Dr. JJ's Story

 

 Chapter 2

Dr. JJ's Story

Autoethnography as Research Method

To create and compose my written personal narrative, I utilized a brand of qualitative research known as auto-ethnography (self-ethnography), which is more commonly spelled as: AUTOETHNOGRAPHY. 

Before delving into my life stories, it bears reviewing this unique, autobiographical research method I employed in the analysis and production of my personal history. 

As previously discussed in BOOK the THIRD, Chapter 2, autoethnography refers to the creative and/or systematic research and study of one's own life, or a slice thereof. The field of autoethnography is derived from ethnography—the study of individual groups of people—which, in-turn, evolved out of the field of anthropology—the study of human cultures.

In my doctoral dissertation, I conducted autoethnographic research to carefully analyze and systematically scrutinize my life in an effort to see what I might learn about self-leadership and action research. My goal was to create an original theory and model of self-leadership that might benefit others. 

The result of that doctoral research—and subsequent iterations of the SAL Textbook—is contained in the work you presently hold in your hands, even the SEVENTH Edition.  

I began collecting data for this expansive autoethnographic research project as early as 1987 as a young diarist over two decades before I began my doctoral work. 

I can, in large measure, thank my father for my journaling predilections. 

Dad began writing in a personal daily journal in the early 1960s when he was in high school; and he did not stop there! Indeed, he persisted in his journaling habit with an unusual consistency and devotion for decades thereafter. 

I was a lover of the written word before I could even read.

Once, as a little boy, I hosted a neighborhood peer—a little girl who was in first grade—in our family’s “play room” under the stairs in my childhood home. The purpose of this rendezvous was to request that she read to me from some papers I had pulled from my dad’s office trash basket. I was only in kindergarten at the time, and was deeply enamored by the fact that this neighbor gal could read. I was most impressed and very much looked forward to the time when I would be able to do likewise.

Later, after I did learn to read, I became a regular patron of Dad's home library. In process of these perusals, I noticed his impressive-looking professionally bound journals lined up next to his yearly Franklin Day Planner binders. Dad gave me free reign of all these journals, and I eagerly explored them. These forays took me on fascinating journeys into the past where I came to know, love, and respect my father on a level that would have been virtually impossible without such detailed and voluminous written records. 

I received my first Franklin Day Planner in 1987, when I was just eight (8) years old, and began keeping a journal on January first of that year—at age seven (7).

I have kept a variety of different journals, records, and personal lists ever since. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson
1803-1882

Most of my journaling involves a daily record of events, feelings, thoughts, ideas, etc. During some periods of my life and career, I have produced detailed, fastidious, and voluminous entries on a daily basis. At other times, I have recorded journal indexes that keep track of important events and salient thoughts and feelings while avoiding repetitive recordings of daily minutia.  

Another sizable section I refer to as my "Emerson Journals," named after one of my literary, philosophical, and thought heroes—Ralph Waldo Emerson. My Emerson Journals are filled with ideas of all kinds in addition to thoughts and musings on philosophy, theology, personal leadership, and a variety of other topics.

My Emerson Journals include both poetry and prose.  

JJ's Collection of Little Black Books
30 volumes spanning 2002-2014 

I began these journals in 2001 and was amazed at how quickly they accumulated once I had begun. Indeed, I discovered that the physical act of recording a thought or idea served to fuel my philosophical muse and thereby accelerate the rate at which additional inspiration would come. 

This deluge of light and knowledge continued for several years thereafter flooding my mind with thoughts, ideas, and inspiration. Thus, between the years 2002-2006, I filled 22 pocket-sized "Marble Memo" notebooks, which I referred to as my "Little Black Books."

Sometimes this lightning of thoughts and ideas would strike my brain late at night after I had already retired for the night and I would feel compelled to get out of bed and jot the information down.

Other times this lightning would hit me at an inopportune time for recording, such as when I was driving. If I deemed the inspiration important enough, I would pull my car to the side of the road, extract my Little Black Book and pen from my pocket, and record whatever epiphany I had received before continuing on my way. Consequently, I began carrying my pen and notebook around with me religiously, never knowing when the next gem of thought or word of wisdom would enter my brain, heart, and spirit. 

Dr. JJ's Collection of Handwritten Journals & Scrapbooks
1987-2014
Note: Most of my journaling over the years
has been done virtually on computers.

Such a practice may sound a bit like Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, and there is no doubt my OCD did fuel my journaling habit—and many other positive and productive thoughts and behaviors. It was one of many examples of how OCD was "not all bad for me" as one leader once suggested to me.  (0)

It is true that OCD has been both a blessing and a curse in my life, career, and relationships. In truth, I probably never could have developed the massive tome you currently hold in your hands without my OCD-influenced ambition, drive, intensity, conscientiousness, and detail-oriented proclivities. 

Thus, there is always a silver lining to every challenge and obstacle in life. 

It is my hope and prayer that this Life Leadership textbook will help you discover your own life's Silver Linings, for they most assuredly exist in many and varied forms and you will be able to recognize them if you are willing to search them out and capitalize on their blessed "Bright Sides." 

Implicit SAL Lessons Stitched into the Stories

Throughout my personal narratives, I attempt to vividly, albeit mostly implicitly, illustrate SAL principles and practices as I have strived to live—and/or learn from—them. As you read through these stories, you will notice I usually do not specifically identify which SAL principle, practice, law, or corollary informed a given action or decision on my part. I have done this on purpose because I do not want to weigh the stories down with too much explicit didacticism; after all, there is plenty of that in BOOKS the FIRST through the FIFTH. 

My reasoning for this clear separation between the academic and narrative elements is twofold.

FIRST, I want to give you—the reader and student—a break from the more intense scholarly portions of the text. This will allow you to not only learn from the stories, but to enjoy them as well.  

SECOND, I want to provide you and your mentor and/or instructor (where applicable) with the opportunity to ponder on and then carefully examine the narrative in an effort to identify SAL principles and practices on your own. You will learn more from thinking critically about and then discussing the narrative than you will being spoon-fed what I think you should take away from each story.  

In chapters 3-5 of BOOK the SIXTH, I share intricate details of my experiences with mental illness (Chapter 3), my misadventures with romance (Chapter 4), and the ups and downs of my unorthodox career path (Chapter 5). Before diving into these meaty narratives, I preface them with a brief autobiographical sketch of my life's journey to-date. 

Autobiographical Sketch of My Life

My life, as with anyone else's life, is the story of a human being's struggles to discipline and gradually improve his responses to life's many problems, pains, perplexities, and failures. It is also a story of my growing successes in managing or overcoming those adversities in conjunction with progressively taking advantage of opportunities that have arisen over time in my personal life, career, and relationships. 

JJ in Daddy's boots about the time
of his Exxon station potty lesson.

This journey of adversity, education and Existential Growth began very early in my life, when I was still just a toddler, as the following excerpt from my father's journal comically illustrates: 

"Fri. July 10, 1981

"Cute thing happened this afternoon. I took Jordan with me to the bank to make a deposit. Left him in the car while I went in. When I came out, he had opened the door of the car, leaned out, pulled down his britches and shorts and was proceeding to make a puddle on the asphalt. The last time he was with me at the Exxon Station I got a little upset with him for going on the seat. He did it right this time. Sure was cute. He was right proud of himself." (1)

I was born on a Tuesday—August 21, 1979—in Monticello, Utah, a small, rural community of approximately 2,000 inhabitants in the rural and remote Four Corners area of the western United States. 

I arrived to an already large family—the sixth of seven children and the youngest of five boys. 

My ancestry—on both sides of my family—hail almost exclusively from the British Isles and Denmark. I am also related to several couples who sailed on the Mayflower, so these and other branches of my family helped settle the Massachussetts Bay Colony and/or took part in the American Revolutionary struggle that came a century-and-a-half later.

Seventy-five (75) years after America gained her independence, my ancestors—on both sides of my family—were among the Latter-Day Saint pioneers who emigrated west across the American Continent to Salt Lake City in the 1840s and 50s. Later, my father's forbears, under the direction of Church President Brigham Young, migrated further to southern Utah, where my paternal second-great grandfather—George Albert Adams—served as one of four (4) founders of Monticello, my hometown.   

