Book Review - The Tao of Pooh and The Te of Piglet

This is a book review on the The Tao of Pooh and The Te of Piglet by Benjamin Hoff.  I present this review in the format that I provided it, to a close friend of mine, one whom I truly consider to be a brother, who passed this book set on to me to read…in the form of a handwritten letter to him.  This was a book set that had special meaning to him for different reasons…one being that it was a set that he previously, this brother of mine…who was also a father…passed this same exact set of books along to one of his daughter’s hoping they would read them and take away the knowledge and wisdom contained within the pages.  Like most children, this daughter simply ignored her father’s suggestions, and she did not read the books.  I agreed to read them as this close friend….one of my brothers…would not have passed these or any other books along if he didn’t think that I would not only read them…but try to understand them….regardless of whether I agreed with the content upon my review...and would benefit from them.  Additionally…as one of my brothers who has known me my whole life…he is fully aware of how I do not appreciate having my time wasted (did you hear that Cayuga County?) and so I knew if he passed these books along to me…then out of respect for him and my own pursuit of knowledge…I would read these books. After I finished reading them, I was so impressed that I decided to write him a book review in the form of a letter.  In preparing this LinkedIn article, I went back and forth trying to decide if I should provide a heavily edited article to be more “professional”….or considering that people within Cayuga County, NY have already unethically exposed most of my personal and confidential information, including my medical information…for their own malicious purposes…I decided to go with the flow and keep this book review in most of its original version with some small exceptions out of respect for other people’s confidentiality…and to try to make it G-rated.  Therefore, I make no apologies for any improper grammar or slang that is used…I present to this book review to you in its raw and honest format…which kind of sums up yet another aspect of my lifestyle…for those who I have not had the pleasure of meeting me in person.

A historical note – when my friend and I were kids, we had a run in with some service guy while we were fishing along a river that runs through my hometown.  This guy was a typical lowlife individual who carried a an extra large key ring swinging by his belt for whatever job he was hired or volunteered for. This big key ring must have had special powers in such a way that made him feel so important that he felt the need to prove his "author-it-tie"…by being a complete jerk to a couple of kids who hadn’t even become teenagers yet…as he was intent on making us leave the fishing spot we were in…along the public banks of this river.  Because we were catching fish from “his fishing spot”…those key rings and a shirt emblazoned with a starched uniform name tag that said “Harold” must have given him the strength need to commence with his self-righteous harassment of my friend and I...because we were just kids and he was an adult.  No offense to anyone out there named Harold – I have known plenty of GOOD Harold’s out there throughout my life….however, this guy was really just being another nickname for someone named “Richard” – of which I’ve known a number of people named Richard who were also GOOD people.  As such, this specific interaction...which looking back was about some guy with a name tag, a big key ring, too much of his own "author-it-tie" filling his mind…and what was no doubt an ingrained attitude of self-proclaimed power…and boredom…such that he felt the need to kick my friend and I out of "his" fishing spot….along the public access to this river....even though he was "working" at the time...or so he said.  What this guy didn’t realize is that he kicked off the next 40+ years of my friend and I using the term “Harold” on each other whenever either one of us were not happy with how other people…or either of us behaved towards one another.  Hey, our parents were pretty strict about using swear words when we were that young….so calling each other or someone else a “Harold”…was the closest thing we could come up with…and it stuck as I still lovingly call this brother “Harold”…when he deserves it...and he still deserves it, especially over this last two years. An important point that to this day I also have to keep reminding my dear brother….that you can’t just throw the name "Harold" out there randomly…it must be used sparingly and only as appropriate when needed.  In many ways, it’s no different than any power or authority that we or other people…in our personal or professional lives...who have such things of "power and authority" with our roles and positions in life.  This is related to one of my other favorite philosophies in life upon which to live by...which is referred to as the “Big Stick Ideology”.  My personal version of this specific ideology has a variation embedded into me from being raised by parents who were both soldiers…and my father being a highly decorated Viet Nam Veteran.  My father had his personal addition to Theodore Roosevelt’s words… "Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far."…which amounted to…”"Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far…however...if you are forced to use that stick for reasons that are GOOD…then you go all in…with no half measures…all of nothing...take no prisoners."  This philosophy has served me well over the years and continues to do so.  At some point living such a lifestyle and philosophy may catch up with me, but I’m guessing as long as I keep in mind the context upon which my father was saying this – as a returning solider from a war he and many people did not agree with…from the standpoint of politicians dictating military strategy…I’m guessing I’ll be ok and things will work out. At the very least…I will have earned an “E” for effort in trying to adhere to his philosophy upon the context in which he expressed it.  Perhaps there will be a future article to discuss that philosophy at a later time…

So, I present to you my book review in its raw form, including me speaking to a man, a friend, someone who I call a brother...as his mom and my mom have been friends, and still very much are friends...since the two of them were 13 years old.  As such, I believe I have every right to call this friend…”Harold”…as I feel appropriate.  Lots of love going out to you Brother if you are reading this!

