*Typing*

Many believe that Charles Bukowski was an anomaly––and he certainly was to a degree––but what a lot of folks overlook is that the late writer and poet was very much a student of the game. In a poem titled, The First love, he writes...

"I had my own bedroom but at 8 p.m. we were all supposed to go to sleep: 'Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise,' my father would say. 'Lights out!' he would shout. Then I would take the bed lamp place it under the covers and with the heat and the hidden light I would continue to read: Ibsen, Shakespeare, Chekov, Jeffers, Thurber, Conrad Aiken, others. They brought me chance and hope and feeling in a place of no chance, no hope, no feeling. I worked for it. It got hot under the covers. Sometimes the lamp would begin to smoke on the sheets––there would be a burning; then I'd switch the lamp off, hold it outside to cool off."

Bukowski's writing gives the impression that he did not give a flying fuck but I can assure you a man who grew up reading Shakespeare and Chekov most certainly gave a fuck. Make no mistake, Bukowski was a student of the game.

U2 began as a cover band.

They'd learn poor renditions of other artist's songs, climb on stage and just bang away in front of an audience that had never heard the violent beauty of an electric guitar.

One day, they traveled sixty miles to the small Irish town of Mullingar where they played their covers. After the show, they were cornered by a local who said, "If we wanted to hear cover versions, there are plenty of bands around here who can play them just as badly."

After this confrontation, U2 decided to start writing and playing their own original material.

Copying other people's work is a great place to get started and an effective way to learn a craft

But, it's a piss poor means of leaving behind a legacy.

A Zero Sum Game is when there must be a loser for there to be a winner. It's when one person's loss allows for another person's gain. Chess, Tennis and Poker are all Zero Sum Games.

Zero Sum Games are a hell of a lot of fun to play. They're competitive. They're challenging. They're thrilling. They're worth participating in when the rules are clear and the games have specifically been designed to end in victory or defeat.

However, Folks get themselves in trouble when they treat the entire goddamn world like a Zero Sum Game; when they believe that in order to win in life, work and love, somebody else has to lose.

This kind of thinking will almost certainly result in a lifetime of stress, pain and heartache... regardless of your own success.

Here's the honest to goodness truth:

Both you and your colleague can enjoy your jobs. Both you and your best friend can have a body you're happy with. Both you and your neighbor can live in a home that feels like home. Both you and your ex can forgive, learn, grow and go on to find love.

Isn't this a lovely way to live? To live with the belief that everybody can win.

You don't want to meet your Doppelgänger.

At least not according to German Folklore, where a Doppelgänger is your malevolent spirit double intent on seeing to your ruin.

In The Double, Fyodor Dostoyevsky writes of an unlucky man who crosses paths with his Doppelgänger. The man is driven mad by his Doppelgänger's tremendous success who has triumphed everywhere the man has failed.

Eventually, the Doppelgänger kills the man and exists in his place.

While creepy as hell, the German Folklore interpretation of a Doppelgänger fascinates me because it represents the dreams and aspirations we have for ourselves and how quickly those can morph into something that looks akin to a nightmare.

In On The Waterfront, Marlon Brando wrestles with his own Doppelgänger as he reflects on his career as a failed prize fighter, "I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody."

The only way you kill your Doppelgänger, is recognizing you were somebody before your dreams and that you will continue to be somebody after them; whether you're lucky enough to achieve them or not.

Buddhists believe that we experience suffering when we want life to be different than what it is. If you share this belief, then the only way to rid yourself of suffering is to find acceptance in each of life's moments. This doesn't mean you won't experience pain. Life is scattered with painful moments: heartbreak, disappointment, injury, illness, death, debt, etc. But, pain isn't the same as suffering. Pain is what you feel when you stub and break your toe. Suffering is what you feel when you refuse to accept the fact that your toe is broken. Most of us spend the entirety of our lives refusing to accept the realities we find ourselves in. Because of this, we suffer greatly.