Growing up, I was taught to honor and revere these courageous and religious colonist and pioneer ancestors. I further took a great deal of natural interest and pride in the biographies, characters, contributions, and legacies of these fascinating, formidable, hardy, and pious progenitors.

My connections—literal and learned—to these august souls runs deep and forms an essential part of my own character and identity.     

My father spent a majority of his career teaching English grammar and literature at the middle school and high school levels. But he was really a rural renaissance man and entrepreneur who either dabbled in (or wholly embraced) several different career fields, including construction—he was a licensed General Contractor who had a hand in the building or assembly of over 70 homes—real estate and land development, apartment management, journalism, photography, sales, and the grocery business (handed down from Grandpa Ned Adams Jensen [1918-2004], who had inherited the trade from Great-Grandpa Hans Jensen [1886-1952]).

My mother was a magnificent and loving caregiver, hardworking homemaker, and skilled saleswoman who sold a variety of products, including Avon cosmetics, Lavoy pajamas, and fresh-baked bread and fudge. She was particularly successful as an "Avon Lady," earning the company's prestigious annual President's Club award and trophy—a porcelain statuette of "Persis Foster Eames Albee (1836-1914), the founder of Avon—an impressive eight (8) different times (years). After I had graduated from high school, she launched her own variety store that she called, Polly's Parlor, in my hometown.  

My family was large, loving, and close-knit; but we had our share of parental differences and sibling squabbles. In fact, after most of my siblings had left home, my parents' relationships deteriorated significantly, leading to their divorce in 2004—after 37 years of marriage and a bushelful of grandkids.

Despite these and other familial bumps and bruises, I was nonetheless taught from an early age—through both precept and example—to value faith, family, community, country, and self-reliance.

My parents and older siblings also taught me by example the dignity, importance, and value of HARD WORK. I got my first paying job at age five. I earned $40 dollars for a summers' worth of work helping my dad and older brothers build a log cabin on land my dad owned.

My position that summer was the "Fetch-it," my job being to "fetch" or retrieve tools for my dad and brothers whenever they called out a need for a given item. Thus, an oft repeated refrain throughout that summer from the five male members of my family was: "Hey Fetch-it, fetch me a hammer," or "I need a chalk-line; Fetch it, go fetch-it for me!"

Had I been fifteen at the time, I might have resented such a display of condescension. But I was five, and a proud daddy's boy who worshipped his older brothers—who were, in reality, very good to me—so I felt both important and needed in this adorable and endearing role, and was thrilled when I received my $20 pay check from dad at the end of the summer (20 additional dollars went into savings as part of my LDS "Mission Fund).

Growing up in Monticello, I was unquestionably a "Country Boy," and proud of it.  

This mostly changed following my seventh birthday in 1986, when my family moved to Mesa, Arizona, a booming suburb of Phoenix in the heart of the Arizona desert. This move to a suburban area marked a significant life transition for me as I traded in my blue jeans and cowboy boots for shorts and sneakers. 

Overnight, I became a City Boy!

Standing on a fence on a
ranch in my "Jeans and Boots."
Circa summer 1985

This move also signaled the formal beginnings of my Self-Action Leadership journey, which started about four months later when I penned my first ever journal entry on January 1, 1987.

That same year, I attended my first Franklin Day Planner seminar taught by my famous and successful maternal Uncle—Hyrum W. Smith—an originator of the Franklin Institute's (later Franklin Quest and then FranklinCovey's) world famous day planning system. By the time I entered second grade, I was using my Day Planner on a regular basis and loving every minute of it. 

I was officially on my way to becoming the SAL and Freedom Guy!  

In hindsight, it seems clear that this seminar, and other, similar events were providentially placed along the pathway of my young life; and there is no question they planted important seeds that would eventually grow into my chosen career—and the decades-long, piecemeal process that developed gradually into this Life Leadership textbook. 

JJ slam dunks at his home in
Mesa, Arizona; circa 1988

It was in Mesa that I was introduced to two of my life's great loves: SPORTS and competition. 

It was the 1987-88 basketball season and Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, and Michael Jordan were kings of the NBA (National Basketball Association). It was at this time that I first discovered I had some coordination, speed, and talent as an athlete. 

My favorite sport was basketball, and the fact that I shared a name with his "Airness" (Michael Jordan) was not lost on me or my playmates on the playground.

I played basketball seriously until 9th grade, when hoops began to lose its luster for me and I discovered I was actually much better suited to the individual-oriented sports of cross-country and track. 

In 10th grade I made the difficult decision to stop playing basketball and focus entirely on my running. It turned out to be the right decision, and I went on to become a State Champion—individually and as a team—in cross-country my junior season (1996) and a 5-time Region Champion. 

Later, in college, I walked on to the cross-country team my second (and last) year where my team finished 2nd in the nation in the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA). I also became an All-American in indoor track and won a half-tuition scholarship, two achievements I take great pride in to this day.  

I also discovered football early on in elementary school, which would become a passion of mine for much of the first half of my life, albeit mostly as a fan—and mostly of the college game. I did, however, play a lot of football on the playground in elementary school, where I was a star. 

Most of our childhood games involved two-hand touch or flag football, although we would occasionally risk playing tackle until the school playground guards would notice and break it up. I was typically an offensive specialist, but when we would play tackle, I learned quickly that defense was much more fun!  

I attended kindergarten in Monticello Utah in 1985-86 before we moved to Mesa, where I then attended first through seventh grades from 1986 to 1993. 

Following my seventh-grade year, we moved back to Monticello, where I attended Monticello High School from grades 8-11. During the summer months, I worked at a variety of blue collar, manual labor jobs involving lawn and yard care, landscaping, construction, farming, and ranching. 

These jobs taught me to work hard and endure heat, sweat, fatigue, and other physical discomfort. They also helped me to develop character traits such as endurance, resourcefulness, and stickie-ta-tudy (1a) as I discovered the immense satisfaction and fulfillment that followed a job well done. 

While in high school, my main chore was to chop, stack, and replenish the wood supply for our home's wood-burning stove. It was also my job to light the fire, keep it continually fed with fuel, and then clean out the accumulated ashes as needed. We had electric heat installed in our home, which we sometimes used, but my dad was very frugal when it came to our utility bill, and the wood-burning stove was a far more affordable method of warmth in the winter. 

As a teenage Boy Scout and fire lover, I did not complain about these chores, in part because I honored and respected my parents, but mostly because I quite enjoyed chopping wood and building fires!  

In 1995, as a sophomore in high school, I saw an advertisement in the classified section of a local weekly newspaper looking to hire a newswriter/correspondent. The weekly paper—Blue Mountain Panorama—was located in Blanding, Utah, a city 20 miles to the south of Monticello and approximately twice its size. Its Editor was looking for someone in Monticello to cover City Council Meetings, local high school sports, and other community events. 

I answered the ad and got the job. Though the pay was paltry and the paper's circulation was small, my new gig was a heady experience for a homely, lanky, teenage lad like me. It was, after all, my first opportunity to ply my trade as a paid, professional writer. For someone who had previously earned money only through lowly manual labor tasks, this was a significant step-up in the world for me. 

It was a magnificent experience. I learned a lot, further honed my skills as a writer and interviewer, and had a couple of hundred articles published under my name—an achievement that provided me with a great deal of weekly pride and satisfaction for the 20-or-so months I held the position.

I first began experiencing symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) at age 10. They became increasingly severe at age 12, when I was in sixth grade. Unfortunately, I would not be clinically diagnosed until I was 17 and a junior in high school. The intervening 4-5 years were, in many ways, poignantly hellish—as a later chapter will chronicle in acute detail.  

After demonstrating great promise scholastically in my elementary school years, my academic performance began to flounder in junior high and high school. My educational struggles were rooted in math, science, poor study habits, my preference for athletics over academics, and my OCD symptoms. As a result, I scored only average grades and test scores in high school. Consequently, I was rejected to the university to which I applied and ended up getting my bachelor's degree at a neighboring State College, where I improved my high school Grade Point Average (GPA) from a 2.9 to a 3.2. Later, in Doctoral school, I raised this to a better-than-perfect 4.049 GPA, thanks to a couple of A-plusses.