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Dear Brother Harold,

Thank you very much for sharing these books.  I am still partially amazed and dumbfounded at the same time that it took me almost 55 years…with Mother Nature tapping on my shoulder for another dance…to find books that do a really good job at describing my overall philosophy to living my life.

I’m actually a little embarrassed from the standpoint that I consider and frequently refer to myself as a professional student…but I am just now reading how Taoism matches up with how I have chosen to live my life…naturally…without reading texts like these.  Actually, I’m kind of {insert your favorite word} off at myself now because maybe if I would have read more on this…then perhaps I could have avoided a few more {insert your favorite word} screw ups in my life.  But hey, that’s what makes us who we are.

Since having finished the books, I have shared copies with some other people, including another brother in Idaho, and the Pooh audio version to my nephew.  This will be a set of books that I will gift to people.  This is especially going to be the case now when I get the all too often comment: “What is wrong with you?!?!?”…now I can just send them some Pooh and Piglet and I shouldn’t have to explain much more!

See....by suggesting these books…you have just made my life simpler because when I want to tell someone to go to {insert your favorite place}…now all I’ll need to do is send them those books with a gift card that simply states: “After you are done reading these books, then let me know and then we can talk and have an intelligent conversation.  Have a nice day.  With love, Jerry”

Dude…you are so brilliant pegging me with those books.  Touche Rabbit!!!  Reading these books has helped me connect a lot of dots regarding how my father especially, talked to me and the things he taught me.  The man wasn’t super religious like my mom, but was very spiritual in a certain sense.  Besides Germany, he was stationed in Korea and Viet Nam.  Perhaps someday I will get to ask him if he was familiar with the ways of Pooh and Piglet and he will probably just look at me and say “What is wrong with you?!?!?”…and then I can just hand him the books and smile and laugh and say “Here, it looks like someone was drinking some of the Kool-Aid that you gave to me all of my life…but this guy wrote some cool books on it.

It’s all very funny to me and par for the course with this journey that I started almost a year ago when my little girl let me know we would be together again soon.  Except somebody forgot to tell her that her dad is still stuck here dealing with these evil trolls.  However, that too lines up with my beliefs in terms of what lays ahead, and in the words found in the book…the Day of Piglet.  Now do you know why I am smiling and carefree (to the crazy extent possible) these days? Because it’s all GOOD!

Someday I hope you get to meet my buddy who now lives in Idaho who is also very much an entrepreneur and business minded.  He is also a serious philosopher.  I have often thought about what it would be like to have just the three of us in a relaxing environment and having some serious conversations.  Like I’m half tempted to offer him a free hotel room or flight and get him to Lake Placid (your schedule is less flexible) and go to some ADK cabin…or head back out to God’s country in Idaho.  It would be a very interesting meeting of the minds.  I will do my best to connect the two of you in some way, shape, or form.  He is one of the small handful of people I want to introduce you to.  I have a small group of these very close friends, other brothers and sisters, who you all have a connection with having experienced…”the essence of Jerry”…!!!  Ha ha ha!!!  But seriously, these are all good people for my close family and friends to know.

Back to Pooh and Piglet…in an ideal world, books like these are what should be introduced to children when they can start to read – even if they don’t fully understand it…then in 5 or 10 more years, they should read them again…and rinse and repeat until the message sinks in.  I cannot say that I am a Taoist as I have not studied enough to make such a claim, however, I can say that what is contained within these books is the closest thing I have read that truly describes my overall philosophy in life.  I was laughing to myself reading some of the descriptions on the Way and references such as that.  Its particularly funny to me because a general thing that I say in different ways can be simply stated as “Understand the laws of Nature, and the rest is easy.”

Maybe that was in the book or maybe I read it somewhere else, but it doesn’t matter as it’s just a statement that I live by.  You have heard me say that “I am just a hunter”…that’s a different way of saying I understand the laws of Nature…or at least the ones I am allowed to understand!!!

Either way, I was so thankful for reading these books because they helped tie in a number of things for me, so once again I learned something new.  The big benefit of proclaiming to be a professional student is that it’s ok to keep asking “stupid” questions and also therefore ok to learn something new every day, no matter how insignificant it may be.  Because at the end of the day people, places, events, etc.…pick your favorite thing…are all simply distractions toward pursuit of learning something new every day or being a self-proclaimed student or looking forward to the Day of Piglet.

