Dear Ask Boz

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What’s inside an empty box? 

Ford McGillicuddy 

Dear Ford,

Scientists, philosophers and other idiots would say that a box can’t be empty and have things inside of it. Fools! Unlike such Moron-Americans, I’m making money promoting emptiness. I am presently signing an endorsement deal with The Box Maker to promote their Empty Box Storage System. 

The EBSS is made to endure the structural stresses that come with containing nothing. Empty Box can hold everynothing, because it is designed for the rigors of holding things that have no true substance, from empty promises, to true freedom, through third parties, and beyond. 

But that’s not all!! Here are some other things you can store in Empty Box: 

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National Kindness Week

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We are celebrating National Kindness Week at our school. Today’s theme is “Tied Together by Kindness”. Students and staff are asked to wear a tie to show how we are all connected.

Realizing that many people wouldn’t have ties, I cleaned out my closet last night and brought in a bag full.

The bag is now empty, and the halls are full of people with my ties on.

What is hilarious about this is how this links to my past. In high school, I was labeled a nerd. In the 1980’s being a nerd was like having a target on your back.

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Cleaning up in the Forest

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I have often entered the woods carrying my burdens like a heavy backpack. The first part of my hike is spent thinking, pondering, stressing. Replaying problems or anticipating future roadblocks. Sometimes my thoughts are in a tangle, others they are firmly focused on the issue I am dealing with. 

Yet, as I step along, Anna trotting ahead of me, my worries begin to dissipate. Sometimes I have arrived at the solution, but many times my concerns are tread into the path, taken in by the trees. Like they turn carbon into oxygen, the leaves filter my thoughts until I am left with peace. 

I have brought some pretty serious problems with me into the forest, but I can’t remember one time that I left without feeling some relief, some belief that I will figure it out and things will be OK. At times, I am even given an epiphany.

The woods come with many gifts, but their ability to soothe, to take me in and change me, is one that I reverence always. I often say my thanks out loud to the trees: the best I can do to repay them for this free service.  

If you like my writing, you should check out my book: Tao of Thoreau

First List

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I remember when I made my first list. I was probably 7 or 8 years old. 

It was actually a budget. I might have had 5 dollars to my name. There were two items on the list: “comic books” and “savings.” Naturally, comic books took up most of my budget.  

I was very proud of this list. I felt like I was on my way to being a grown up, and the longer lists that went with adulthood. 

I excitedly showed my mother. She couldn’t have been more uninterested and dismissive. This was unusual for her, and as far as I know she was having a tough day that I was completely oblivious to. 

I went back to my room, deflated and confused. I lost interest in making lists. (Shows how much grit I had when faced with setbacks.) I really could have used this organizational skill, and it took me a long time to make lists and be responsible for following through. 

I’m not placing blame. It was a childish notion, and I shouldn’t have been so easily defeated. But it is interesting to think about how many positive ideas are crushed in this way. What would my path have been if my work was met with encouragement and advice? Of course, I will never know. And, spoiler alert, I turned out OK.  

Milestone!

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I’ve reached another milestone on my publishing journey!

Four-hundred books! (That felt good to write out.)

Strangely, I have to force myself to celebrate this accomplishment. Part of the problem is that my publishing dreams have been so huge since I was a child, that it is hard for any reality to measure up.

What I’ve been doing is imagining them stacked up in forty piles of ten. Picturing this gives a geometry, a mass to what it means to have this many books out in the public.

This has been followed by, I think, a better visualization: 400 people actually owning and reading my book. That was what the dream was always about, if I strip away fantasies of amazing stardom and best-selling status.

People reading my words. What I have always wanted. What I am finally achieving.

Need a copy? Buy yours here: Tao of Thoreau – just 2.99 Kindle and 4.99 paperback.