You might say I was both an early and a late bloomer as both a student and an intellectual.  

From ages eight (8) to 18, I was involved in scouting programs; first as a Cub Scout, and later as a Boy Scout, Varsity Scout, and Explorer. I completed the requirements for my Eagle Scout award just shy of my 18th birthday. 

Scouting taught and reinforced many important SAL lessons I was already learning at home, school, and church. It further instilled within me the importance of consciously developing character traits such as honesty, integrity, cheerfulness, cleanliness, courage, duty, discipline, loyalty, consistence, persistence, kindness, formality, obedience to and respect for authority, a strong work ethic, patriotism, reverence, and a positive attitude. 

My involvement in Scouting also introduced me to the idea of personal creeds, commitments, and mottos in the forms of the Boy Scout Oath, Law, Motto, and Slogan. Much later on, I would explicitly incorporate similar elements into the Freedom Focused Constitution and Corporate Culture. 

Influenced by church, scouting, my immediate and extended family, and my own diligent efforts to obtain knowledge, skills, and experiences, the concepts of positive affirmations, quotes, mantras, and other character-building tools resonated deeply with me from a young age and I often displayed quotes in my bedroom and on the wall above my desk where I could see them on a regular basis. 

One of my favorite quotes was one I had seen my older brother, Joe, display above his own desk (we were roommates for a time in Mesa). I quickly copied his action and posted the same quote above my desk as well. The quote was from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, and was spoken by the Prince of Aragon (one of Portia's suitors). 

Said the Prince: 

"I will not choose what many men desire,
Because I will not jump with common spirits
And rank me with the barbarous multitudes." (2)

          —Shakespeare           

Knowing nothing (at the time) of the contextual variables of character and plot, I simply perceived the literal philosophical value I interpreted from these timeless lines of the Immortal Bard. Though I was still quite young—nine or 10 years old at the time—I immediately comprehended that my life's desire was not to "jump with common spirits," nor was I interested in maintaining any modicum of the social status quo in my personal or professional vision, mission, and goals.

I yearned for something deeper, grander, richer, and more fulfilling and influential and harbored a firm and undeviating belief and faith in the fact that if I was willing to pay any price that Life required, I would eventually rise to the full measure of my potential and become all I was capable of becoming.

In truth, I have always had a deep desire to be not only the very best that I could be, but, if possible, the very best—period—at whatever I ultimately chose to dedicate my life to. For a time, I believed that something was basketball. Later, it changed to middle distance running. Despite many modest successes in both athletic ventures, I ultimately fell far short of my grand desires of competing in the NBA or the Summer Olympics and would have to try and ply my effort and passion at something else.

That something else was organizing, speaking, teaching, writing, and leading.  

Thus, I have spent the last three decades focused on the organization and composition of a literary contribution—the SEVENTH Edition of the SAL Textbook—that you now hold in your hands. If you, dear reader, find its quality up to your own highest standards, then I have succeeded in my attempt. And if you find the message contained herein to be helpful or inspiring in any way, then I will have succeeded all the more.  

My early experiences with Shakespeare—and other giants of poetry and prose—signaled the beginning of a lifelong love affair with the written word eloquently uttered or penned—and more especially that variety of literature whose philosophical profundity matches its literary luster.  

In 1997, just prior to the start of my senior year of high school, I moved to Spokane, Washington, where I lived with my oldest brother and his wife for nine months. My primary reason for moving was to pursue greater athletic opportunities. Spokane was one of the most competitive communities in the nation for high school cross-country and track, and I would be competing for a 4A rather than a 2A school. My parent's marriage had also significantly soured by this point in time, so I also sought a more positive home environment.

I graduated from high school the following spring, in early June 1998. 

JJ's Missionary Plaque, which was displayed in his local
church during his service from February 1999 - March 2001

Following high school, I served a voluntary, 2-year mission for my Church in Alberta, Canada.  

In between high school and my mission, I worked for a dry wheat farmer, helping him to bring in his harvest during the late summer of 1998. 

I was also hired to write and direct an original play for a group of elementary school students in my hometown as part of a federal grant for the arts. My mom—who had extensive amateur theatrical experience—co-directed the play with me. It was called Chivalry Isn't Dead and aimed to both entertain and promote character development, positive life lessons, and respect for women.

In 2001, a few months after returning from my 2-year missionary service, I began my undergraduate studies at Brigham Young University (BYU), where I attended spring and summer terms as part of their visiting student program. I then attended Utah Valley State College (UVSC)—now Utah Valley University (UVU)—just up the road a few miles from BYU, during fall and winter semesters. 

Between taking a year off to work after high school and serving a two-year religious mission, I felt very "behind" academically and was determined to catch up as quickly as I could. To accomplish this, I went to school year-round and took heavy course loads. As a result, I was able to complete my 4-year degree in only 2.25 years (27 months). I also accrued the exact amount of credit hours—120—that I needed to graduate, thereby maximizing my efficiency.  

As a college student, I was never one to let school get in the way of my education.

"I have never let schooling interfere with my education."

—Mark Twain

Leading the pack in an 800-meter race.
Weber State University
Ogden, Utah
Spring 2003

I was not a partier; I have never partaken of an alcoholic beverage, nor have I ever used tobacco or recreational drugs. I did, however, seek out a variety of educational opportunities involving athletics, theater, film, part-time employment, babysitting for—and spending time with—family members, dating, and attending speeches and presentations on campus and throughout the community.

To make time for all of these worthy extracurricular activities, I strategically aimed for "B-grades" rather than "A-grades," knowing how much more time it took to get A's than it took to get B's—and realizing that in my case, my college GPA was far less important than my diploma. I have always strived to approach my life and career with this holistic perspective in mind, whereby I place the greatest value on what will be most beneficial to myself and others in the long-run, rather than prioritizing short-term gains and/or what will merely please others.  

Graduating from Utah Valley State College
Now Utah Valley Uninversity
David O. McKay Events Center
Orem, Utah
May 2003

My graduation ceremony was held at UVSC in May 2003, just over two years after beginning my first class at BYU in May 2001. The legendary interviewer, Larry King, spoke at my graduation ceremony. It was much more entertaining than a traditional graduation speech! I completed my final class in July 2003. 

The day after completing my bachelor's degree in July 2003, I fulfilled a personal dream to move to the American South. Enamored by Southern hospitality, warmer climates, economic opportunity, romantic notions, and Civil War history, I went forth to Seek my Fortunes in Atlanta, Georgia. My dad accompanied me on a multi-state, cross-country road trip in my car to get there. Dad then flew back to Utah after we arrived in Atlanta.  

JJ in Georgia the First Time
Fall 2003

I spent six months in Georgia on my first go-round in the South. I lived with my cousins and worked for them part-time in their software business. I also got a part-time job as a retail salesman in a couple of FranklinCovey stores in two area malls. 

More importantly, I taught my first seminar on personal leadership—a pro bono gig—at Lassiter High School in suburban Atlanta (Marietta). I had first began theorizing on the subject of personal leadership the previous November (2002). 

In early 2004, I returned to Utah and got a job as an assistant to the Director of The Center for the Advancement of Leadership (the CAL) at my alma mater, Utah Valley University. During this same time, I further developed my seminars and facilitated over 60 pro bono trainings to high school and college-aged audiences all over the State of Utah. 

In 2005, I named and founded my company—Freedom Focus, LLC—and became a full-time entrepreneur. 

I did not spend a lot of time thinking about what I would call my organization; the epiphany just came to me one day and it immediately felt right. It didn't take much logical analysis to discern that the name was not only ideally succinct, but perfectly descriptive of what I aimed to help future readers and students accomplish in their lives, careers, and relationships.  

A few years later, I changed the name to the more grammatically and semantically apropos, Freedom Focused, by adding an -ed. The idea for this minor change came inadvertently from a large Insurance Company with whom I had purchased a business policy as part of my contract training position with Fred Pryor Seminars. One of their agents had mistakenly added the "ed" when they mailed me my policy contract—a rather Providential typo in my biased opinion. 

