Lately, I’ve been getting a lot of questions from friends and family about “Stranger Advice”. You see, as a career graphic artist/musician, playing the role of a talk show host isn’t what most people who know me thought I would ever do… and I admit… had you asked me three months ago about this I would have laughed hysterically.
So the big question is the question of “Why?”.
Around the beginning of 2011, I started a new job working for a large for-profit trade school as its Graphic Art Supervisor. Having spent most of the last decade wandering thru meaningless jobs, trying to be an entrepreneur and stumbling across the stages of dive bars and stadiums alike… I hadn’t been in a corporate environment in many years and wanted the financial security it offered. Needless to say, it wasn’t long before I was in cubicle-hell and remembering why I swore to never again breathe the stale air or drink the leftover coffee that looms in those places. Regardless, I sat there day in and day out with more time to think than I wanted or needed… always finishing my work early and wasting the minutes until the whistle blew.
After a few months, I started to seeing changes… in both myself and those around me. Life had quickly become negative and I found that most of my relationships were slipping away or fading. I could never seem to get a good nights’ rest and my days were no longer filled with any sort of joy outside of what my family and close friends offered. My hobbies dwindled. I stopped training jiu-jitsu. Sunny days weren’t as bright. It quickly became overwhelming.
Trying to separate the fog, I started thinking about why things were so bad. I mean… I have a beautiful wife, awesome kids, great friends/teammates and money in the bank. There simply was no explanation I could come up with that made sense so I started searching for answers to the obvious questions. Was I depressed? Going crazy? WTF?
No… I wasn’t.
In fact, I wasn’t depressed at all. I discovered it was something much worse…I realized I was feeling hopeless. Back at square-one, I asked myself the same question… “Why?”.
A short bit O’ history: As a kid, I was raised in a strict Christian environment that led to the realization in my late-teens/early-twenties that religion was not for me. Because of the radical views and dogma I came to understand as being “the truth”, I struggled for years afterwards with the notion of eternal damnation and the fear that my separation from the church would ultimately come back to bite me in the ass when I least expected it. I was a gone’r for sure or so I thought.
At 26, I married my love Melissa and became distracted from such things… she had very little religious conviction and the topic of “God” rarely came up, if at all, which suited me just fine. Ultimately, I determined that religion and all of it’s affiliates were total bullshit… a line of crap that we are taught to prevent us from living day in and day out with the fear of our deaths looming in the forefront of our thoughts. Besides, there isn’t a “loving god” who would run such a horrible business in my opinion. Accordingly, I did my best to forget about religion and God completely.
But I didn’t.
Back to now: Like a magnet, I found myself drawn to anything that could provide clues to the way I was feeling and what was happening to me. Hours of www searching lead me only a short distance until I stumbled across the work of Graham Hancock, Daniel Pinchbeck and a group of other activists/researcher/scholars who were teaching something very different than what I thought I was looking for. They teach about ancient Egyptian technologies, Mayan prophecy and ultimately, the coming “age of awakening”… which I knew nothing of but found very compelling.
As my search continued I discovered even more outlets… Project Camelot & Avalon, the work of Richard Dolan, Jim Marrs, Richard Hoagland and Nassim Haramein. (Just to name a few.) The problem was… these messages all were rooted around a notion I couldn’t buy into or completely understand… unidentified flying objects, alien influence over history and metaphysics. Remember… I made the choice to not believe “anything” as a standard after denouncing religion. I wasn’t a fare-weather atheist and UFOs fit perfectly into the stew of BS that had been cooking my whole life.
At some point a message came thru loud and clear I couldn’t ignore… somewhere between the little green men and the DMT, I started to understand what was happening… what IS happening… and it has nothing to do with anything a god, aliens or any info a researcher could provide. It has to do with something much more material and real.
This was about ME and ONLY me.
