Now I Ask You...: Questions and Reflections on Everyday Life

All of my family and many friends are scattered in various states or countries. So when I die, they needn't gather in California for my funeral, as I do not plan to have one. My goal is to have my lawyer, or a friend, send everyone I know, a copy of my memoir/advice book--NOW I ASK YOU--to save everyone the hassle of traveling on short notice. It is not worth their time, effort, and inconvenience, nor the money involved. Throughout my 84 years (so far), I have garnered tons of personal experiences--good, bad, and so-so. As such, I have chosen 120 subjects to share. Each section has three parts: It starts with NOW I ASK YOU questions and/or advice for the reader, then my personal story, followed by inspirational quotations, both old and new, from the famous, the not so famous, and the anonymous, pertaining to that particular experience. Few individuals have heard all of these tales, so many will be new to them. (I have actually heard friends become angry, when I would tell one of my stories to others, and they hadn't heard it before. How weird is that?) Although I tried to place my memories in chronological order, the reader can dive in anywhere, as each story can stand alone. I hope readers will smile or laugh or cringe at some of my difficult, unpleasant, funny, or embarrassing experiences. This 24th book of mine is just my way of leaving a historical record, of sorts, for my family, as well as a roadmap for friends, neighbors, former students, and other readers, to learn from my failures and successes (always a teacher at heart!). Understand your life as a kaleidoscope of experiences that move and change. --L.D. Thompson We should learn from the mistakes of others. We don't have time to make them all ourselves. --Groucho Marx