FIRST Edition of the SAL Textbook
Self-Published in 2006

Serendipity often works in mysterious and seemingly random ways.  

In late December 2005, I moved back to Georgia, where I continued building my fledgling business. On April 6, 2006, the first 565 copies of the SAL Textbook—I Am Sovereign: The Power of Personal Leadership—arrived at my apartment in Woodstock, Georgia. It was my first comprehensive effort to organize and codify my growing ideas on the subject of Self-Action Leadership—a term that had not yet been coined, nor would it be for another six years.  

The book you now hold in your hands is six comprehensive iterations removed from that original construct. Though unquestionably the work of an amateur, the FIRST Edition was an ambitious and solid start. I will forever be proud of that initial effort, which laid the groundwork for everything that would eventually follow.  

Despite any and all progress I made in building my business at that stage of the game, my leap of faith did not pan out as I had hoped and dreamed. Out of money and deeply in debt, I spent 16 months doing whatever work I could find to make ends meet. Odd jobs I picked up included childcare for my cousin's kids, substitute teaching, grounds keeping, and temp work.

Little did I know at the time how tending my little cousins was preparing me to someday serve as a stay-at-home dad!  

With a little help from my dad and my church, I managed to stay fed and keep a roof over my head while narrowly skirting eviction, bankruptcy, and the repossession of my car.

In hindsight, I have mixed feelings about my decisions at this stage of my life and career. Part of me is embarrassed—even a little horrified—by the situation in which I found myself mired. But a bigger, more significant part of me is—and always will be—proud that I had the gumption and guts to "go for it."  

JJ and Lina's engageent photo

On September 16, 2006, I met Lina Tucker—the woman I would marry approximately two years later—at a church-sponsored gathering of young, single adults. Lina was a sophomore studying mechanical engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). 

We spent the first six months getting to know each other and going out on our first few dates. We then spent a year dating exclusively—including two breakups—before getting engaged in February 2008. 

We were married six months after that on August 8, 2008 (8/8/8). 

In August 2007, I got my first contract training position with Fred Pryor Seminars. 

Lina graduated from Georgia Tech with her bachelor's degree in April 2009. Shortly thereafter, we moved to Houston, Texas, where Lina began her career with the oil and gas giant, ExxonMobil. She was fortunate to get a great job when she did—in the midst of the Great Recession—a tribute to her own dogged and disciplined job search and the fact that she had a pending Georgia Tech diploma backing up her resume.

With the economy tanking, my training work with Fred Pryor dried up almost completely. To adjust, I pursued and acquired a position teaching ninth grade English at a local high school in the metro Houston area. The same month—June 2009—I began a doctoral program in education at Fielding Graduate University—a distributed (distance) education program based in Santa Barbara, California. 

My first-year teaching high school English turned into my last year when my wife received a new position at work that required us to relocate to St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada. Lina moved to St. John's in March 2010, when her new job began. I remained in Houston until early June so I could finish the school year. We broke up the three-month separation with fun and romantic meet-in-the-middle trips to Boston, Chicago, and Toronto. 

We spent two years in Newfoundland, during which time I worked on my doctoral degree and taught seminars for Fred Pryor in Canada.  

In the spring of 2012, we returned to Houston. 

In the fall of 2012, I published my second book: Psalms of Life: A Poetry Collection, which contained over a hundred original poems I had written. 

In March 2013, I finished my Doctorate in education, we bought our first home in the Spring-Conroe area of North Houston, and Lina gave birth to our first child—a delightful orange-haired boy we named Tucker (Lina's maiden name)

In 2013 I ended my work with Fred Pryor and began contracting with SkillPath Seminars instead.  

In March 2015, our second child was born—a beautiful baby girl we named Kara.

In 2016, I stopped training for SkillPath and became a full-time stay-at-home-dad. At this same time, I began applying for faculty positions at universities all over the United States and world. I also applied for a couple of high school English teaching jobs in the Houston area. 

During the 2016-17 school year, I taught an early morning (6:00-6:50 a.m.) "Seminary" (religious instruction) course on the New Testament to a group of a dozen sophomores in high school. It was a volunteer position I accepted by invitation of my local church.  

After nine (9) months of applying for teaching positions in higher education, nothing had materialized. I had either been rejected or ignored by 70 different schools for a hundred different positions. The two interviews I got at local high schools were also a bust. At this point in time, I decided to terminate my search and focus on parenting and writing.

Over the course of the next three years, the original business vision I had held for Freedom Focused developed more of an academic flavor. Part of this evolution arose from opportunities I received to publish five articles in peer reviewed academic journals. Four of these articles introduced: the SAL Theory (3), the SAL Model (4), SAL as a Pedagogy of Personal Leadership (5), and SAL as an Ideologically-Balanced Character Education Construct (6). The fifth paper examined the impact of religion and spirituality on the lives and careers of my uncle, Hyrum W. Smith and Stephen R. Covey—co-founders of FranklinCovey Company. (7)

In 2018, I obtained my first traditional book deal from Cambridge Scholars Publishing out of the United Kingdom, which I expanded into two volumes and became the Sixth Edition of the SAL Life Leadership textbook.

About this same time, I turned 40 years old.

The following year, in March 2020—right as the COVID-19 Pandemic was exploding across the globe— we moved to Carlsbad, New Mexico with Lina's job. It was in Carlsbad that I began blogging more consistently—publishing a new article every week on Wednesday morning at 6:30 a.m.

Later that year, Lina received a job offer with a different company—NextEra Energy—in Juno Beach, Florida. Lina was born and raised in South Florida and we shared a mutual desire to move to the Sunshine State if and/or when an opportunity presented itself. 

As much as we enjoyed our time in Georgia, Texas, Newfoundland, and New Mexico, it was a dream come true for our family to become Floridians!

The past six years I have been in the thick of raising my kids. On the side, I continued my writing, blogging, and church service. 

Beginning in early September 2023, I began serially publishing the SEVENTH Edition of the SAL Life Leadership textbook on my blog in preparation for the hard copy version you now hold in your hands. It took me approximately two-and-a-half years to complete this mammoth blogging project, and the balance of 2026 was spent prepping the hard copy version for publication.

In August 2023, my youngest child began kindergarten. For the first time in my parenting career, all three of my children were in school full-time. This opened up my schedule to tackle a couple of IRONMAN Triathlons in 2024, including a full 140.6-mile event, which had become a "Bucket List" item for me. I had already completed 13 marathons, many half marathons, and scores of other races and relays, and I felt an itch to complete what I viewed as the "Granddaddy" of endurance feats. After crossing the finish line in just under 15 hours, I officially "retired" from racing, which I had been doing since age six—when I ran my first 5K road race.  

In 2029—a couple of years after the publication of this, the SEVENTH Edition of the SAL Textbook—I will turn fifty (50).

Here is a brief recap of the first half-century of my life...

• As a transient, I have moved 48 times to 45 different addresses in seven (7) U.S. States, and two (2) Canadian Provinces in five (5) different time zones across North America.

• As a traveler, I have visited all 50 U.S. States, nine (9) Counties of Great Britain, eight (8) Provinces of Canada, and 10 different countries.

• As a student, I have attended 10 different schools and had 37 different jobs (many temporary) in a dozen different industries. Thirty-one (31) of these positions were wage-earning. Five (5) of them were entrepreneurial.

• As an athlete, I have completed 13 marathons, dozens of half marathons, one full IRONMAN (140.6-mile) triathlon, two half IRONMAN (70.6-mile) triathlons, countless other races and relays, and spent thousands of additional hours playing basketball, football, and a variety of other sports. 

• As a journaler, I have penned many thousands of pages in personal diaries and letters.

• As a poet, I have written over a hundred original poems and published them in a book entitled: Psalms of Life: A Poetry Collection.

• As a writer, I have published nine (9) books, over 500 blog articles, and hundreds of additional articles in newspapers, academic journals, and other periodicals. 

• As a public speaker, I have addressed over 25,000 people in over 800 audiences throughout the United States, Great Britain, and Canada. 

• As a teacher, I have taught high school, coached young athletes, and instructed on countless occasions in religious and spiritual settings.  

• As a thespian, I have written and directed a play and performed in multiple theatrical and film productions. 

