A Letter to My Nephew in 2035

Ah, yes. The epic struggle of trying to give advice. It's never easy. It's even harder when it's supposed to be for someone in the future. But, I shall try.


This is a letter for my nephew Judah. He turns one-year-old tomorrow. I think it's a good idea to have family members write letters for the kids in the future. It will definitely be interesting when they open them.

I did this a year ago for his sister Evelyn. I can't remember exactly what I put in that one, and I'm not going to look at it because I want this one to be its own thing. We shall find out together what I'm going to say.

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It's hard for me to know if the purpose of this letter is for you to get to know me because I'm dead, or if it's to give you some life advice, or a mixture of both, or something else. Let's do a little of both and hope for the best.

I've always been bad at introducing myself, especially by doing something like writing a bio. Here is my attempt from this year, 2018, for a writing project I'm working on.

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No one ever accused Jeffrey Alexander Martin of being normal.

He has (so far):
* jumped out of a perfectly good airplane
* climbed Mount Rainier
* scuba dived with freshwater jellyfish
* whitewater rafted
* wrestled alligators
* run with the bulls
* jumped horses
* bruised ribs luging
* vomited blood in Africa
* received a black eye (and bloody nose!) in a tomato fight
* biked over the Cascade Mountains
* given hundreds of speeches
* broken a bolt in half with his bare hands
* suffers four major spinal deformities
* reads compulsively; and (!)
* still finds time to write on subjects like; economics, psychology, literature, religion, philosophy, and fiction (such as being the co-editor of the international literary project “Horror Without Borders”).

Connect with Jeff at: JeffreyAlexanderMartin.com

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If that website is still hanging around then I had quite a little blog going with over 100 posts that might interest you. I also had a video diary that I posted online. Those would be a good way to get to know me if still available. So, on to the advice.

There are so many things that could be included here, but I'm not sure if any of it is truly that useful considering my position in life (it makes my judgment suspect because I haven't adapted well to life as of yet). In a general sense this might be the best thing that I can say: "If you can try then you can learn. If you can learn then you can progress. If you can progress then you'll find success." (By 2035 the information about how the white matter of the brain develops because of neurons firing causing glial cells to create myelin sheaths while dendrites and axon terminals reach out interconnecting the brain should be awesome. Look into it.)

You might be able to find one of my resumes around online. If you can you'll notice that I'm all over the place. There is an obvious lack of focus. It's hard to give keys to success, but a key to failure is walking this path of non-focus. I have had an interesting life with a lot of interesting experiences. But, because I didn't focus on any one thing long enough to make a difference, I haven't been able to go very far in anything. This key to failure is the best "success" advice that you should take from me presently.

There is a possibility that you're struggling with meaning in life. In that area I can be a bit more useful. Instead of including an essay here I'm going to refer you to Viktor Frankl. His material is amazing. On my favorite books list I have 8 of his books listed. They come with my highest recommendation.

Also, since we're talking about psychology, I highly recommend "Self-Deception Explained" by Jordan Peterson. It's the best formulation I've come across on how people adjust and don't adjust to the world as they try to walk through it. And, there is a part in "Our Inner Conflicts" by Karen Horney that talks about "working through". That's a process I'm playing with right now in an attempt to adjust myself to the world. If it goes well then you will probably know and then it's recommended, if not, well...

There are so many book recommendations that I have. But, this says a lot about me and how I operate. Rather than getting bogged down in researching things like I do, I highly recommended that you jump into things and learn along the way. That's why this letter is going to be pretty short. Life isn't found in a book, or a letter, it's found in the world.

Finally, I wrote a letter like this to your sister a year ago. If you can then I suggest that you share this letter with your sister and see if she will share hers with you.

P.s. I was the one that taught you how to climb stairs. It only took a couple of minutes.

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Well, I think that's pretty good. Maybe. Hopefully. It's pretty darn hard to tell. We will just have to wait and see what the verdict is in 2035.

Here is the letter that I wrote to my niece a year ago.

http://www.jeffreyalexandermartin.com/2017/12/a-letter-to-my-niece-in-2034.html

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You can find more of what I'm doing at http://www.JeffreyAlexanderMartin.com

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