This book is inspired by those toxic individuals who seem to disrupt the vibe for everyone else at a gathering. Maybe it’s that simpleton sitting next to you on a trans-continental flight who holds everyone around him hostage by sharing his business dealings much louder on his phone than is necessary, as if we care. Maybe it’s the contrarian (boss) who always contradicts everyone else’s ideas at a company meeting. Maybe it’s the unseemly couple locked in an intimate embrace while sitting in front of you and your young children in a movie theatre. Maybe it’s the stranger who (intentionally) takes your phone charge when you accidentally leave it unattended to for ust a moment in a shared space or the overly-friendly neighbor who allows his dog to do his business in your yard when he thinks you’re away.
As we all know, emotions can be fragile and a mood can swing from positive to negative in a moment, such that amusement can turn to anger, attraction can turn to disgust and so on. Sometimes the actions are intentional, other times the actors are just oblivious, but in either case, it only takes one to ruin the mood for all.
Which begs the question, do you recall the most egregious one to find its way into your Pickle Jar because, for me, the answer is simple: The unnamed individual who singlehandedly ruined my entire six-month-long lab research project necessary for completing my graduate school thesis. As I prepared to conclude my work, write and defend my thesis and (hopefully) enter medical school in the Fall, someone illegally gained access to a private and secure walk-in lab refrigerator where I was actively storing more than 100,000 fruit flies in various specimen jars as a part of an intricate multi-generational ‘pair-mating’ experiment designed to isolate a rare ‘lethal mutant’ protein instrumental to species development. I guess we will never know if I would have been successful because that special someone chose to lower the temperature, thereby unceremoniously freezing all of my specimens in less than an hour. However, what I do know is that it could have significantly altered my life had I not found a different path to medical school. No formal allegations were ever filed because there would have been no way to prove them but I do know, almost certainly, who the culprit was and I encourage you to review the circumstances (Chapter 26) and decide for yourself, the identity of that Turd in the Pickle Jar! In doing so, I also hope you will appreciate my attempt to acknowledge the nefarious behavior of some of the characters in my life story who have distinguished themselves enough to earn an infamous Turd in the Pickle Jar Award. (Paperback now available on Amazon.)
Of course, to create balance, we also need to recognize those simple acts of kindness in which someone displays empathy or compassion toward another without expecting anything in return. To honor these special individuals, we will also be passing out Cookie for Puppy Girl Awards based on our family pug, Olive, who was a loving member of our family for almost fifteen years, and as a rescue she seemed to fully appreciate her reversal of fortune that brought her to us. At times, she was so helpless and pathetic that we affectionately (and facetiously) nicknamed her ‘puppy girl’ with her wide-open, all-knowing eyes that could instantaneously melt away our feelings of anger or despair. In fact, Olive was always being offered a treat, usually a cookie, for her kind and loving emotional support so, anytime someone showed kindness toward another we would always refer to the act as a ‘A Cookie for Puppy Girl’. Keep an eye out for the awards sprinkled into the writing.
The story opens up with James as an entering freshman at the University of Oregon (UO) in 1974. His story is impactful from the start as we learn that his profound joy of attending major college football games with his family is, in part, an ‘escape’ from his confounding upbringing in a home filled with love but the ever-present terror of a devoted father who is both a World War II hero and a victim of severe PTSD representing an existential threat to their way of life.
As promised, the author presents a compelling and emotional roller coaster journey through life ranging from light humor and joy interrupted by times of sorrow, embarrassment and failure, with occasional normalcy mixed in for an 18-year-old starting college. His story is riveting, and at times inspiring with a ‘never quit’ attitude that will keep you wanting more.