observe it's lack of faddish modern craft is a fast but false start,

You've placed a proverbial horse behind a square wheeled cart.

See if the following fits your education hand in glove:

If you primarily analyze any treasure by the crafting of each part,

You've forgotten your first love.

Make a decision to again saunter life's journey with your heart.

DAY 3

Open Minds

The best way to open your own mind is to help others open their own minds.

If you listen to politicians you have to wonder; are they delusional, lying to themselves and others, or just so steeped in their particular stew that they can't see outside the steaming pot?

United States President Theodore Roosevelt said it this way, The old parties are husks, with no real soul within either, divided on artificial lines, boss-ridden and privilege-controlled, each a jumble of incongruous elements, and neither daring to speak out wisely and fearlessly on what should be said on the vital issues of the day. It is worse today.

The same may be said for many of the new parties and their followers. All that slavishly follow will quote verse and line from their party platform, perhaps changing the emphases for different audiences, and never question if what they say is congruent with their other pronouncements and actions. Is it all about rooting for a dysfunctional team and winning a liar's prize?

Much of what Nietzsche wrote has been purposely misunderstood, but this is clear enough: In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations, and epochs it is the rule.

Sadly most humans follow the herd. The herd follows a Judas cow led by unseen masters. That is what Teddy Roosevelt was referring to when he said political parties are boss-ridden. We need to boss ourselves.

I've talked politics because we are all witnesses to its effects. But an open mind is needed when dealing with any information source. Always use mental filters when assaying any data. Open your eyes to open your mind.

Decide on your life for yourself.

Repetition of a lie can make a majority believe.

But numbers of impressions,

Or percentages of ballots in a box,

Do not make injustice right or falsehoods true.

DAY 4

Keep Laughing

Even if you see a wonderful pattern, you have to recognize life's inherent absurdity. Enjoy life, look to the future, but wherever you are remember. That's it, just remember.

I'm sitting here looking at a storm tossed ocean fully captivated by it's beauty. What I thought I would do was write something wise, wonderful, and funny. That no longer seems important, even if it was ever possible. I have to laugh at my own pretensions. Life is good, but sometimes I am awed by how little I understand – like being peacefully at rest because the weather rages outside.

I have spent the last year in Uruguay, a beautiful country filled with warm people. A country where I don't speak the language and often have difficulty understanding the culture. I unashamedly laugh as I admit to myself this time has been a great pleasure. I have so much to unlearn.

Every traveler I meet here remarks on the friendliness and warmth of los Uruguayos. Can you believe I was here over six months before I realized Uruguayans must think the rest of the world's people are correspondingly distant and cold? In Punta Del Esta where I've spent most of my time almost everyone speaks acceptable English. Questioning I've found many are world travelers, usually on a tight budget, frequently to find better paying jobs, but always aware of who they are. They returned here to Uruguay because amongst other things, they missed the warmth of their relaxed culture.

Most here wash their clothes and hang them on lines outside. In many ways, quite noticeably in life style, Uruguay is like 1950s USA. Since I had to make the choice, I too prefer warm people to the convenience of a clothes dryer. In fact there are a lot of inconveniences here, but for me life has never been more pleasant. I have lost a lot but I've gained so much more.

Life, she is good! – Change, he is well!

La vida es hermosa. – El cambio es bueno.

If changes where you live make you ill at ease

Go where laughter ripely falls from fruitful trees

Mayhap today's a fitting time yourself to please

Don't miss finding that perfect home in your own breeze.

DAY 5

Investments

Do what is necessary to be moderately wealthy in ten years, and very wealthy in twenty years. What will you be doing in twenty years if you keep repeating your current errors?

If you want to dream about becoming rich fast, buy one (1) lottery ticket. Any other way to quick riches requires even more luck, significant risk, and a lack of statistical insight. To seek quick riches leads to poverty and frustration.

The crowd will be mostly right in the middle of a trend and some will even do well. At the end of the trend everyone wants to do well and ends up losing even the gains they made. When the herd stampedes, step to the side and use your head. Once you are separate, move in another direction.

You can't restrain friends and family from stampeding, a logical argument will not win against a position chosen by emotion. It will be hard enough for you to think when all around you are emotional about their latest ventures. Remember not to laugh or brag when they lose all. Most will. The few that survive will likely be fodder in the next bull run.

Astute investor and finance book author Jim Rogers talked in early 2013 about investing in Russia. Russia! As Jim put it, they have been a dangerous, awful place since 1917, but they are starting to change. Everybody hates them, no one trusts them, but the rewards will be high if change does come.

This of course is a good time to mention Jim Rogers probably only has a very small part of his money there until he sees if he's right. He has wealth: Wealth is made through specialization and concentration in areas where you are knowledgeable. Wealth is hopefully preserved through diversification.

Let profits keep running

We've all been told

Take losses quickly is the balancing scold

But our dangerous inclination is to hold, hold, hold

Our steadily falling losers we should have sold.

DAY 6

Perfect Poetry

I am part of all that I have met

Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough

Gleams that untraveled world whose margin fades

Forever and forever when I move.

Alfred Lord Tennyson

Perfect.

Another