stories – Creative Content

Rejection is Just Redirection

Have you ever experienced an online troll? What about a “hater” or even a “group of haters”?

(By the way, this is a great song about the whole “haters gon’ hate” vibe. To go off on a short tangent, I really love this song.)

What about someone in your environment who, no matter how hard you try, you just can’t get them to treat you right? Or maybe just someone or something that leaves you drained?

Here’s some simple tips:

Take time out for you and practice self-care/self-love.
Be wise to the negative behaviors of others but hold yourself to a higher standard and do not stoop to that level.

“I am sending you out as sheep among wolves, so be as wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” Matthew 10:16.

“Do not cast your pearls before swine.” Matthew 7:6. This is not to say that other people are necessarily bad. Perhaps they are not at a point in their lives that they are willing and able to receive you with love and respect. If this is so, do not waste your energy and time trying to prove your worth to them. Life is short and precious, it should not be wasted continually trying to be perfect for someone else’s expectations of you. Make your own expectations. Meet your own goals. Dress the way you want. Think the way you want. You are not unworthy. You are enough. They just fail to see the treasure that you are, even if you may appear to be a diamond in the rough. Remember, in this life, we do not know who God treasures either. Some people would be the least you would expect. Treat people fairly and stand up for yourself when you feel in your heart that you are not being treated fairly by others.

Let go of bitterness and get your spirit back. Bounce back from hardship like you’re Walter Payton. This is extremely hard. First, learn to take the L. Second, learn to forgive. Third, vow to not let the pattern repeat itself. Respect yourself enough not to allow it to happen again. Fourth, understand that what others meant for your harm, God may have intended for your good. This is called providence. It was providence that made Joseph a powerful influence in Egypt to prevent the famines despite all he went through. Providence worked in his life and it works in your life too. It’s just hard to see when you’re in the trenches. You just got to believe. Sometimes, though, we pray and pray and pray on something and it still doesn’t happen. That’s another life lesson right there. The failure, the rejection, the divorce, the bad grades, the whatever is going on in your life…..it is teaching you to first lean not on your own understanding of things but on a spirituality, and second, it is teaching you to love yourself. The full and total rejection moment will teach you to find value in you, to regain your self-esteem, self-confidence, self-worth. Remember as Rocky says in this short motivational speech, “The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard you’re hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.”

Keep moving forward towards your goals. If you have to, start very small. Work on your hygiene first. Work on the way you dress. Work on your hair, make-up, style, etc. Go back to the gym or church or wherever you find positive vibes and happiness from meeting goals. Don’t let others tell you not to do these things. Do them because you need to do them to improve your self-esteem. Raise that bar first and then move out from there to your surroundings and your interactions with others. Begin, at the same time, to strip away that which does not serve you. Are there behaviors or traits you have taken on that are not good? Substance abuse problems? Addictions? Unhealthy habits? What about people you interact with that wear you down? Begin to set boundaries not just with certain people but with things you do throughout the day. Ask yourself, do I really want to do this thing or is this something I am doing because so-and-so wants me to do it? Once again, this comes back to self-love and self-respect. It is not selfish to say no. It is awareness that you need to raise the bar on your self-esteem/self-worth. Likewise, choosing to not date certain people or hang out with certain folks that bring you down…..that is not arrogance but self-awareness that you need to protect your energy. Your energy is vital to your overall health and success. So start small. Take the baby steps which can turn in to bigger steps down the road.

These are the things I am telling myself now. I too have faced a personal setback and I am re-learning this now. It is a thing I have to continually re-learn painfully. You would think I would get it the first time but no, I keep having to re-hash it over and over as I believe a lot of people do. One thing that really helps me is YouTube. Here’s some video advice from folks way, way, way smarter than me about how to do it. The first three videos are about self-love. The fourth is Maya Angelou reciting, And Still I Rise. The two other videos are inspirational pastor sermons. These are my two favorite sermons of all time that I must admit, I have to go back to again and again when “my chips are low” and I feel myself entering that defeated mindset mode. I highly, highly recommend watching these sermons! However, they are each long but packed with valuable info. I hope that you like these videos too (please share with me as well, any videos you think would help me) and remember that whatever I am going through and whatever you are going through, we are in this together and you are enough, you are valuable, you are worthy. Think like Walter Payton and bounce yourself back up. Let’s get to it!

