DEDICATION and ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

DEDICATION

To my home Country I Love ~ The United States of America ~ and to the World I care a great deal about. I wrote this book in anticipation that many of my fellowmen and women will eventually read, study, apply, and otherwise benefit from this material, which has so profoundly informed and dramatically transformed my own life and career.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

What would I do and
where would I be
without Lina?

LINA M. JENSEN:  To my beloved wife, best friend, and closest confidant—for her interest in and willingness to take a lifelong (and eternal) chance on me. Winston Churchill once said the greatest speech he ever gave was the one in which he asked his beloved "Clemmie" (Clementine Hozier) to marry him. I share Sir Winston's experience and sentiment in this regard, although in my case they were my greatest speeches (plural). Suffice it to say, good things and great achievements can materialize from the right mix of patience and persistence—a principle deeply rooted in SAL Philosophy.  

Thank you, my only sweetheart, for your steady support and undeviating love. Thank you also for all you have done to build your own successful career, which has made mine—including the publishing of this textbook—possible. I further acknowledge your considerable intellect, diligent efforts, and practical insights as an editor of an earlier iteration of this work. Lastly, as interim COO, CFO, and CTO of Freedom Focused, I credit your broad range of aptitudes and skills which have greatly complemented my narrower niche of expertise when it comes to building a business from the ground up.

JEANNA BINI:  To my Primary Editor—for effectively applying her considerable intellect, broad knowledge base, and professional writing skills by taking a "fine-toothed comb" through the entirety of this work not once, but twice. Jeanna's diligent and focused efforts and eye-for-detail significantly enhanced the clarity, readability, and tonal quality of the final draft. She also provided organizational input and helped me tailor the message for an international audience. Thank YOU, Jeanna, for your expertise, insights, precision, and your enthusiastic and wholehearted commitment to making this project a success. Your caring and compositional touch can be found on nearly every page of this comprehensive work.  

STIRLING D. PACK, JR., PH.D.:  A wise and valued mentor and friend, Stirling's insightful perspectives influenced the present shape of this work more than any other reviewers who provided feedback on earlier drafts. Thank you, Stirling, for your incredibly helpful—and Providentially-timed—assistance with this ongoing project.  

Felicia Cockrell
With her son & daughter

NATHANIEL J. WILLIAMS, FELICIA COCKRELL, PETE FROMETA, JASON MINER, the late CHARLIE & MURIEL PIERSON, and the late FRED & MARLENE HAWRYLUK:  For their friendship, time, and permission to share their inspirational SAL stories with the world.  

KEHL ARNSON, LYNNDA CROWDER-EAGLE, and the late THRESA BROOKS:  For so effectively promoting pedagogies of personal leadership in the real-world laboratory of the classroom and schoolhouse, and for allowing me to share your exemplary stories with the world.

LINDSEY LAW:  To Lina's and my good friend and Ace Babysitter who made it possible for me—a stay-at-home dad—to secure the working hours I needed during the day to complete manuscripts in the later stages of this ongoing 20-year project. You have been like a second mama to our three kids and we'll forever be grateful for the help and friendship you afforded us at vital stages of our family's growth during our time in the great Lone Star State of Texas.  

MY ENDORSERS:  To the wonderful men and women who took time out of their busy schedules to review and provide endorsement quotes praising the SAL Textbook. Your considerable personal character and extensive professional achievements have lent an enormous aura of credibility and gravitas to this work. Thank you for your enthusiastic willingness to attach your honorable names to the SAL material and movement.   

Rex Buckley Jensen
Dr. JJ's Father

DENNY GEE:  To my talented graphic designer for designing the Self-Action Leadership Theory and Model graphics and several other key images that appear in this text.  

REX BUCKLEY JENSEN:  To my dad—a true renaissance man—for always being such an enthusiastic supporter and cheerleader of my dreams and goals in life. Also for instilling in me a love of language, good conversation, and great books. I love you, Dad, and appreciate the many genetic and mimetic gifts you passed on to me. 

Pauline Smith Jensen
Dr. JJ's Mother

PAULINE SMITH JENSEN:  To my mama, who was also the chief financial backer of Freedom Focused in its earliest years. Thanks, Mama, for bearing me, raising me, loving me, and (like Dad) always believing in me and passing along such a cornucopia of genetic and mimetic gifts which I have been able to use to their fullest extent throughout my life—and especially so in the creation of this work.  

FRANK MCLANE, JR.:  To my "Texas Dad," history and battle reenacting buddy, and dear friend. Thank you for further illuminating for me the importance of patriotism in conjunction with helping to clarify my thoughts about the distinct difference between, and the important relationship of, liberty and FREEDOM.  

