My Life Journey...

I have never mentioned my Pre - Ifa life to viewers of this site. Yet, without the understanding of who I had been, it is impossible to evaluate what I have become.  To understand that certain things, like being successful, keeping my eye's on "something", and my refusal to accept doing the same thing, even as I was bored, all have relevance to my life today.   So, allow me to condense thousands of pages, into a paragraph or two… 

Initially I wrote and produced several television shows. From the "Jessie Owens" Sportscast to the "Phil Lind Interview - For Adults Only". The show won me an Emmy, and after seeing I had reached the Pinnacle of my success in Chicago, I explored a few months in California, deciding very quickly that it was not for me.     It propelled me to my second career.   I had always been interested in finance, so I became a floor trader on what was to become The Chicago Mercantile Exchange, where I embarked on the singular task of making money.  I traded for my own account, and after a couple of years, being part of the International Money Market where we traded currencies, gold futures etc. it lost all interest for me and I became very bored.  Along the way I had built a retail operation, with branch offices throughout the United States, but even that failed to hold my focus.  

So, following a propitious illness, I decided to retire to Florida…of course taking my family with me. There, a tennis career, at age 30 seemed a little non-sensible, and of course, after several months, much shorter than my usual pace, became totally bored. So, I took something I had been doing before and decided to see what would happen. I had always traded...for myself - but quickly decided that in the vast yet, unexplored rolls of Market Letters… I would write a monthly letter which would tell people what I, a professional trader, was doing. They were free to follow it, or ignore it! 

At the same time my older brother, a published author of over 39 hard cover books, arranged for me to write a column in Consumers Digest Magazine, where I would analyze, financial markets... People seemed to like it a whole lot, and shortly thereafter, the publisher asked if I would consider returning to Chicago, and creating a new magazine, "Money Maker", on the stock market and writing the lead column of each issue.. As my boredom had negatively impacted my marriage, and the death of our son a contributing factor, returning "home" seemed like a great idea. Together the Publisher and I agreed, threw in his promoting (and sharing with) promoting the Market Letter, we created the third largest Market Letter (at that time) in the business. It was something designed, as so much of my life had been, to make me untold amounts of money, and to bore me to death...If you sense a theme here, you are sure right.   Each and every decision I had made in my life was a "bad" financial choice. No business was in trouble, it was simply that after I found myself "learning" all there was to learn, about each and every endeavor, I was bored. And then I moved on.  

While still living in Florida I had "accidentally" stumbled into Ifa (or Santeria as it was known). Little did I realize there are NO COINCIDENCES! 

In retrospect I was "saved" by Ifa. What had started by assuaging the wife's of my tennis player buddies in Florida, turned into a lifelong career...one that never would, never could, bore me ever again. There was always more to learn, and to do. Now at almost 76 years old, I am blessed to have found something so powerful, meaningful and potentially life affirming as Ifa. I have not scratched the surface...nor will l. My wife Vassa also left a hugely successful career in Interior design field and became the highest order Nana Priest of our religion, but most noteworthy…she created our Sacred Orisha Gardens which will stand the test of time. .. 

There is a moral here...about riches not giving me pleasure, about our society and what must be avoided, and yet has been learned. The use of these things is not the absence of wealth, but knowing how to use it...not to worship it. I have learned a great deal in the last 40 years, but the essence is… I love my work, I love my wife of 35 years, and I love Ifa. You are invited to experience the rest of the journey.

Comments

[Rosa]

Hello, I need advice regarding how to handle my parents' Santeria items that were left in their home. They died and were cremated as per their wishes and left no instructions as to what to do with their religious items. These include soup tureens and beaded necklaces. I was estranged from them and now have to deal with these religious items. I am not religious but I respect other people's beliefs. I have been told that Santeros should not ask for cremation but this is the case here. Thank you for any advice.