Castle Frankenstein

In 2002, I was working with the Department of Defense Finance & Accounting Service. About once a month, I would travel from Grafenwoehr, Germany to DFAS headquarters at Kaiserslautern to hand-deliver financial records for the US Army Transportation Management Center for Europe.

On one trip, I finished early and took the autobahn back home. I saw a sign around the Mannheim and Darmstadt area for Burg Frankenstein. This immediately piqued my interest. I had time to spare so I took a short excursion to the castle said to inspire Mary Shelley to write her gothic novel, The Modern Prometheus, in 1818. Today, we know this story through Halloween and classic hit movies as the story of a monster come to life by a mad scientist through the channeling of a lightning bolt.

But did you know that there really was a mad scientist?

Castle Frankenstein is all mostly in ruins now. In 2002, it was still quite large and stunning, however. I remember the stones being almost red. I remember walking through the ruins alone and up the stone steps to the towers. The place is supposed to be haunted.

The castle was built around 1250. It was sold in 1662 and used as a hospital for a while before falling into ruins. By the time Mary Shelley may have seen it in 1814 when she visited the Rhine region and a small town called Gernsheim, 10 miles away, the castle would have been in pretty bad shape. No one knows for sure if Mary Shelley went there but it is believed her stepmother, who was a translator for Brothers Grimm stories, had first heard the story of the mad scientist and passed the story on to Shelley.

Who is this mad scientist?

His name was Johann Konrad Dippel. He lived at the castle or near the castle sometime around 1673. He invented what he called an “elixer of life” that was said to cure many diseases. Johann was a professional alchemist, a medieval term for a chemist. According to rumor, Johann also did anatomy and some even speculated that he exhumed bodies for his research.

There are other fascinating and mysterious stories associated with the grounds around the castle. Supposedly, there is a fountain of youth nearby that turns old women into young girls on Walpurgis Nacht. There is also a story of a knight fighting a deadly dragon.

The most interesting story I found is located on Mt. Ibes. This is the location of a collection of magnetic stones. Compasses do not work on Mt. Ibes. It is a place supposedly where ancient rites, rituals, traditions take place according to the old ways of the Franks, the previous Germanic tribes that lived in this area. Frankenstein literally means “stone of the Franks” which could be related to this magnetic stone circle phenomenon. Mt. Ibes is supposed to be a sacred and respected place.

Sadly, I did not take pictures of the trip. This was 2002 prior to the arrival of the smartphone. and it was just a side excursion from the autobahn. It was one of those “spur of the moment” decisions that I will never regret. Some day it would be great to see the Castle Dracula too.

There is another place close nearby there along the border with France. The paranormal story from this place was called The Bleeding Nun and it is featured in another gothic classic written by Matthew Gregory Lewis called The Monk. The bleeding nun is an apparition that appears at Castle Lindenberg and warns you of giving in to lustful desires as it must have led to her demise. The Monk was published in 1796.

The only other story I really love from the Rhineland region is probably The Lorelei. She is a beautiful apparition that sits on the rocks just above a dangerous turn of the Rhine River. She was jilted by a faithless lover and committed suicide by casting herself into the waters of the Rhine at that spot and drowned. Now, she seeks revenge on sailors or other male travelers on the Rhine river. She sings a wondrous tune just like a siren. She is said to be exquisitely beautiful and also…..deadly. Men who see her, generally swim towards her….only to drown in the treacherous rapids below her. She became the inspiration for a portion of the small adventure book I wrote, Searching for Fire.

