In 1984, well into an incredibly successful career, in a moment of stupidity, Tom Petty punched a wall and severely damaged his hand, causing his doctor to assure him he would never play the guitar again.

Unwilling to accept this career-destroying prognosis as de facto, he picked up his guitar every day. Touching, holding, thinking, praying.

One day, after months and months of healing and hoping, he picked up his guitar and he played this song…as he will tell you at the top of the song link that I sent below.

We grew up with Heinz ketchup telling us that anticipation is a great thing and in some cases it absolutely truly is, but in most cases, waiting sucks.

You might be waiting to find out the results of your final exam, or a career board exam, the results of a medical test, or waiting for financing to hit your bank, or waiting for someone to let you know where they stand or a host of other scenarios.

I believe it is the human condition to take all of the negative possible outcomes of the circumstance that you are waiting for and play them out over and over and over in their excruciating detail, while you wait.

Today, we find ourselves waiting for our nation to recognize that a virus cannot be ignored. We watch the incredible political divide cause people who might otherwise be intelligent enough to act in proper fashion to instead presume that the best thing that can happen is to just ignore the reality that is surrounding us. This leaves the rest of us in a host of disastrous circumstances through which we must navigate.

If you find yourself waiting for something that feels interminable and there does not appear to be immediate resolution, the waiting is even more excruciating because the potential for an end in sight is evermore distorted by the reality that many people around you are living in a delusion supported by delusion-oriented politics.

Sometimes waiting is the only option available. There is no proactive measure that you personally can take that will solve the bigger picture. Sometimes the best you can do is be exemplary in your behavior and your actions in hope that others will either fall in line or perish from their indomitable stupidity.

As Tom shares below, at some point you finally get to pick up the guitar and play again. I’m hoping that day is soon❤️

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Written by Brian Weiner
When I was 5 years old, I discovered that the lemon tree in the backyard + dixie cups + water and sugar and I was in business. I have been hooked on that ever since. In 1979, I borrowed $14,000 to create a brand new product... photographic greeting cards with no text on the inside, called Paradise Photography. That was the start of The Illusion Factory. Since then, The Illusion Factory has been entrusted by all of the major studios and broadcasters with the advertising and marketing of over $7 billion in filmed, live, broadcast, gaming, AR, VR and regulated gaming forms of entertainment, generating more than $100 Billion in revenue and 265 awards for creativity and technology for our clients. When I took a break from film school at UCLA to move to Hawaii, my mother did not lecture me. Instead, she took 150 of her favorite aphorisms and in her beautiful calligraphy, wrote them artistically throughout a blank journal. That is the origin of the Lessons from the Mountain series. Since then, on my journeys to the top of a mountain to watch the sunrise, I have spent countless hours contemplating words of wisdom from the sages of all races, genders and political persuasions, constantly accumulating the thoughts to guide me on my life path. I hope you enjoy my books. Please let me know your thoughts, as I highly value your feedback!