Riding This Electron Hanging on for Dear Life: A Soul Searcher’S Theory of Everything

By Tom Zidik

Tom Zidik believes that we all must live our choices, learn to treat people the same, and make a difference in the lives of others.In a memoir that weaves memories with compelling thoughts on life, teachable moments, and engaging lessons, Zidik begins by leading others through the events of his early youth and how they helped to form his character and his subsequent life. After recounting a childhood filled with milk trucks, stern nuns in Catholic school, and a few concussions, Zidik details how he met his future wife, landed a good job, and endured many challenges. While chronologically describing his varied experiences, Zidik offers an inspirational perspective of a life-changing event that provided him with insight and validity to his life, shares his thought-provoking view of the universe, and provides life lessons extracted from his own path of self-discovery.

Riding This Electron, Hanging On For Dear Life shares the life story of a soul searcher as he journeyed from boyhood to manhood, contemplated his place in the universe, and eventually learned to embrace his uniqueness.

• Language: English
• Publisher: LifeRich Publishing
• Release date: Nov 29, 2017
• ISBN: 9781489714275

Tom Zidik

Tom Zidik is from central Pennsylvania and is a retired manager in the manufacturing industry. He and his loving wife of forty-two years live in a semi-secluded setting where they enjoy the wildlife and the peace of solitude. This is his first book.

Book preview

Copyright © 2017 Tom Zidik.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

LifeRich Publishing is a registered trademark of The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

LifeRich Publishing

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.liferichpublishing.com

1 [phone]

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-4897-1428-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4897-1429-9 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4897-1427-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017917759

LifeRich Publishing rev. date: 11/28/2017

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Conclusion

This book is

dedicated to my mother, Marian Shank Zidik and my wife Pamela Anne Reed Zidik. Behind every mediocre man stands a great lady, I am blessed to have two.

CHAPTER 1

THESE EYES ARE UNLIKE ANY ORGAN IN THIS body. They have not grown in size since birth; my body has grown around them. They are the windows of my soul. They have seen the wonders of nature—trees coming to life every year in the spring, vegetation popping out of the ground, birds nesting and teaching their babies their songs. The exhilaration of being exposed to millions of beautiful flowers and their fragrance comforts me in so many ways. I love being drenched in sunlight throughout the summer while walking on the thriving earth. I see the beauty of the fall with the slow changing of the leaves into surreal colors. But sadness falls on me with every descending leaf, for I know with every landing that winter is one step closer. Yet I see the wildlife enjoying the fall harvest of wild nuts, grains, and vegetation.

I have lived in Pennsylvania my whole life, and I love three seasons out of the four. They seem to go by so fast. The winter is cold and void of color and daylight. It seems to be never ending, and I count the days until the return of springtime’s warmth and beauty. It is no wonder that the church has picked spring for Easter—it is the promise of life after death, like the trees and vegetation coming alive again after a long winter.

I am now in my sixty-third cycle of the earth, and I have noticed that nothing ever really changes in the world around me. I do not see anything different except when I see a photo of myself or I look in the mirror. I am the same person on the inside that I have always been, but my body is changing, and I live a more mental than physical life the older I get. The person inside of me does not age. This tells me that maybe I am two different entities—a physical animal and a spiritual being. My body is aging, but my spirit stays the same. This division between my body and the entity that is inside me, thinking and making decisions and never aging, proves that my soul has eternal life and is in full control of my body.

I am the second of six children, and if we all stand next to each other, we look quite similar. Some look a little more like my mother, some like my father. You can tell without question that we are from the same family; however, we are all different people on the inside with distinct personalities. We were raised by the same parents, living in the same house, but we’re so different spiritually. Our parents created our bodies, but our eternal souls were created by God.

I can look at my body and soul and think that my body is like a car and my soul looks through my eyes and drives it where it needs to go. When the vehicle gets too old or I reach my destination, I will get out of my car and wait until I get another one. Maybe the better I am as a human, the nicer my car will be the next time—or maybe not. I think this way because if my soul never ages, why would I live only one life? If one’s soul has an eternal future, it has an eternal past. I am taught by my church that we have an eternal life. When compared to eternity, one’s life is a fraction of a second. I wonder why we only have one life. However, I do support my church, and they are concerned only with this life, and so am I. While I am alive now, I strive to be the best person I can be.