• As a church-goer, I have spent tens of thousands of hours in study, worship, service, leadership, and teaching roles.

• As a civilian, I earned the Eagle Scout award and spent many hours in volunteer service in my community.

• As a parent, I have fathered three children and raised them as a stay-at-home dad.

Collectively, this diverse and eclectic array of experiences have added a cornucopia of texture and richness to my education, career, and life.  

I do not share this "Life Resume" to impress you, but to impress upon you the nature and scope of my life's experiences and achievements to date as a means of establishing credibility for all that has come before—and all that will yet come in the balance of this comprehensive Life Leadership textbook.  

Like other people, including YOU, my life has been a tale of triumph and trial, sorrow and success. I have experienced relatively equal measures of anticipation and anxiety, achievement and failure, and ecstasy and agony. Despite the many and deep trials I have faced, my life has been richly blessed in the aggregate of all my experiences. 

I was born into a loving family that resided in unusually peaceful and prosperous parts of the world. While my early life was not marked by financial abundance, I never wanted for any of life's necessities and even enjoyed a measure of luxury relative to the rest of the world.

While I did not become financially wealthy until later in life, I have always considered myself to be rich in relationships, ambition, education, faith, opportunities, memories, conscience, and most importantly, an intrapersonal will to self-manage and self-lead my own life to great heights.  

Working in conjunction and harmony with Serendipity, I credit this will to be a self-action leader as the single most important variable in my life's unusually rich, textured, and successful journey of experiences. 

While OCD and other life challenges have tested me to my core, these riches served as a bulwark—yea, even as an indomitable defense—against terminal failure and permanent defeat. My blessings have stood to soften my heart and keep hope alive in the midst of my life's many refining fires. 

It is my sincere hope that sharing my life's story will further light a fire underneath YOU and inspire you to make the most out of your own existence. As you aim to do so, remember that you are not competing against me any more than I am competing against you. I have unique skills and strengths that you may not. And you undoubtedly have unique strengths and skills that I do not. 

In the end, life is not an interpersonal competition. 

It is an intrapersonal opportunity for YOU to try your best and make the most of the time you have to grow and progress as a self-action leader. 

May you truly make yours count for something special and someone wonderful.

Like this Article? 

Click HERE to read more about Dr. JJ's challenging,

but rewarding SAL Journey in: 

Career Crucibles

In Your Journal

• What are five different benefits you might derive from producing a written record and autoethnography (or analysis) of your own life's journey?

 

—Dr. JJ

Wednesday, September 17, 2025

Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, USA

Author's Note: This is the 480th Blog Post Published by Freedom Focused LLC since November 2013 and the 270th consecutive weekly blog published since August 31, 2020.   

Click HERE for a compete listing of the other 479 FF Blog Articles 

Click HERE for a complete listing of Freedom Focused SAL QUOTES  

Click HERE for a complete listing of Freedom Focused SAL POEMS   

Click HERE to access the FULL TEXT of Dr. JJ's Psalms of Life: A Poetry Collection

Click HERE for a complete listing of Self-Action Leadership Articles

Click HERE for a complete listing of Fitness, Heath, & Wellness Articles

Click HERE for a complete listing of Biographical & Historical Articles

Click HERE for a complete listing of Current Events, Cultural, Philosophical, & Miscellaneous Articles

Click HERE for a complete listing of Dr. JJ's Autobiographical Articles

.........................

Tune in NEXT Wednesday for another article on a Self-Action Leadership related topic.  

If you liked this blog post, please share it with your family, friends, colleagues, and students—and encourage them to bookmark this blog to access a new FREE article every Wednesday.

Click HERE to buy the SAL Textbooks

Chapter 2 Notes 

0.  My LDS Mission President, Richard M. Andrus, who served as President of the Canada Edmonton Mission from 1998-2001, told me this about my OCD at the end of my missionary service.   

1.  Jensen R.B. (1981). Personal Journals of Rex Buckley Jensen. Friday 10 July 1981. Italics added to emphasize SAL lesson learned.  

1a.  A made-up word coined by the LDS Pioneer, Jens Nielson (1821-1906) used to describe the act of sticking to a task until it is complete.  

2.  Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice. Act II, Scene IX, Lines 31-33.

3.  Jensen, J. R., Neck, C. P., and Beaulieu, R. J. (2015). “Self-Action Leadership: A Qualitative, Nomological Expansion of Self-Leadership Theory Rooted in Atmospheric and Astronomical Metaphor.” Journal of Leadership and Management. Volume 3. Issue 1. Pages 13-24. ISSN: 2391-6087.

4.  Jensen, J. R., Beaulieu, R. J., and Neck, C. P. (2018). “The Self-Action Leadership Model: A Qualitative, Nomological expansion of Self-Leadership Theory Rooted in Action Research. Journal of Leadership and Management. Volume 11. Pages 10-30. ISSN: 2391-6087

5.  Jensen, J. R., Neck, C. P., and Beaulieu, R. J. (2018). “Self-Action Leadership: Introducing a Post-Postmodern Philosophy and Pedagogy of Personal Leadership and Character Development.” Journal of Leadership and Management. Volume 13. Pages 167-184. ISSN: 2391:6087

6.  Jensen, J.R., Neck, C.P. (2020). "Introducing a Self-Leadership-Driven, Action Research-Informed, and Character Education-Based Theoretical Framework for Educational, Ideological, and Administrative Balance in the 21st Century." Journal of Leadership and Management. Volume 18. Pages 1-24. ISSN: 2391-6087.

7.  Jensen, J. R., and Neck, C. P. (2017). “The Relation of Religion and Spirituality to Time Management: Examining the Lives and Careers of FranklinCovey Co- Founders – Hyrum W. Smith & Stephen R. Covey.” Journal of Management, Spirituality, & Religion. Volume 14. Issue 4. Pages 281-294.

A Poetic Autoethnography

 

Chapter 2

A Poetic Autoethnography

My Father
Rex Buckley Jensen
Circa 1979

As a young boy, one of my cherished pastimes was perusing the books in my maternal grandmother's home library as well as the bookshelves of my father's home office and schoolroom. My maternal grandfather, a professor of speech and drama, had compiled a library of many thousands of books throughout his life. Although he died in 1964 (fifteen years prior to my birth in 1979), his impressive collection remained in my grandmother's possession until her own passing in 1992. 

As a lad, I spent many hours in her voluminous home library and continually borrowed books to take home and read. After Grandmother's death, I annexed a few dozen or so of my favorites, a few of which remain on my shelves to this day. A similar pattern of annexation played out with my dad's smaller, but still well-endowed library (although now it is even bigger than Grandma Smith's).  

My father is a Renaissance Man.

A land owner/developer and certified general contractor before I was even born, he was responsible for the construction and/or oversight of 57 homes, including the one where I lived for the first seven years of my life and then four additional years in high school. He also built an apartment complex with dozens of units; a project he oversaw and managed for over two decades. Despite his many achievements as a builder, construction work was just a slice of his eclectic career.

Dr. JJ before he was a Doc—circa 2003

I, myself, spent several part-time years

building shelves with my older brothers,

although their skills far outshined my own.

Dad was perhaps first and foremost an entrepreneur, dabbling in a variety of different ventures over the years. These undertakings included such diverse activities as: professional photography, teaching time management seminars, selling trampolines, and constructing custom-built shelves in customer's garages and storage areas.

My brothers and I helped Dad with his trampoline and then later his shelving business. The legacy of this latter venture would extend to his sons and grandkids, who continued the tradition of shelf-building in their college years and beyond. One son (Wayne) still builds shelves to this very day as the owner of "JB Shelving" in northern Utah. The "JB" stands for Jensen Brothers, and Wayne is assisted by several of Dad's grandsons and granddaughters in what has become a very successful business over the years and decades since Dad first introduced us to the opportunity.  

Click HERE to visit the JB Shelving online website and see Dad's legacy alive and well in the 2020s. 

While Dad dabbled—and sometimes immersed himself—in many different avocations over the course of his career, he was first and foremost a middle and high school English teacher, a career that spanned some 20 years when he wasn't anxiously engaged in one of the many other endeavors noted above.

