Last week, I was on the "Today" show to talk about my book, my life, your life getting screwed over by people you depended on or never knew were going to shoot at you or unknown to you completely. When it comes out of left field, it's really something.
My book is called "Surviving a Shark Attack (On Land)"and it's about overcoming betrayal and dealing with revenge, and as I've said many times, I adore revenge. I just can't get any! You know, like the Rolling Stones' "I Can't Get No Satisfaction?" Well, I can't get no revenge.
Why? Because the only way to get revenge is doing something illegal, immoral, fattening, or out of your own character, which then warps your character. Damn!
Here's a little piecelet from the book, so you get to know something more about me:
"There is a rush of lust for quick vengeance when betrayed. I know because I have felt it every time I've been attacked. I'm glad I'm surrounded by cooler heads, people I admire and trust who distract me with tales of new beginnings, opportunities and challenges. It is also true that time well filled (in other words, not with obsessing) is a great salve.
In the case of a number of my betrayers, they went on to fail miserably and publicly. I know that their egos have taken a beating, but I'm not rejoicing. I simply don't care.
I'm enjoying my work to a greater degree, because I'm surrounded by more support at SiriusXM.
I have taken up at least three new hobbies, and I am planning an incredible journey - an ocean race of I don't know how many hundreds of miles (I don't want to think about it) from Los Angeles to Honolulu in a sailboat with my crew. All right, I'm nuts.
When these situations first went down, I, of course yearned for a "blood-letting." And I actually think I would have enjoyed it at the time.
Time is the smart part of life.
Time reveals character.
Time permits healing.
Time permits growth.
Time gives perspective.
Time is one of life's greatest embraces.
My entire being has been "rebooted," and while it is satisfying on some level that my betrayers ultimately failed, it gives me no surge of delight or adrenaline. I believe that it went the way it should have gone, the way most of us knew it would, but if I still cared, it would be less of me. In other words, their loss is not my gain. My gain comes from my actions, my activity, my attitude, and not from anybody else's pain."
The book is very tight (I tend to write succinctly), and is only 200 pages. I found some great quotes to put in it, and I've got my soul in it. If there was ever a book to help you dealing with hurt, this is it. I come at you quite personally with it.
Getting to the point of not caring is the epiphany that you have to come to, and it is the epitome of handling it when you actually don't care. I'm 64. It took a while to learn all these things.
