Now Reading: Napolean Hill's THINK AND GROW RICH

I'm reading Napoleon Hill's THINK AND GROW RICH. I've read so many self-help books that this one seems to be saying many of the same things. 

Of course, that's because this is the granddaddy of all self-help books, written just after the Great Depression; a lot of writers since then have excerpted and paraphrased it. 

I'd love to rewrite it in today's vernacular; although accomplished in many ways, Hill was (sorry to say) not a very good writer by today's standards (or else the person who wrote it for him lacked the ability).  Perhaps he was considered a good writer back in the day, but today it seems pedantic and dated. The way he wrote slows it down and makes it more tedious than it ought to be. 

That said, it's a valuable, valuable treatise about why only some people succeed greatly while hordes of others fail, even though all Americans have access to the same ability to gain great wealth (unless there is something amiss at birth where mental faculties are concerned).  I've come to learn, reading it, that the professional (writing) success I've had would have been predicted by Hill--and my financial insecurity, too!  It's a great primer on what it takes to succeed in life in all ways, not just financial. 

My chief shortcoming is that I've never pursued great wealth (money just hasn't been that important to me unless I've had too little of it and, to me, "too little" is too darned little! I can't tell you how many times I've had under $100 to my name in the past few years!). Hill makes it very clear that unless you pursue financial security (or anything else, for that matter) the way a suitor pursues a prospective mate, you're highly unlikely to ever attain it!  I just have to make "earning lotsa money" as pressing a goal as "being a great writer" if I ever want it to happen... and I do... I do.

So I'm nurturing the idea seriously now.  It's time. Dont'cha think?

In Other News:

It should come as no surprise: it's snowing here in Tacoma (at long last). What's surprising is that there has been so little snow here for the past several years. This is the first time this year it has stuck to the ground (in fact, I don't recall seeing any this year until now)--and there isn't much of it. I'd call it a dusting where I am...



It was a little dicey getting to church this morning to supervise the nursery. There was more snow then, and our road doesn't get plowed unless there's a lot of it. I avoided the hills by going out another way, but by the time I came back, I was able to travel the hilly way without incident--it was wet and clear until I got back to my road, where it got dicey again.



I'm glad it isn't slated to last, and I'm glad Jackie doesn't have to work tomorrow (MLK Jr Day) so she won't have the worry of chaining up if the temperature drops tonight and we get more snow.


What else?  I bought my two geriatric kitties some seriously-expensive food yesterday. They're 15 1/2 and one of them, Archie, was beginning to lose a little conditioning...so I decided to go whole hog and get him a top-of-the-line dry cat food (and a few cans of quality canned food, too) that has no grains whatsoever in it.  He wolfed it down for a half hour (off and on) when I got it home, as did Ashley.  I've been feeding them grocery store cat food for several years--not the expensive stuff.  (You get what you pay for.)  I figure they'll be with me a couple more years (God willing) so I'd better spring for the good stuff if I want to be sure I'm meeting their nutritional needs 100%.