I don’t watch much TV. Hardly any at all. I fell out of the habit after I noticed that every show I liked got cancelled right as it started to get good.
To quote the great orator George W. Bush: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me… you can’t get fooled again.
A few years back my dad was talking up this show called Justified. It had a few seasons behind it and wrapped up on tight ending, so no problems with that angle. I never did get around to watching it.
That might have to change soon. Elmore Leonard, a stupendous writer of crime and Western novels, has long been one of my favorite authors. This past month I started in on his Raylan Givens series. Raylan being the US Marshal at the center of Justified.
Dang. I cut right through the first two books and I’m almost done with the third, they’re that good.
Leonard’s claim to fame is that he writes authentic people who talk like actual humans. Kentucky mine country is far enough from my own Deep South roots to feel a little different, but I recognize the types all too well. He captures the Appalachian good-ol’-boy right down to his dirty overalls.
Raylan Givens comes off as a well-meaning, almost goofy, scatter-brained sort of guy. Only thing is, he’s a dead-shot with a pistol and he has zero hesitation when it’s time to use it.
Anybody what can go from room-temperature to gunfire, and back, in an eye-blink is a dangerous customer indeed.
Being able to “turn it on”, and then switch it back off, is a powerful skill for most any part of life.
“It” being your mental state, your emotional condition, your attention and intention.
This is one of the key ideas I wrote about in Squat Every Day, which I use for myself in most every part of my daily life.
I’m doing a lot of chewing on this right now as far as how to use it and not abuse it.
If you’d like to be the beneficiary of such, putting them to use in your own life, you might want to be on my email list. That’s the only place I’ll make opportunities available.
Matt Perryman