The J-Spot

I realized that I really had no control over how fast Life offered up its goods when death came. At least, I realized it for a brief time. Old habits die hard- no pun intended.      When I was just a boy, I recall wanting everything now. Now, now, now. For everything I found interest, I really went for it. I wanted to be the best baseball player without ever swinging a bat. I wanted to be the fastest runner without ever competing in track. I wanted the newest, best toys, without ever doing my chores.      As I aged into my teens and began working a part-time job, this ignorant desire for instant gratification followed me. I spent money as fast as I made it, and even money I had not earned yet.      My abundant desire for more was nothing to be ashamed about, as I look back, I can see that it was simply a desire for a more full experience  of what life had to offer; a yearning for some perfection.      I would ask my...

Have you ever heard of someone feeling better because they have been taking a cold shower every morning? Has a friend or family member ever told you how great they feel after cutting sugar out of their diet? I think we all have witnessed how amazing people begin to look when they dedicate themselves to an exercise regimen. Are these things just better for us, or is there a secret behind doing things that we really, would just rather not do?       I had been working as an EMT for the better part of ten years, and had become quite use to seeing and doing things that nobody would rather do. The horrific and stressful experiences I placed myself in at work, more than one hundred hours a week, had in turn caused me to produce a home-life that was pretty cozy. Thus, when I changed jobs to a less stressful one, I started gaining weight and became much more volatile. Why, when I had much less stress in my life, was I declining physically and emotionally?    ...

Making choices is inescapable. Or is it?      I know my wife must sometimes take my non-opinionated viewpoint as an insult when she asks me where we should have dinner, or what we should do for fun. My answer is normally, "I don't care," or "whatever you like."      It was just something that had become so ingrained in me that it was hard to make choices anymore. Maybe it was largely due to my past experiences of disappointments, or perhaps it was just a sole remaining morsel from my brush with enlightenment a decade earlier.      I suppose making any choice sets us up for possible disappointment. But, if I admit that to be the reason for my inaction I would surely be marked as one who's disagreeable to disappointment altogether. Rather I grew so used to disappointment that it became dull, and I began to ask myself if making a choice to begin with were a form of selfishness.      Now as I go on in years I can see things diff...

           Am I odd for smiling when I know the joke is on me? Very few people have quite the ability to make me laugh as I do for myself.      I once occupied an outpost while fantasizing over doing a number two as I readied myself to become a Navy Seal with Bud/s class 243 in Coronado, California. I had been the lucky recipient of night watch duty just before hell week and was looking forward to starting my sleepless week of rigorous exercise on no sleep to begin with.      The rules are simple on watch. Don't abandon your post.      Being as the twin towers had just been struck down, we were considered under a time of war, and the word was that abandoning your post during such time was a sentence of death.      I can't remember how long the watch lasted but I do recall the regrets I felt for sneaking out with a couple of the guys for drinks the night before, because they were manifesting ...

     Modern Man is an umbrella term, but in this instance I am defining it loosely by my own led life as a husband and father of four near my forties. What can be more modern than not telling your three-year-old to quit whining and instead empathizing with them on how frustrating it might be for them that their Barbie's dress just won't pull up over her little needle fingers. How modern am I that my thirteen-year-old son is flailing around like a turkey in a virtual reality headset while my fifteen-year-old daughter records it on her i-phone for immediate upload to Instagram, where she likely charges her 'Close friends' a dollar a month for her premium on-line posts. I've become so modern that exercise seems ineffective while saving money and spending time have become commodities. A job, a career, and a side-hustle threaten to squash hobbies I once loved. What other can I do but adapt and overcome?      Nut-up or shut-up; you can do it with Beast Mode. ...

I have to wake up for work in the morning... I have to get my clothes from the washer and put them on, while brushing my teeth and hair... I have to kiss the wife and children goodbye as I rush out the door for work... I have to work........ I have to spend a little time with the kids when I get home... I have to shower and listen to my wife... I have to go to bed... I get to sleep... I get to open my eyes in the morning beside my lovely wife... I get to take my clothes from the laundry and get to brush my teeth and hair... I get to kiss my wife and kids before I get to leave for work... I get to work... I get to spend a little time with my kids when I get home... I get to shower and listen to my wife... I get to go to bed... I get it, do you? -Jay M Horne Jay Horne is an author and publisher out of Bradenton, Florida who has shared a genuine interest in philosophy and martial arts since early childhood. He is a husband and father of four. View...

     To boldly go, is to go boldly where no man has before, whether into the thicker font of a more deeply dipped pen, or into the throes of various venereal diseases. Where are those places where men go to be called bold?      Frontiers are the obvious answer, whether into the final one called marriage or away from the slow drag of high-speed fios in the back of a Nissan with William Shatner.      To venture bravely into space is to be as bold as the darkness enveloping the shi p on a moonless and cloudy night while it slides along the sea, sending ripples out into the vastness of time, only resonating soundly when they strike a shore. Beaches are like the objects in the night sky, beacons of hope. Final destinations beckoning bottles set adrift, their weight warping space-time into children's coin-funnels.      Boldness won. Change at the bottom of a well, relinquished merrily for a child's smile yet the rapacity of...