After retiring from teaching, Dad—an eternal optimist—spent many years writing a weekly column entitled "Life is Good," which was published in The San Juan Record—a weekly newspaper based in his hometown of Monticello, Utah. In his 60s and 70s, Dad and his second wife, Marcia, spent many years building a spacious dream home on their own land and mostly with their own two hands.

I know few individuals who are more visionary, ambitious, or hard-working than my father, and I'm grateful for the vision, ambition, work ethic, and communication skills he instilled in me through his remarkable example of personifying these attributes and skills himself.  

Dad's Christmas present
to me in 1989.

Because of Dad's background as an English major (bachelor's degree), communications expert (master's degree) and two decades teaching English in the classroom, his bookshelves (at home and at school) laid bare his passion for great literature—a love he would pass on to me at a tender age.

For example, on Christmas day 1989, I unwrapped an especially memorable gift from Dad. It was a 2,300 page single-volume copy of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare.

I was only 10 years old!

In the front cover, he inscribed a beautifully hand-written (cursive) note that read:

"To my precious Jordan in hopes that this will be the beginning of a quality library for a "quality" mind. I love and admire you so much. 

"I hope you will discover as I have, that some of life's best experiences can be found in great books. Mr. Shakespeare will mean more to you as you grow older, and age gives you the wisdom to appreciate the great truths contained herein.

Love,
Dad
Dec 25, 1989
Mesa, Arizona"

 

While my personal library had already begun to grow at this point in my life, this volume of Shakespeare served as a cornerstone in a collection that would expand to over 500 volumes by the time I had graduated from college. This hefty tome filled with the genius works of the Immortal Bard continues to play a prominent role in my home and office library today, which has now grown to over 1,000 books.

My 1912 Longfellow and 1888 Wordsworth
Poetical Anthologies 

Despite the growth and maturation of my own library, I continue to eye certain gems in Dad's collection. Aware of my covetous glances over the years, Dad has already lovingly gifted me a 1912 copy of Longfellow and an 1888 edition of Wordsworth—both of which he purchased in England while serving as a young missionary in the mid-1960s.

I have further placed dibs on his leather-bound, 3-volume Shakespeare collection and other antique poetry anthologies—all of which he procured in England as a young missionary. When the day comes that Dad travels on to that "far better land of promise," I intend to add these priceless volumes to my library, which will be a nice, albeit minor, consolation prize in comparison to his much greater opportunity of finally getting to meet Henry, William, and William in person!

I'm not gonna lie... I'm a little jealous knowing he'll likely beat me to those special meet-and-greets and conversations in another realm. Meanwhile, Dad's books bought in Britain more than half-a-century ago will be a fine reminder of my wonderful father—for the rest of my own days in this world.    

Main section of my home
library of over 1,000 books.

A voracious reader, talented writer, and prolific diarist, I also know of few conversationalists more enthusiastic and engaging than Dad. Some of our finest tête-à-têtes have occurred on road trips together. In addition to literature and language, we both have a passionate love affair with the open road and have logged perhaps a hundred thousand miles (or more) together in our lives.

Twice I have accompanied Dad on multi-week cross-country automobile jaunts (in 1991 and 2003). On a more recent trip (in 2010) to the Redwood Forests in Northern California, we took to studying vocabulary words together, and even collaborated on a poem that is included in this collection. 

Alfred Noyes
British Poet
1880-1958

Of all the memories I have of Dad during my childhood years, one of my most cherished directly involves poetry. I was an elementary student at the time (perhaps 4th grade) and had just come home from school at the end of my day. When I arrived home, I found Dad sitting relaxedly on the couch. This was unusual because Dad was a school teacher at the time and almost always got home from work several hours after my own school day had ended.

I don't remember why he happened to be home early that day, but I'll never forget what happened next. I don't recall the conversation that prefaced Dad's spontaneous decision to break forth into an oral reading performance, but before I knew what was happening, "English teacher dad" had picked up a book of poems and began to memorably "lend to the rhyme of the poet, the beauty of [his] voice" (1) as he animatedly brought to life Alfred Noyes' epic narrative poem, The Highwayman.

Dad started out quiet and low, almost in a whisper...

"The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees,

The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,

The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,

               And the highwayman came riding,

               Riding, riding,

The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door." 

Then, like a master musician or professional orchestra, Dad began to build into a gradual crescendo as he narrated this classic, nineteenth century, British version of Romeo and Juliet. As he approached the end of PART TWO, he passionately belted out the climactic pre-penultimate stanza...

"Back, he spurred like a madman, shrieking a curse to the sky,

With the white road smoking behind him and his rapier brandished high!

Blood-red were his spurs i' the golden moon; wine-red was his velvet coat,

                When they shot him down on the highway,

                Down like a dog on the highway,

And he lay in his blood on the highway, with the bunch of lace at his throat." (2)

It was enough to put goosebumps on the back of your neck!

Like Romeo and Juliet,
the unnamed Highwayman and his
lover, Bess the Landlord's daughter,
meet a grisly end.

This was followed by the concluding two paragraphs (in italics) which Dad pulled back to once again read quietly and low—the same way he had begun. 

It was a masterful and magical performance by someone who obviously appreciated great verse. 

          I was transfixed!

Poetry was never the same for me afterwards. 

One day, while searching through Dad's office library as a boy, I came upon a little volume that would further change my life. It was a simple, nondescript paperback copy of 101 Famous Poems, edited by Roy J. Cook.

For me, this book fully animated the maxim: Don't judge a book by its cover. Despite its insipid and unimpressive outer appearance, I found its inner contents to contain riches that only scripture could eclipse. More than any other poetic anthology, this relatively brief and diminutive collection of popular English and American works captured my young heart, thus fully engaging my love affair with verse. 

Years later, as a freshman in college, I received $20 from my paternal grandmother (Dad's mom) for my 22nd birthday. I opted to spend my money at a local university bookstore where I purchased a nicer hardback version—my own copy—of 101 Famous Poems. This more robust and visually attractive copy of Cook's classic anthology, purchased in 2001, has gone with me everywhere I've moved the past 22 years and remains one of my prized earthly possessions. Only the Holy Scriptures sit on a higher pedestal in my library—and my estimation.   

My personal copy of 101 Famous Poems

Originally published in the mid-1920s, 101 Famous Poems went through several editions and publications over the decades. My copy (and presumably Dad's) was a 1958 edition. This placed it after modernism had ended and postmodernism had begun to take its place. Cook was cognizant of contemporary culture and the ways in which the world had changed since the book's original publication in the 1920s—near the beginning of the modernist era. 

Cook further recognized that the collective passion for classical poetry that had marked the Romantic Period and Victorian Age had subsided in the modern age of industry and technology, and that educational drifts toward increasing secularization had begun to stymie the use of traditional didactic poetry in public schools.

Facing increased pressure and competition from all sides, poetry's popularity, prestige, and prominence began to fade over time. While the Great War Poets and other modernist bards left a considerable legacy of their own, it was hard to compete with Romantics who were beneficiaries of the era in which they resided. The absence of radio, cinema, and television in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries gave Georgian and Victorian Age writers an unfair edge over their literary successors who would have to compete with new-fangled, popular diversions derived from society's technological and industrial advancement. Without sports, movie, and rock-and-roll legends to compete with, pre-twentieth century poets, along with their fellow writers, painters, stage performers, civic leaders, and statesmen were the celebrities of their age. 

Robert Frost
1874-1963

Aside from rare exceptions in the twentieth century (e.g. Edgar Guest and Robert Frost), poets like Longfellow—enormously popular in his own day—represent a breed of bards that died long ago, perhaps never to rise again in this world. The technology of the twentieth century, and even more prominently in the twenty-first century, has changed poetry and live, stage entertainment in the same way that the Internet has changed broadcast journalism. 

Just as contemporary political giants will never again enjoy the near-ubiquitous audiences that Churchill and Roosevelt enjoyed in the early days of radio, so metamodernist (post-postmodernist) poet-stars must figure out which niche "channel" fits them best, not to mention finding one that will actually air their work.

The age of Wordsworth and Longfellow is gone, perhaps forever.