Life is about choices, and we are constantly discriminating between clothing to wear and what to eat. We also make plans for the day … and for life. These are pretty basic decisions, but we also make choices that will affect our lives and lifestyles: our spouses, friends, careers, and comforts of home. I have noticed that some people cannot discriminate between the degrees of importance of their choices and give them all equal thought. These people give the same amount of thought to what socks they are going to wear as they do to who their spouses will be.

You must live by your choices even though life and choices get more complicated when you add the interactions between family, friends, and associates. I have always said that good things happen to good people. The opposite is also true. I have noticed that some people have clear paths to happiness and lead good lives. Others are constantly getting beat down by life and can never get ahead, being pushed back every step of the way. I have been in both good and bad situations and have realized two things: do not hurt other people’s souls, and follow the rules of life—whether you are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, agnostic, or whatever you believe.

To me the rules are simply the Ten Commandments. All religions have either these or similar rules to follow. The Ten Commandments are the best sociological rules for keeping our souls happy and safe. They are a scorecard for our souls. They are in place to protect everyone’s soul. I have found that violating them will make you uneasy, even sick to the stomach, and emotionally unhappy. Aside from this, you might have to deal with situations that are very uncomfortable for seemingly no reason. Still, making choices that help others’ souls in any way can make you feel good and can be extremely rewarding.

Choose your friends wisely. They can have a lot to do with the decisions you make. This is especially true when you are young and still forming your character. My parents would sometimes tell me not to hang around a certain person. I didn’t understand why when I was young, but now that I am older, I fully understand, and appreciate, the choices they made for me. Some kids are victims of poor parenting. Their parents would let them do whatever they wanted, which destroyed their future character. I remember the first time I disliked someone who’d had bad parenting. I was only six years old, but this boy’s father taught him how to steal cigarettes from a cigarette machine when he was young because he could get his tiny arm up in the machine with ease and pull out the packs. His house was total chaos, with relatives living there. The parents were foulmouthed in front of the children, and it was not a good place. He struggled through life, and it did not end well for him. I felt bad for him, but there was nothing that I could do.

I have heard people say, I don’t know why things are always going badly for me or why my life is out of control. I am not here to judge people, but I think it is always a violation of the rules of life—the Ten Commandments.

I have been around many people because of the profession that I chose. I learned at a young age not to judge people on how they look. I treat all people the same—old, young, different sizes and shapes, ethnic backgrounds, and religious beliefs—it doesn’t matter to me. What matters to me is what is on the inside and how they treat me.

I give people 100 percent of my trust the moment I meet them and let them whittle away at the percentage with the way they treat me. The trust factor must be pretty high for continued friendship on my part.

I worked in manufacturing as a supervisor over as many as ninety people directly and six hundred indirectly. I had opportunities to move on to other positions that had fewer people to manage, but I chose to stay because I enjoyed the chance to make a difference in so many lives. The older I get, the more I am able to mentor people and help them make good choices without telling them exactly what to do. This is something I am proud of doing.

People often came to me, happily telling me what wonderful things were happening to them, and I would beam with joy on the inside and say, Good things happen to good people. I also talked to people when they were upset, sometimes knowing what they had done to hurt others’ souls. Some were violating one of the rules but could not understand why they were losing their homes or why some other terrible life-changing event was happening. I believe that crimes to others’ souls form your destiny in a negative way. There is nothing more painful than having someone violate your own being, causing you to lose trust in someone that you love or admire. There is an indescribable pain when your soul is violated. The opposite is also true—when someone makes you feel so good through deeds or words. You want to keep that euphoric feeling forever.

These are my most important rules of life. I choose my friends and acquaintances that follow these rules of life. I am quick to walk away from people who I cannot help or who do not want my help. I rationalize by saying, The kind of help they need I cannot give them. It’s a done deal—I walk away and do not look back, because I have my own soul to protect. Heaven and hell are both here on earth, and the choices you make decide your fate, not mine. I have my own cross to bear, not yours. Enough said on that