This morning I decided that I wanted to emphasize my appreciation for you sharing these books with me, by doing something I rarely do which is to write some sort of letter…or what I prefer to call a musing.  Either way, I felt the need to put down in writing how much I enjoyed these books and how I wish, and will do my part, in helping more people get exposed to this type of reading material and philosophy to live by.

Humans were once in harmony with Mother Nature, but strayed due to humans being humans.  Fortunately books like these and the philosophy contained within can turn our world around, but unfortunately, Mother Nature is getting really PO’ed right now because humanity is veering away from the Way.  Similarly, in line with the natural laws, the system will right itself, but not in our lifetimes.  That doesn’t mean there is no hope.  The hope for our future and the generations afterward lies in texts such as what is found in these books and will help give growth to the seeds of humanity that will come back in harmony with Mother Nature.

Wow…talk about a brain fart…I figured the least I could do for you letting me borrow those books…besides read them, share them with other people…but more importantly, take the time to write you this letter in my appreciation.

Just for the fun of it, if you think the words I have written will be helpful to your daughters or anyone else, then feel free to share it as long as you are prepared to explain why you can be such a Harold sometimes and why you are choosing extra years of money for a retirement years away…when anything could happen to derail these plans given this crazy world…and instead, quit driving yourself into an early grave and spend more quality time with that very beautiful and deserving wife of yours.  Start your journey with your wife walking and looking forward to the Day of the Piglet.

With love Brother, -Jerry

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A lot to think about indeed.  Since writing that book review, I also listened to the audio book “Change Your Thoughts - Change Your Life Living the Wisdom of the Tao” by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer.  Because I came across this book while I was researching more into what Benjamin Hoff was describing…for myself…I did not write any book review for Dr. Dyer’s book, however, I may write article on his book at a future date. In short, Dr. Dyer’s book was much more of an academic reading and also very well done. I would recommend reading both literary works are at least give yourself an “E” for effort by bookmarking them or adding them to a wishlist so you don’t forget about reading them in the future. Why? Because as I have stated before in a separate article….procrastination has killed more dreams than anything I can think off.  Enjoy yourself a nice cup of coffee or tea and turn off the TV…grab one of these books….and enjoy.

PS:  Another very good friend of mine introduced me to a Veteran-owned coffee roastery and shops via a cool shirt that he gave to me.  I have not tried their coffee, but he assures me it’s top quality...similar to the quality of that shirt.  From what I read on their About Us webpage, the marketing and advertising they use…and this very high-quality shirt that I have totally been making use of in the North Country.  I would recommend you check out Pale Horse Coffee and the GOOD work they are doing for our veterans.  Keep up the GOOD work ladies and gentlemen at Pale Horse Coffee!

Related...calling all Pale Horses…Cayuga County could use some more assistance.  The Cayuga County Sheriff and his staff are all working hard to make Cayuga County a safer place for its communities…but like everyone else…there does come a time when more support is needed…so please feel free to do your part to assist them and reporting the abusers that continue to plague Cayuga County and their established support network:

https://reportabusecayuga.com/investigate-cayuga-county/

The strength of many “lone horsemen” working together to solve common problems has been a part of the very fabric of what our country used to stand for…beginning with some basic respect for our military and the veterans who have served with honor and dignity.  These are the types of business and people our country should be supporting to unite and not divide us…as we are supposed to be the United States of America…what happened to that?  The government of Cayuga County, NY is just another example of what has happened and what needs to be changed on November 4, 2024.  It’s time for people to stop being blind sheep and voting solely based on political party affiliation and to start voting for candidates who seek to unite…as opposed to those who seek to divide.  Just for the record, I purposely have not affiliated myself with any political party...as when it comes time to vote these types of clowns out of office…I do not discriminate based on political party affiliation...because I don't have one...I vote based on candidates and their platform for solving problems and make our communities a better place then before they got elected...not because some clown on a stage telling me I have to vote one way or the other because of a political party affiliation.  The more politicians who seek to divide…and then get shown the door on the way out of our lives…the better our country will be for ourselves and the children who are truly the future of this country and the world.  For the Pale Horses living in Cayuga County…please join me in letting those abusers and those who protect the abusers…that enough is enough and it’s time for some ACTION.  Ride on dear friends and take no names and no prisoners…send them on down the line where they belong for what they are doing to the families and children of Cayuga County...and enjoy a cup of your favorite beverage while reflecting on what a brighter future could look like for you and the children.