The Odyssey Newsletter
A FREE periodic newsletter dedicated to improving your
odyssey through life.
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For more info: http://www.melawend.com
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ISSUE: #1 November 23, 2004
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For fast-acting
relief, try slowing down.
Lily Tomlin, Entertainer
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IN THIS ISSUE:
- Your newsletter - reborn!
- Your newsletter writer - reborn!
(gratefully!)
- Bettering yourself - a princely opinion
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Your newsletter - reborn!
Hello again!
Tom Smith, here, the guy who rode motorscooter Melawend around the world - your writer
of this newsletter.
Have you ever had that desire to dust off something that you started long ago but never
really got it going? That's what I'm up to. Or have you received something you enjoyed
only to have it disappear? If you enjoyed reading the original The Odyssey Newsletter...
well, your newsletter is back! And it's going to be better than before!
Ready for another go?
I regret that the original effort fell prey to other priorities and defects in my own
time management. I also recently - and unexpectedly - hit a major crossroads in my life...
more in a moment. But I now promise you to use my best efforts to get out a more
meaningful newsletter to you more regularly, bi-monthly to start.
What The Odyssey Newsletter will cover:
It will mirror the efforts of the Odyssey website: IN THE LONG RUN: A Hopeful
World Odyssey http://www.melawend.com -
that is, it will provide you with RESOURCES and ideas that will help enable you to get
more out of your life, particularly in these areas:
* HEADLINE NEWS - current
feeds on news that impacts our lives
* TRAVEL - tips,
articles, online resources, products and services
* COMMUNICATIONS - improve
yours through WRITING and PHOTOGRAPHY
* SELF-IMPROVEMENT - career,
finances, home life, spiritual...
* HEALTH - resources
from health experts
* HUMOR - the
lighter side of life, and one of nature's greatest healers!
* THE GOOD LIFE - unlimited
ways to improve your lifestyle
* RELATIONSHIPS - improving
old ones and finding new ones
In each issue of The Odyssey Newsletter, you will
find leads to useful resources in some or all of those areas. This is your
newsletter, so please do send in your comments, questions, and suggestions to me at newsletter@melawend.com
This issue is to reconnect with you. I plan to get the first topic-specific issue out
to you during the first week of January 2005.
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Your newsletter writer -
reborn! (gratefully!)
And I'm damned grateful to be here!
Remember how my world journey came about from being at a crossroads in life? Well, on
November 12 yours truly unexpectedly hit another major crossroads in life - I confronted a
heart attack: ...collapsing in pain... the call to 911... the ambulance rush to the
hospital... emergency surgery... being hooked up like Neo to The Matrix of monitors,
intravenous, etc... recovery... coming home again... It was quite a trip! A mini-odyssey
with profound long-term implications - I'm just getting into them. And as you can imagine,
I'm soooooo grateful to be home! And to be alive!
Have you ever really taken notice of those newspaper articles of people who have just
DIED of a heart attack?... like two recent one's in our paper:
Gregory Mitchell, 52, an actor who died a week after he was struck by a heart attack while
playing a winged angel in a drama with Mikhail Baryshnikov... and
David Grierson, 49, a popular local radio morning man who died of a heart attack in his
sleep.
Pardon the pun, but after a heart attack, you really begin to take such articles to
heart. I think those people would like you to that too. I feel so damned lucky!
Almost dying does make you think about life, a lot.
Have you had a near-death experience you'd like to share?
I don't feel that I "suffered" a heart attack, but was truly blessed
by one. I've still got some major challenges to confront in the coming months, including
possible quadruple by-pass surgery. I feel blessed because I've been given another chance
at life. I am more optimistic and passionate about life than ever! And that's just
beginning!
And that's what I will pass on to you - that energy, that passion, and ways for you to
get more out of your life. I'm not going to bore you with updates on my condition
(except when they might be of benefit to you) but I will pass on to you those resources
and other discoveries I make along the way that might be of value to you in your life.
To kick things off (not by "kicking the bucket"!), maybe write down and study
a few lists:
- What is good about my life right now?
- What is bad about my life right now?
- What can I change?
- What do I want to be doing in one year? Five years? Ten years? And so on...
True, it's a simple exercise - a suggestion you've probably heard before - but it does
work. The simple act of writing them down that will give them more clarity for you - and
open up new possibilities the more you think about them. You might surprise yourself! Give
it a try.
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Bettering Yourself - a
princely opinion
On the topic of moving up in your career, have you read
about the latest scandal involving Prince Charles?
Elaine Day, a 45-five-year-old former personal assistant to the prince's former private
secretary, had asked if there was a recognized career path for experienced secretaries.
She suggested that personal assistants with university degrees should be given the
opportunity to train to become private secretaries - a more senior position within the
royal household. But she had excluded herself from the proposal.
Prince Charles hand-wrote a note to a senior member of his staff about her request, in
which he claimed that the modern education system went against natural selection and
wrongly encouraged people to think they could "rise above their station."
Ms Day brought the note to the attention of an employment tribunal where she claimed
she was dismissed on the grounds of sex discrimination.
In the note, Prince Charles states, "What's wrong with everyone nowadays? Why do
they all seem to think they are qualified to do things far beyond their actual
capabilities?
"This is all to do with the learning culture in schools - the child-centered
learning emphasis which admits of no failure and tells people that they can all be pop
stars or high court judges, or brilliant TV presenters - without ever putting in the
necessary work or effort, or having the natural abilities."
"This is the result of social utopianism which believes humanity can be
genetically and socially engineered to contradict the lessons of history."
"What on earth am I to say to Elaine in reply? She is so PC it frightens me
rigid."
Even conservative British newspapers and two cabinet ministers criticized the Prince
for his remarks.
Prince Charles subsequently responded to the criticism saying, "Ambition is a good
thing and should never be constrained by a person's starting point in life."
"People must be encouraged to fulfil their aspirations in ways that recognize
their different abilities and talents."
But why issue such a tirade to begin with? It seemed all Ms Day was asking was if there
was training available to advance one's career in the royal household, not how to become a
royal.
No doubt there is royal protocol involved here, but to me his memo smacks of
"know-your-place" and "don't-rock-the-boat" snobbery and prejudice.
And it comes from someone who achieved his rather high "station in life" by
virtue of heredity (perhaps what might be assumed as "natural selection") rather
than "natural abilities".
THE POINT: Can you imagine what the world would be like if people, especially
children, were not at least encouraged to find what they love to do and then do their best
to achieve it? Has anyone ever tried to discourage you from following your dreams and
ambitions? I'd rather be the one to try for my own goals and not achieve them rather than
have someone try to impose on me their belief as to whether or not I might be
successful, or perhaps even try to restrict my access to the attempt.
What do you think?
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If I don't hear from you sooner, have a GREAT and MERRY CHRISTMAS... and a TRULY HAPPY
& HEALTHY NEW YEAR 2005!!!
Take good care of YOU!
All best to you in your continuing odyssey through life!
Tom
Tom & Melawend "marooned" in Hawaii
after nearly two years on the road
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The Odyssey Newsletter
- a FREE periodic newsletter
that is dedicated to your odyssey through life.
Published by Thomas Martin Smith & Odyssey Communications
Author & publisher of the acclaimed travel & self-discovery book,
IN THE LONG RUN: A Hopeful
World Odyssey
http://www.melawend.com
© 2004 Odyssey Communications and Thomas Martin Smith
All text and photographs, and associated HTML code are protected by Canadian
and International Copyright Laws, and may not be copied, reprinted, published,
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