While the collective demand for traditional poetry has obviously atrophied in the past century-or-so, the fundamental need for poetry and what it offers has not changed since Homer—or Adam, for that matter. Cook eloquently captured this need in his preface to the 1958 edition of 101 Famous Poems.

Said he:

"This is the age of science, of steel—of speed and the cement road. The age of hard faces and hard highways. Science and steel demand the medium of prose. Speed requires only the look—the gesture. What need then, for poetry? 

"Great need!

"There are souls, in these noise-tired times, that turn aside into unfrequented lanes, where the deep woods have harbored the fragrances of many a blossoming season. Here the light, filtering through perfect forms, arranges itself in lovely patterns for those who perceive beauty."

The concision and cogency of Cook's apology of poetry as a "needed" art hooked me when I first read it back in the early 1990s and I've been a disciple of his philosophy of our "need" for poetry ever since. Yet, finding myself ensconced in the third decade of the twenty-first century, I have been tempted to shout back across the decades and query Cook what all the fuss was about. After all, to a GenXer like me, the 1950s were a simpler, quieter time—not the booming and bustling industrial leviathan Cook alluded to in his preface. Most things are, of course, relative to other times and things, and that is precisely what makes Cook's words so perpetually prescient and relevant to our own age. The genius of traditional poets, "whose distant footsteps echo through the corridors of Time," (3) is found in their rich timelessness—as well as the ongoing relevance and universal applicability of their messages.  

The Great WORDSWORTH
A Poet for All Seasons

A great truism states that: the more things change, the more things stay the same. While a great desire for traditional poetry may have diminished over the preceding century-plus, the "great need" for poetry that Cook wrote about in 1958 has not changed, nor will it ever change—as indicated by the bustling popularity and booming sales of a myriad genres of musical lyrics, which do, after all, share a kinship with age-old patterns of rhythm and rhyme (poetry) albeit set to new and creative melodies, harmonies, and percussion beats.

This is one reason why hip-hop is so popular.    

Psalms of Life invites those in the rising generations to reconsider erstwhile greats in conjunction with contemporary traditionalists who take "the road less traveled" (4) in providing poetic offerings that are best absorbed in solitude and perhaps best enjoyed without the aid of any modern accoutrements.

As foreign a concept as this may be to many in our metamodernist world so deluged by technological devices and flashy sensory stimuli, the value of approaching poetry and literature the old fashioned way remains as effervescent as it is ever-present. Indeed, there are times when radios, televisions, I-pods, I-pads, laptops, and smart phones ought to be turned off. The same holds true for social media platforms. 

Such occasions provide us with glorious opportunities to engage in old-fashioned—but never fully out of style—activities such as thinking, reading, taking a technology-free walk, filling one's lungs with fresh air on that walk, stooping down to smell a flower, tip-toeing up to sniff a spring blossom on a tree limb, conversing with present human beings, and even—as strange as it may sound to some—to simply enjoy being quiet and alone with oneself at regular (and healthy) intervals of time.

One might add to such self-renewing activities the occasional cracking open of a book of traditional poetry—just like Dad did with his memorable reading of Alfred Noyes' The Highwayman that unforgettable afternoon back in the early 1990s when I was just a lad. Such acts provide us with golden opportunities to read, ponder, and reflect upon the classics as well as some more obscure works. You may find that doing so is pleasurable and relaxing—even therapeutic!

As Longfellow invitingly suggests and persuasively implores: 

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"Come, read to me some poem,

   Some simple and heartfelt lay,

That shall soothe this restless feeling,

   And banish the thoughts of day.

Not from the grand old masters,
   Not from the bards sublime,
Whose distant footsteps echo
   Through the corridors of Time.

For, like strains of martial music,

   Their mighty thoughts suggest

Life's endless toil and endeavor;

   And tonight I long for rest.

Read from some humbler poet,

   Whose songs gushed from his heart,

As showers from the clouds of summer,

   Or tears from the eyelids start;

Who, through long days of labor,

   And nights devoid of ease,

Still heard in his soul the music

   Of wonderful melodies.

Such songs have power to quiet

   The restless pulse of care,

And come like the benediction

   That follows after prayer.

Then read from the treasured volume,

   The poem of thy choice,

And lend to the rhyme of the poet,

   The beauty of thy voice" (5).

More ambitious souls may even try their hand at the memorization and recitation of their favorites—a mind-enhancing exercise for your brain that I personally love and highly recommend. I am confident such activities will increase your mental acuity, expand your cognitive clarity, and extend your cerebral longevity—and perhaps even your life!  

Aside from extracting pleasure from the experience, such wading (or immersion) into the pathways of poetry can also prove instructive. Indeed, the pedagogical value of poetry often trumps prose in the same way that Jesus' parables transcend more prosaic, pharisaic, and didactic deliveries of doctrine. Poetic lessons are not only more memorable than prosaic ones, but couplets, quatrains, and other versified reverberations of memory are more likely to spontaneously remind and inspire than the less-likely recall of non-rhyming maxims and facts.  

"The British are Coming!"
Longfellow's famous poem made Paul Revere's 
memorable ride even more famous than it already was.

I was just in grade school when I first heard Longfellow's famous narrative poem, Paul Revere's Ride. At that age, the pedagogical focus of such a work was historical, not literary, and I did not associate the poem with its author at the time. But then I was reintroduced to Longfellow in 101 Famous Poems where I discovered some of my all-time favorites, such as: The Builders, A Psalm of Life, and The Day is Done.

I was hooked!

101 Famous Poems further introduced me to other classics of the English language dating back to the Immortal Bard. Mesmerized and enchanted by the vivid language and delightful prosody of such poetical works, I all but worshipped their authors. Moreover, I learned many life lessons, had other principles powerfully reinforced, and derived much pleasure from my repeated consumption, memorization, and recitation of their work.  

Recent contemporary literary criticism of Longfellow—and others like him—has often been unflattering, diminishing his genius and castigating him as being overly simplistic and didactic. While his work's antiquity has not (nor will it ever) lead to its extinction, it has led to its reevaluation, and almost by default, its devaluation and undervaluation (5a).

Bereft of adequate training and erudition as a poetic scholar, I am unqualified to add my two cents to the canon of scholarly critique; I am a doctor of education, not of letters. As such, my poetical aims are primarily pedagogic, although I will not apologize for my own layman's critique presented in this chapter. I think it is well deserved by those whom I seek to defend, uphold, and champion (i.e. Longfellow, Wordsworth, and Company).   

In my view, poetry should exist for three main purposes. First, it should instruct. Second, it should inspire noble thoughts, speech, and actions. Third, to borrow a phrase from scripture, it should please the eye (and ear) and gladden the heart (6).   

While pleasure is purposely prioritized beneath instruction and inspiration, its importance and value should not be underestimated. As Emerson so eloquently and cogently declared in his famous poem, The Rhodora: On Being Asked Whence Is the Flower

"... if eyes were meant for seeing ...  

Then Beauty is its own excuse for being." (7).

I'm confident Emerson would echo this sentiment as it relates to aural, olfactory, and other sentient experiences as well. 

Second, the more perfect the prosody, the more illuminating the language, and the more eloquent the elocution, the more incisively and effectively the poem will instruct and inspire. Thus, all three purposes may work harmoniously together to maximize the synergy and overall impact of a poem on readers, hearers, and most importantly—students. 

Historically, poetry has been utilized as an important, even an essential pedagogical power tool. From the New England Primer, McGuffy Readers, and Nursery Rhymes of centuries past to School House Rock, Dora the Explorer, and The Wiggles in more recent decades, rhyme is perennially summoned to instruct young—and not so young—students in a variety of subject matters, including personal development and character education.

Poetry belongs in the classroom...
and outside of the classroom.
Poetry belongs everywhere!

My aim is to encourage contemporary educators to reconsider age-old rhymes in conjunction with newly penned verse (perhaps of their own making) to both acquaint students with the beauty of language as well as to equip them with mnemonic devices that bolster curricular recall. 

Simply stated, poetry belongs in the classroom, and not just in English class. I am confident that creative pedagogues of all subjects can find myriad uses for this versatile vehicle of classroom instruction and edification—if only they will. 

