An
email to a dear friend, Cheryl, who asked me about what Cheryl called my 'my
super human resilience'....
Cheryl:
You, as
usual, are too kind to me, but I love it. I have always felt that a failure can
lead to a success. So I never think that I will ever really fail because at the
end of the day the failure will produce a notion that will be a winner. I don't
believe that you learn very much thinking in terms of failure. The real lessons
in life come from success and there is indeed a sunny side to every street I've
ever walked. Repeating a successful action and not waste my time worrying about
avoiding an unsuccessful one is what it is all about.
So
I'm on my Honeymoon in early 1947 with my first ex-wife, Bonnie, the ultimate
Jewish American Princess.We are in Miami Beach staying at the Floridian Hotel
when I learn that a favorite comedian of mine, Joe E Lewis, is performing at a
night club with gambling,outside of Miami. I also learn that the club will
supply you with a car and driver, dinner and the Joe E Lewis show at no cost. So
that night the Princess and I go to the club, have a great dinner, watch a
fabulous show and go into the gambling room to gamble.
I
loved shooting craps (A hangover from the Army). I tell the Princess that I am
going to give $40, 1946 dollars, a whirl. I am hotter than a two bit hooker on a
Saturday night, at the craps table and promptly have $1,000 in chips stacked
against the inside of the table and decide that I'd better cash in and leave, to
which the Princess agrees but she needed to go to the ladies room before we
left.
While
she was in the ladies, they started another table.Whereupon I gave it all
back, plus the original $40.We leave and get into the car and Bonnie asks how
much I made shooting craps. I told the Princes that I didn't make any
money, lost the forty smacks. Whereupon the Princess goes off the fucking wall
calling me everything but a milk cow but mostly a damn fool. By the time the
the Princess finally quits shouting at me, I was really pissed off. I shout
back,"What the hell is wrong with you? We had a great dinner, watched an
equally great show, had fun shooting craps, had free chauffeured car rides
and all for Forty Fucking Dollars, calm down God Damn it". The
Princess could never see the efficacy of that logic. I thought that we had made
a great $40 trade.She thought we lost a Thousand Dollars. Too bad for her.
All
my life I have been blessed with an attitude that failure, while distasteful, has
a sunny side to it. For me there is no failure because I'm going to squeeze
some good out of those failure tits.
Let
me also tell you how my kids resurrected my life with their fear of having to
take care of me in my old age. They suggested, strongly via email, that I check
into a veterans home for the indigent. At first I was really pissed and so it
took a few weeks, for me, to come down off the ceiling.
Dan, my
oldest son, a few years earlier, had pushed me into blogging. Simon Murray
mostly, with Ron Herman and John Carlson helping, had been ragging on me to write
a book.Simon has been terrific as have Ron, John, You and Greg. So today, I am
grateful to Dan for his shoving me to blog as the blogs have been the basis of
my book of vignettes. Additionally, I am grateful to Dan, Kurt, and Matt for
pushing me into re-inventing myself, for the 11th fucking time, at 89 years of
age. Rather than me throwing in the towel, I'm loving my successful, stress
laden, current life. My second ex-wife says that I'm stress addicted. Suits me, I
am what I am.
You, Cheryl,
really opened my grateful thinking faucet. This current episode of my life has
been an over the top, wonderful experience. I have found that I have many
friends who like me as I am. No small trick considering that I am an
iconoclastic, old, son of a bitch.
Einstein
so famously said that if you do the same thing over and over again, each time
looking for a different result, you are insane. I try to avoid that trap of
failure. As I am fond of saying, quoting my wonderful, very smart immigrant
Pop. 'In America the money is up to your knees.You just have to know how to bend
down and pick it up... And It doesn't make any difference how many times
you get knocked down. It's how many times you get back up that counts'.
Keep
fit,stay well
Think
The Impossible..Keep Charging Ahead
Bernie
Regards
to Greg and Melissa
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