Here is a nice link to a BBC article with pictures of Castle Frankenstein. Thanks for reading this and have a gute nacht, freunde.

http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20161018-germanys-most-monstrous-castle

E Pluribus Unum

This was the official motto of the original 13 colonies during the American Revolution. It was proposed in 1776 by three men to become the Great Seal motto. These men were Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson. Later on, this saying would be replaced in the 1950s by the words, “In God we trust.” I’m not sure where the Latin phrase for “E Pluribus Unum” originated. It really reminds me of the phrase of the French Four Musketeers. That phrase was “All for one, one for all.”

E pluribus unum simply means “out of many, there is one.” It means we stand together as a union, in good times and bad, in sickness and in health, through tragedy and through celebration. We recognize our unique qualities and diversity yet also lean on our human bond as together we pursue life, liberty, and happiness. This is not a revolutionary idea. It is a motto for all friendships and relationships and it’s loyalty is the fundamental cornerstone of our foundations in life and as a nation.

We need to bring back this motto.

Celebrate Aesop’s Birthday on June 4th

According to legend, Aesop who created the famous Aesop’s Fables was born a slave in the 6th century BC. His birthplace is unknown for certain. He had two masters before he was granted freedom. His masters’ names were Xanthus and Iadmon. Aesop was extremely bright and it is said that is the reason he was involved in public affairs in later life. He also traveled a great deal. King Croesus of Lydia granted Aesop residency at his court.

The death of Aesop in 564 BC is quite a tale. He was on a mission to deliver gold to the people of Delphi in Greece. However, a trap was laid for Aesop at Delphi when a golden bowl from the Temple of Apollo was found smuggled into his bags. He pled innocence but he was found guilty and hurled off a cliff.

Aesop’s stories have influenced much of Western culture and civilization. One of his best known stories is The Boy Who Cried Wolf. He also wrote The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing as well as The Lion and the Mouse. Probably his best known story is The Hare and the Tortoise, a fantastic story about a light speed bunny racing a “slow and steady” turtle that eventually wins the race.

I like this lesser known one I found in my children’s own book of Aesop’s Fables:

The Crow and the Pitcher

A thirsty crow found a pitcher with a couple of inches of water in the bottom, but no matter how hard she tried, she could not reach it with her beak. It seemed as though she would die of thirst. At last she hit upon a plan. She began dropping pebbles into the pitcher. As each pebble was added, the water rose a little higher until it finally reached the brim of the pitcher. And so the clever bird was finally able to quench her thirst.

Moral of the story: Necessity is the mother of invention.

Labor Related News: Henry Ford, Scientific Management, & the Haymarket Affair

Henry Ford passed away in April, 1947. He is credited with using management theories and observation to create more efficient production methods and thereby develop a cheaper automobile, “one available for the masses.” The Ford Motor Company was established by Henry Ford and Alexander Malcomson in 1903. Ford hired management consultant, Frederick Winslow Taylor, to help create the assembly line.

Taylor was a business theorist, a mechanical engineer, and a major influencer of the Progressive Era. Ford used Taylor’s observations to do the following improvements:

1. Keep large parts stationary and bring small parts to them.

2. Make laborers stationary and move the body of the car through workstations.

3. Recalibrate tooling methods.

By 1914, Ford had used these improvements to bring the Model T production time down from approximately 12 hours to just 93 minutes and he successfully captured 50% of the auto market (according to The Saylor Foundation at http://www.saylor.org).

In other labor news, International Workers Day is coming up. It is the first day of May. International Workers Day commemorates the Haymarket Affair in Chicago on May 4, 1886.

This was a protest for worker rights and the establishment of the 8 hour limit on the work day. A bomb was thrown at the event resulting in the deaths of 7 police officers and 4 civilians with many more wounded.

It would be 52 more years before the passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 which established minimum wage, overtime pay, and youth employment requirements. This affected both full and part-time workers in the public as well as private sector.