From an instrument of basic mnemonics and rote learning in all subjects (including the hard sciences) to a compelling medium for storytelling, narrative history, and critical thinking in theology and the liberal arts—including philosophy and history—poetry can and ought to be tapped by educators everywhere, every chance they get.  

The real magic of poetry in the classroom is found in its capacity for being memorable. To wit: I have long since forgotten many, if not most, of the relatively unimportant factual details I temporarily retained over the course of my eighth, ninth, and tenth-grade English classes. Yet I can still recite Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken verbatim after memorizing it nearly 20 years ago in my 8th grade English class. Or was it 9th or 10th grade English? I can't even remember exactly when I memorized it, but I still have all 16 lines of that 4-stanza masterpiece burned into my long-term memory and can recall (recite) it at a moment's notice.

If you don't believe me, just ask me sometime and I'll be happy to provide you with a spontaneous performance!

How many of us have forgotten a host of scientific and mathematical knowledge learned over the years, yet remember how many days are in each month of the year because of a widely recognizable little ditty, or one of its many derivatives, such as:

"Thirty days hath September

April, June, and November;

February has twenty-eight (28)—alone but fun

While all the rest have thirty-one (31).

Then every fourth (leap) year's extra fine

Cuz February has twenty-nine" (8).  

The Brilliant Benjamin Franklin

Finally, all the instruction I ever received in school on personal development or self-leadership can't compete with the scores of classic one-liners deeply ingrained in my mind from reading Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack. Consider, for example, the following lines called up from my own memory, without the use of any external source material. 

Whether the lesson is on gossip and vitriol...

"A man's tongue is soft, and bone doth lack,

Yet a stroke therewith may break a man's back."

Contentment and simplicity... 

"If a man could have half his wishes, he would double his troubles."

The Wise Dr. Franklin

Or the art of leaving a legacy behind you when you die...

"If you would not be forgotten,

As soon as you are dead and rotten,

Either write something worth the reading,

Or do something worth the writing."

Ask me if that little quatrain has inspired me in my own quest to leave a legacy as a writer and entrepreneur...

YES, it has... on many occasions.  

          THANK YOU, Dr. Franklin!

Yes, poetry makes learning easier—and certainly more memorable, and our most memorable lessons have a way of translating into the most meaningful ones as well. 

In previous generations, poetry in general—and Longfellow's poetry in particular—was once "widely taught in schools" (9). As such, poetry has been—and I would argue, can be again—perennial power in the hands of educators and well-invested pedagogical profit in the minds and hands of pupils. My appeal, therefore, is not only for educators to better investigate how they might utilize poetry in their classrooms, but an even more specific call for a return to the poetic genre that a successful contemporary poet and prolific modern anthologist—Dana Gioia—calls "inspirational didactic verse" (10). 

Regardless of any and all critical disdain scholars have explicitly or implicitly heaped upon traditional schoolhouse classics like Longfellow's A Psalm of Life or The Builders, it is sufficiently obvious as to be self-evident that such poems can provide students with moral education that contribute to the development of upright character and good citizenship. 

Regardless where they may stack up against other poems in the judgment of the critical literati, why not utilize them nonetheless to teach and inspire the development of desirable character traits such as: vision, hard work, patience, persistence, honesty, integrity, enthusiasm, and a positive outlook?

Of course educators, including teachers, coaches, and mentors everywhere can do this—if only they will!

It's hard to see how anyone, regardless of their political or social ideology, could be at serious odds with promoting such values and virtues. Indeed, I can't think of any group—regardless of their platform or pet political projects—that would say they don't value courage, honesty, hard work, determination, fairness, and integrity. Such virtues and characteristics are universally admired and sought-after.

They always have been, and they always will be.

Thus it is that I seek to promote the work of Longfellow—and others like him—who penned verse intentionally in the inspirational didactic genre. And thus it is that I seek to further resurrect this sleeping pedagogical giant by diligently adding my own two cents to the fire (11). 

My own poetry is written for pedagogy and pleasure, and in that order. I also read poetry and other literary genres for the same reasons—and also in the same order and priority. To literary critics who may view my own verse as little more than second-rate parroting of other, better, and erstwhile poets, you will hear little push-back from me. I'm not here to promote myself as a great poet or to try and best Longfellow in a literary sense. My objective is rather to join him—and others like him—by adding my own inspirational-didactic poetical voice to the choir, and then to direct the combined music in the direction of students of all ages. 

Click HERE to buy this BOOK

I am a teacher first and a poet second—not the other way around. My poetry is therefore penned primarily in promotion of a pedagogy of personal leadership in an explicit effort to inspire readers to noble actions and virtuous living as self-action leaders.

The purpose of this pedagogy is to influence citizens of the United States—and beyond—to become better individuals in the promotion of happier families, healthier communities, and more perfect unions around the globe. I write only secondarily to please the senses with the beautiful sights and sounds of well-crafted language. Although I confess I will be gratified if I, in the eyes of any reader, happen to succeed in any way on this item of secondary importance and value (12).  

Tune in next Wednesday to read, Chapter 3: Mentoring Psalmists...    

 

—Dr. JJ

May 24, 2023

Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, USA

Author's Note: This is the 323rd Blog Post Published by Freedom Focused LLC since November 2013 and the 148th consecutive weekly blog published since August 31, 2020.   

Click HERE for a compete listing of the other 322 FF Blog Articles 

Click HERE for a complete listing of Freedom Focused SAL QUOTES  

Click HERE for a complete listing of Freedom Focused SAL POEMS   

Click HERE for a complete listing of Self-Action Leadership Articles

Click HERE for a complete listing of Fitness, Heath, & Wellness Articles

Click HERE for a complete listing of Biographical & Historical Articles

Click HERE for a complete listing of Current Events, Cultural, Philosophical, & Miscellaneous Articles

Click HERE for a complete listing of Dr. JJ's Autobiographical Articles

.........................

Tune in NEXT Wednesday for another article on a Self-Action Leadership related topic.  

And if you liked this blog post, please share it with your family, friends, colleagues, and students—and encourage them to sign up to receive future articles for FREE every Wednesday.

To sign up, please email freedomfocused@gmail.com and say SUBSCRIBE, or just YES, and we will ensure you receive a link to each new blog article every Wednesday.  

Click HERE to learn more about Freedom Focused

Click HERE to learn more about Dr. Jordan Jensen

Click HERE to buy the SAL Textbooks

Chapter 2 Notes:

1).  From Longfellow's poem, The Day is Done. 

2).  Noyes, A. (1926) in Cook, R.J.'s 101 Famous Poems. Chicago, Illinois: The Cable Company. Google Books revised edition. Pages 119-122.

3).  From Longfellow's poem, The Day is Done. 

4).  From Frost's The Road Not Taken.

5).  From Longfellow's poem, The Day is Done in Cook, R.J. (1926) 101 Famous Poems. Chicago, IL: The Cable Company. Good Books version. Pages 109-110. 

5a). See Dana Gioia's article, Longfellow in the Aftermath of Modernism in Disappearing Ink: Poetry at the End of Print Culture. (2004). St. Paul, MN: Graywolf Press.  See also Footnote 12.  

6).  See Doctrine & Covenants 59:18.

7).  From Emerson's poem, The Rhodora.

8).  There are many different versions of this same little ditty. The one printed here is of my own composition.

9).  From Dana Gioia's article, Longfellow in the Aftermath of Modernism in Disappearing Ink: Poetry at the End of Print Culture. (2004). St. Paul, MN: Graywolf Press. Page 56.

10.  Ibid. Page 68.  

11.  "Add my two cents to the fire" is a saying borrowed from one of my best friends, France Nielson, a dentist in Las Vegas, NV.  

12.  The ideas I share in this article were influenced by several essays written by contemporary poet, Dana Gioia, including Disappearing Ink: Poetry at the End of Print Culture, Longfellow in the Aftermath of Modernism, Can Poetry Matter? Notes on the New Formalism, and The Poet in the Age of Prose. I express my gratitude to Gioia and acknowledge his tremendous contributions to contemporary poetry as well as the resurrection of poetic interest in bards of the past. One of Gioia's own poems, Pity the Beautiful, ranks among my all-time favorites.