Outskirts Press, INC.

Bashful Torture A Trilogy of Lives

The Meaning of Life’ plays a significant role throughout the author’s biography. So what then is the ‘Meaning of Life’ and where does one find it? Have you ever considered the ‘dash’ between the dates on one’s tombstone? The date to the left is the date of birth while the date to the right represents his/her death. The ‘dash’ represents all the time in between (I heard this part on a radio commercial for a funeral home). This ‘dash’ then is ‘the meaning of life’ and whatever occurs during this ‘dash’ determines a person’s accomplishments and how he/she will be remembered. Let’s play an imaginary hand of cards (this is my part). We are all dealt a hand at birth and what we do with this hand becomes our ‘dash’. There are three primary factors that determine the ‘dash’ – Skill (this is the result of what we experience and learn throughout the course of our life), INTUITION (we are born with this—some with more than others) and we utilize this in making many of our daily decisions, and finally LUCK (just plain luck). When we learn from our daily experiences and combine that learning with a little intuition, we will make better decisions. And luck always plays a role (the best decisions contain a lot of luck). But luck alone will not get you there. For the entire time we ran our business, there was a sign on my office wall with the caption, ‘The Harder You Work, The Luckier You Get’. This book is a candid, tell-all autobiography about an extremely shy young man growing up in an extremely poor area of rural South Georgia and his maturation into a multi-millionaire. The book encompasses his fight to overcome many obstacles, primarily personality related through his travels in the United States Navy, going off to college and finally finding the love of his life who he credits with his most drastic personality changes. The author recalls many entertaining experiences, some of which he might never have made public previously. The idea to write this story arose after the author signed into the ancestry.com web site and discovered that he knew too little about his family to build much of a family tree. He then decided to initiate a campaign to insure that his descendants don’t share that same fate. This book or compilation of facts will highlight his own life to include identities of his parents, grandparents, children and grandchildren along with some of his major achievements. Hopefully this document will become a staple to be passed down to future generations and perhaps someone down the years will take the initiative to update periodically. One never knows what he or she might discover when traveling backward through time. This author is no exception. Although it is true that he was not fully aware of the extent of his economic status while growing up, it becomes evident to him that he possessed subconscious desires to escape. His story reveals these findings and the actions he took to upgrade his position in life. He separates his story into three sections (or lives) and warns the middle, or second life, seems to depict an alcoholic but he also explains the triggers and how he fought to overcome.