The answer was simple and right under my nose the whole time… my perception of the world had become skewed by the void that I felt regarding the purpose of my life, what I should be and who I should be. I had no direction… just potential. I had no success… just intention. I couldn’t think of one thing to show for the thousands of steps I’ve taken in life. I was having a mid-life crisis… or so I thought.
Still avidly researching, I continued to listen to the testimony from people with all types of beliefs and perspectives… all with an open mind. Most testimony I dismissed, but those that stuck with me all seemed to have the same repeating underlying message… an awakening of sorts was certainly to come. And it was coming very, very soon... but when? If there is some sort of divine or mystic process that would bring it on faster I wanted it. If this “awakening” was to be so profound and enlightening I wanted to know where to buy my ticket. I don’t have time to wait until Dec 2112! I want it now! Like a message delivered by hand from Paul Revere, that ticket came in the form of something very unexpected… a mirror.
Despite all of my research I had been missing the one key ingredient most important for REAL change … honesty. I wasn’t being honest with myself about anything. Accordingly, I was blaming everything else but myself. I was focusing on changing everything else but myself. And ultimately, I was being everything else but myself.
Yeah, yeah, yeah... so how does my religious background, horrible career, failed friendships and UFOs relate to me doing an internet based radio show, you ask?
Well… it was thru the process of learning about these things that I became exposed to the people and information who provided me with a new direction towards obtaining the critical tools I was missing to realign myself with what is positive… to start living and feeling better. I had been staring at the library walls while the great minds of history were begging at my feet… and the books were like the faces I passed everyday. It was thru this process and their perspectives I learned how to reclaim my identity, find center and start to grow.
A few months ago, that big corporation I was working for downsized and once again I found myself scanning the employment want-ads… looking for my next venture. Back to square…. two?
No. Absolutely not. No way. Not this time.
You see… this time it’s different. I’ve gained an understanding I’ve never had. Before, I held just two boxes… one black and one white. Now I have a third box and it is BIG and grey.
Rather than just sitting here and rotting… rather than feeling bitter about my plight and allowing myself to slide right back into the same-ole patterns... I started looking for ways to spend my time with purpose and utilize my talents to their fullest potential. Having received a brand new, top of the line iMac with every program under the sun as part of my severance package, I discovered it was loaded with audio/video editing software I previously did not have access too… software I know how to use very well. Armed with this expensive, digital sword… I decided I would do a little battling and “Stranger Advice” is the result.
The greatest and truest message I have ever embraced from my research is that honestly and love breed honesty and love. To continue giving ultimately leads to continual receiving. This is something that resonated as a common frequency amongst the lecturers I mentioned and they all seemed to be living very full lives... not just rich ones. In a moment of inspiration, I decided to take the time I have and the talents I possess and do something that could make a difference. I am convinced it is exactly what I should be doing.
Why?
It’s because when you continue to learn, live honest, love much and practice giving rather then just taking... you begin to understand what your purpose is… what you are here to do… what all of these steps in life have added up too.
In the end, this is what we all want and need. Fortunately, we don’t need god or aliens for this. There isn’t a lecturer, conspiracy theory or a paranormal specialist that can do these things for you. For me, they are simply reminders to remain open minded because this world is filled with much that is misunderstood and unknown. Accordingly, it is thru the continued pursuit of knowledge and new wisdom that we grow and I now understand this was my sole problem to begin with. It was the moment I put down my bag full of complaints and blame, looked at myself for who I am and not what I wanted to see, and started looking for answers that I started to blossom.
It is my hope that by hosting/producing this show I will continue to do so... and so far, it’s working out perfectly. The biggest perk and purpose is that I hope to help others. Make no mistake, I never forgot the concept of happiness. Instead, I lost the concept of saving a little for myself while being committed to passing it on to others. "Stranger Advice" is all about learning from people you don’t know...hence the name. If it provides just one listener only half the motivation it has given me for change, I’ve succeeded... and it won’t be the last time, I promise. Rest assured, I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon.
Onward and Upward,
- Jz
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