Comments on: I Hope to God I don’t Repeat the Past

By: Buttons

Buttons — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 20:39:00 +0000

Exactly! Money’s not important, till you have a stack of bills looking at you with an empty checkbook laying on your desk… when you have children that pressure increases a thousand-fold becasue when you’re young and single it’s no big deal to leave a bad situation, sleep in your car, go a week without food until you had an income and an apartment (at least it wasn’t for me), but a child to the mix and things look VERY different. You’ll do things you SWORE you’d never do (“I would never stay in an abusive relationship” or “I would never do this or that for a living” and so on).

Money doesn’t buy happiness, but it certainly does decrease the worries in life!

By: Meredith Laskow

Meredith Laskow — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 03:07:00 +0000

I think this was back in the good old days when women who questioned their doctor (especially their shrink) were “cured” by lobotomy.

And I could go all psych on you and say that the shrink was getting his vicarious thrills by sending women out to screw with ex-cons, the men whom he really wanted to be. The men who had (supposed) machismo and sexual prowess that he didn’t.

Or I could just say that he was a schmuck.

By: Meredith Laskow

Meredith Laskow — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 02:56:00 +0000

Five days ago, I read the original post and couldn’t even think of an adequate response. Much of it was beyond my personal experience/comprehension. The writing was brilliant and raw. I felt your father’s pain, I felt your pain. I felt your need to reverse the light to a time before the pain took place, to fix what couldn’t be fixed and heal what you’re still trying to transcend.

If the world is destroyed, can we start anew? Will it be any different? Will the pain be gone? You speak of annihilation — but I hear the longing for transcendence. When you no longer have to fight so hard to keep the radiation from leaking out of — and back into — your wounds.

Your pain bled through the words and touched my heart. Just wanted you to know.

By: Jake

Jake — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 20:54:00 +0000

James, I’m really jealous of your life’s experiences. I’m trying to write a novel and always wish I had more material to work with that I could draw on with some degree of authority from first hand experiences, rather than my uncooperative imagination. Of course, I’ve had some painful / traumatizing / god-awful experiences in my life like everyone else. The funny thing is, now I wish I had more of them when I was younger, that I had taken more chances and pursued more opportunities to experience something different (I once had a chance, while in college and short of money, to work as a gigolo in a foreign country. I chickened out, but now I think I’d be willing to pay to work as a gigolo just for the stories that could result from such an experience).

By: MikeSchinkel

MikeSchinkel — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 23:10:00 +0000

I see why you rewrote the first part.

By: Nick Altman

Nick Altman — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 22:46:00 +0000

Thank you so much for this post. I thought this it was extremely real and raw. It’s rare to find a successful person willing to speak so openly about their flaws and failures that make them human. The honesty that you put into your blog is amazing and shows how people can overcome the lows in life if they focus. This post was dark compared to many of your others, but it was also real. I appreciate the level of humanity you put into each post. I always look forward to reading your posts.

By: zzen321

zzen321 — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 20:22:00 +0000

Inspired piece of writing, especially this part:
“And just then my dad had everything in the world to be embarrassed about. I’m sure he looked out the window, the light coming in. Can’t the light reverse direction? Carry you out, back into the sun. Save you from this wretched planet.”

By: SpecosaurusRex

SpecosaurusRex — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 04:20:00 +0000

My favorite part of your piece, so evocative, and something we’ve all probably felt but never worded quite this way:
“Can’t the light reverse direction? Carry you out, back into the sun. Save you from this wretched planet. The Bronx, with cheating wives, a dirty post office, a mafia ice cream route, decades of ghetto jews, decades to come of burnt out ghetto everything else. Back to Ra, who the ancient Egyptians said was father of us all?”

By: Ember Martin

Ember Martin — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 20:36:00 +0000

By far the best post I’ve read from you, James. Very powerful.

By: Daniel Mihai Popescu

Daniel Mihai Popescu — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 15:11:00 +0000

I became addicted to your posts, :). It was nice you had friends to wish you good luck, when you hit the window with the tennis ball. I remember, I would take the blame even when others hit any window. Doesn’t matter now…