L-to-R: Hyrum Mack Smith (1872-1918)

Joseph Fielding Smith (1899-1964)

Joseph F. Smith (1838-1918)

My great-grandfather, grandfather, and

2nd great grandfather; Circa 1900

MY MANY MENTAL HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS:  To the six psychiatrists (or prescribing equivalents), eight professional counselors, multiple ecclesiastical leaders, my parents and older siblings (i.e. Joe Jensen and Jody Church), and more recently my wife, Lina, who have, over the course of the past three decades, provided me with the palliative pharmacotherapy and/or focused psychotherapy I needed to work through my many emotional, psychological, relational, and spiritual demons.

Dr. STEVE and IDA ANDERSON and the late RUTH SILVER, LAVERDA JENSEN, and IDA SMITH:  For their generous financial contributions or loans and other support in Freedom Focused's earliest years. 

The late RUTH PINGREE SMITH (1907-1992) and LAVERDA BARTON JENSEN (1919-2006):  To my dear grandmothers, whose combined classroom teaching experience spans more than 70 years. I hope this educational work makes you proud because I consider your commendation to be a high honor. I love and admire you both and eagerly anticipate our joyful reunion someday in another realm.  

The late NED ADAMS JENSEN (1918-2004), JOSEPH FIELDING SMITH (1899-1964), HYRUM MACK SMITH (1872-1918), GEORGE ALBERT ADAMS (1864-1935), and MARY FIELDING SMITH (1801-1852), and other progenitors on both sides of my family:  I express my sincere gratitude for the formidable genetic gifts and powerful personal examples and legacies you passed on to me. I am deeply thankful for these gifts and influences and further acknowledge the sense I have sometimes had that you were watching over and helping me to complete this work and otherwise wend my way successfully through the very challenging "vale of sorrow and tears" that is this mortal experience.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, RALPH WALDO EMERSON, HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW, GEORGE WASHINGTON, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, SAM HOUSTON, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE, IMMANUEL KANT, WINSTON CHURCHILL, MOHANDAS GANDHI, C.S. LEWIS, MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., VIKTOR FRANKL and others like them:  To my existential, academic, literary, philosophical, and historical mentors, I thank you for your examples of vision and excellence that have so deeply inspired me to undertake and pursue ambitious visions and difficult missions in my life and career. My liberal citing of your collective works throughout this text is indicative of my admiration for both your personal genius and your positive and productive contributions to American, British, and World history and literature.  

MY SAL ADVISORY BOARD (SALAB):  For more information on what a "SALAB" is, see Book the Fifth, Chapter 5. To the 33 current members of my personal SALAB, I acknowledge your individual and collective contributions to mankind, as well as the supernal spark of divinity which you have so capably cultivated within the human race. You have both individually and unitedly inspired me to become who I am today, and your lingering legacy will continue to inspire me to the end of my days—and beyond.

SERENDIPITY:  The SAL Textbook talks a lot about the concept, occurrence, presence, and reality of Serendipity in our lives and careers. I do not believe, as many do, that Serendipity is a synonym for coincidence, caprice, or good luck. Nor do I believe that its effects are brought about by chance alignments of certain biorhythms in our physical bodies or random astro-occurrences throughout the Universe.

I believe Serendipity is a secular term for an external, personal, and tangible God, in whose image YOU (and I) were created. I believe this God to be a thinking, feeling, seeing, hearing, loving, all-knowing, and all-powerful God. I believe that They spiritually begot me—and everyone else in the world, including you. I also believe that They love me—and YOU—and everyone else with a perfect, omniscient, atoning, redeeming, and sanctifying love. I further believe that God, like any loving parent, seeks to promote the welfare, happiness, prosperity, and especially the Existential Growth of His and Her spirit children, of which I am but one.

I cannot, of course, prove that this, my belief, is true—at least not in an absolute empirical or purely scientific sense. Nor is it my explicit intent to try and persuade you to view Serendipity as I do. After all, part of being "Freedom Focused" is embracing the right, privilege, and opportunity to choose what you will (or will not) believe. 

However, I have seen, read, heard, felt, experienced, and otherwise discerned sufficient scriptural, spiritual, and anecdotal evidence of this, my belief, that I would bet my life upon its veracity. Indeed, you might well say I have already done so, although the jury is still out such that the verdict will never be entirely revealed in this life; hence, our need for FAITH. 

Nevertheless, it remains my unequivocal belief and unassailable perception that this Source has assisted me so often and so thoroughly throughout the multi-decade creation of this work that I would be both intellectually dishonest and personally ungrateful if I did not frankly and openly acknowledge that continuous assistance—and express my sincere and loving gratitude therefor.  

—Dr. JJ

Wednesday, September 27, 2023

Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, USA

Author's Note: This is the 349th Blog Post Published by Freedom Focused LLC since November 2013 and the 166th consecutive weekly blog published since August 31, 2020.   

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