Dr. James Hollis

She recognized this kid's a reader.

So she said to me, you don't have to stay in the children's section.

You can go anywhere you want in the library, which I thought was like having a lot of candy.

I enjoyed that.

And as a child, I devoured the biographies of famous people because I think I was looking for clues about how do you live a larger life.

I couldn't have languaged that.

It was just some deep urge within.

How do you live this life in a way that's more satisfying?

And I was privileged to have some people there, notably teachers and a librarian, who gave permission to that and supported that.

And I'm grateful to them.

So, you know, I think it probably would have happened anyway, but much later in life.

But I look back and I realize there was something there that wanted to go, as I said, to see where the airplanes went.

what the ocean looked like, what it meant to live in a foreign country, what it meant to learn a foreign language.

You know, all of those things were unimaginable to my family.

And I, you know, rest their souls, because I grieve the life they were not allowed to live.

You know, I never forget that.

It causes me to resolve, again, to stop and say, all right, now where are you being blocked today by convention or your old fears or your inhibitions or whatever?

Because there's always a summons to show up.

In fact, in one of the books, I said my motto, which I think about every morning, is very simple.

Shut up, suit up, show up.