To read more about U.S. labor laws and their protections, go to the Department of Labor site:

http://www.dol.gov

Books

I self-published 3 books to Amazon Kindle recently. The last book is my favorite and is a collection of children’s stories based on the true childhood adventures of my own kids. This book is called Summertime Adventures and is a short read, about 60 pages long on the Kindle. The writing reminds me of cartoons like Caillou or maybe Max and Ruby.

There are three children in the book called Jake, Lucy, and Danny. The children go on numerous adventures outside in nature, fishing with Grandpa, visiting an old Apple Cider Mill, picking raspberries in the sun, flying kites, and tubing at the lake. These adventures are definitely family-friendly and would make good bedtime stories. Check it out here. The eBook is $2.99 or you can view it via Kindle Unlimited.

Here also are the other 3 books available from J. Speer. Moment of Magic is a poetry collection and is $2.99 for Kindle eBook. Age level for this book, I would say is adult.

The Curse of the Sapphire Jewel & Other Short Stories is also $2.99 as an eBook on Amazon. This book is age level adult as well. There are 5 short stories in the book, each very unique in their storytelling.

The last book is published via Archway and is the most popular one. It is a North American action adventure quest and mythology story. It is very fast-paced and can be intense at moments with scary villains the heroes combat. This one has a 4.6 star rating on Amazon and some great reviews. I would recommend this one for 15 years old or adult age level. This one got a very positive review from Diane Donovan of Midwest Book Review in their December 2019 issue. It is available as paperback or eBook and sold on numerous sites online: Amazon, Archway, Barnes and Noble, Google Books, Waterstones, Foyles, Wal-mart, Ebay, etc. etc.

Here, below are the links to the collection of books and each one features a book preview section on Amazon you can read. Thanks for your interest and have a great day!

A Connecticut Yankee

Mark Twain, otherwise known as Samuel Clemens, is to this day considered to be an inspirational American writer. His life was full of ups and downs. He was born prematurely on November 30th in 1835 in Missouri. He was ill most of his childhood. He was the sixth child of John and Jane Clemens. When his father passed away, Mark left school to help his family. He worked as a printer’s apprentice.

He moved East for a while but returned to the Midwest to become a river boat pilot. His memoir, Life on the Mississippi, is influenced by this time in his life. But, then the Civil War started and Mark joined the Confederate Army in 1861. He did not stay in the Army long and headed West to Nevada and California to strike it rich. He ended up penniless instead.

This is when Mark Twain seriously began to write to support himself financially. His big break came when he published a short story called Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog. He later became a reporter and traveled to Hawaii. His writings became so popular that he did a lecture tour and became a successful stage performer. He did a steamship tour. He also traveled around Europe and the Holy Land. His first official book became The Innocents Abroad.

While on the steamboat tour he met and fell in love with Olivia Langdon. They courted for two years and married in 1870. They had three daughters and one son that passed away at the age of two from diphtheria. Mark’s daughter Suzy also became a writer and wrote Roughing It.

After the steamboat tour, his family began renting a house at Nook Farm. They lived near Hartford, Connecticut. There were many writers and publishers living in this area. Mark Twain wrote the majority of his most popular works during the 17 years in Connecticut. He published The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in 1876. His memoir, Life on the Mississippi, was published in 1883. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court was published in 1889.

Unfortunately, Mark Twain made several poor choices financially and ended up bankrupt again. He moved his family to Europe in 1891 with hopes of paying off his debts. He traveled extensively and wrote about social injustice in his book Following the Equator.

Mark returned to the United States and, by this point, was quite vocal against what he saw as American imperialism focused on greed and selfishness. His writings grew darker. He became Vice President of the Anti-Imperialist League. He traveled giving public speeches which were described as harsh and condescending. Often times, he was cruel in his depiction of Western society. He was known for making a scathing and sarcastic public introduction of Winston Churchill at one point. He was called a traitor by some and he began having a harder time getting his works published. It is said that many of his later works went unpublished due to being blackballed by the magazine industry. He died on April 21st in 1910 at the age of 74 years old. Many of his works today like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, published in 1884, are considered truly great American classics.