Whacking the Piñata
In November, 2002 I wrote a book at the urging of friends who are authors and media executives about my life changes following an alarming diagnosis of potentially fatal prostate cancer in December, 2001. I subsequently had prostate surgery in April 2002. While not cured, I now will try to manage the cancer as a chronic disease the remainder of my life via, well, a lot of work.
This is an updated version of the first book (titled
Niches of Clarity at Gunflint. And, by the way, that's a dog atop my head on the cover; not an aura. Read on to discover why.) The new title reflects the conscious journey I've pursued since writing the first book to examine how I came to be so cavalier, lazy and foolish about my own physical and mental health. This evolving blog "manuscript" reports on that journey.
What I’ve discovered – shockingly to me – is that I’m far from unique in believing prior to my diagnosis that I was a savvy “modern man”. Once I started whacking at my piñata mind while writing the first book, and since, I’ve become more attuned to what I hear and sense about how other men I meet are living their lives. Many are on a path to disaster and don’t know it, and won’t acknowledge it when challenged.
Has my examination of the attitudes and behaviors fueling my life – and my peering into the piñata minds of other men – led me to become an evangelist for any of the men’s movements, for devout Christian beliefs or for New-Ageism? No. Absolutely not. I’m all for those whose individual quests lead them down these paths, but picking one and become a nutcase about it being the one-and-only way is not for me. Why? For the simple reason that most of these paths have organizations behind them, and I don’t like trying to wedge myself into structured places. I like to dabble, and I like to think that my dabbling has yeilded a lot of benefit for me that perhaps can get other guys to perhaps dabble.
"The human mind is kind of like a piñata. When it breaks open, there's lots of surprises inside. Once you get the piñata perspective, you see that losing your mind can be a peak experience."Trudy, The Bag Lady, a Lily Tomlin character in
The Search for Intelligent Life in the Universe.