The P ublisher Po stulates
As Jack Benny replied when armed robbers demanded, “Your money or your life,”
34 TAMPA BAY MAGAZINE | MAY/JUNE 2017
Publisher / Editor
Thoughts
By Aaron R. Fodiman
Many things in life are
overrated, and I have
done many of them. Home
cooking, exercise and hip
hop music are some that come immediately
to my mind. There are others that are more
esoteric, but the one I’m thinking about
today is “thought.” I’ve spent much of
my life thinking about things. Fortunately,
many of those thoughts turned out to be
nothing but thoughts that were never put
into action. Often, it was because I deemed
nothing needed to be done, while other
times I rethought the situation and decided
my first thought should be abandoned.
I grew up believing that by using my
mind, I could make wise decisions and
discover the correct paths to follow.
I was under the impression that reason,
knowledge and experience could be
combined to create a roadmap for life that
I could follow without fear of dead ends,
detours or roadblocks. As it turned out,
when I look back, I realize that despite my
efforts to logically and reasonably plot a
life course, I have often stumbled from one
happy venture to the next one in spite of
my careful planning to proceed in different
directions.
I consistently tried to think things
through, consider the pros and cons and
then make calculated judgments based
upon those thoughts. Despite how careful
I was, I made mistake after mistake and yet
always ended up where I was happy, even
if it was not where I had intended to go.
Some people believe you can’t think things
through enough. However, very often, that
is just a way to avoid making decisions.
Obviously, some things must be thought
over before you act, but it is possible to
mull over your uncertainties for so long
that nothing ever gets done. Finding the
right balance between thoughts and actions
is difficult, but I have found that the more
you do and the less you think about it, the
greater the results that you will achieve.
After all is said and done, you usually will
find that more is said than done. With me,
many of my accomplishments were due
more to perspiration than to inspiration.
The ability to think is our greatest strength,
but it can also become a weakness if we
let it overwhelm our ability to make a
decision.
It seems that life is not a puzzle to
be solved but rather an adventure to be
enjoyed and cherished no matter how it
evolves. If thinking would make it so, we
would all have our dreams fulfilled. But
since life doesn’t work that way, I have
decided to be thankful for whatever
occurs to me, even if it is not always
something to my liking, as oftentimes
those disappointments ultimately end up
leading to something wonderful.
Don’t think about this too much, but on
the other hand, now that you have read
my words, I’m sure you’ll find some of
them to be true for yourself. 9
“Don’t rush me, I’m thinking.”
WIN WOLLOFF