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Not wanting to bore you, the simple reason is that the rules of email are evolving and we want to be sure we can stay in touch with you … but only IF you want to stay in touch. The only thing worse than getting emails from people you don’t want is sending emails to people who don’t want them. If you don’t want to hear from us, remember the unsubscribe button. However, we really hope you’ll stay.
We are making headway on our Growing Up Aimi series. We just recently surpassed 10,000 downloads!! No kidding.
We have also started on Book #5, tentatively titled – The Penny Difference. Aimi teams up with a young 7-yo child that she baby sits and her near 70-year old father to bring about huge change in the lives of …. well, the book will tell all.
Survey Says!
In our previous newsletter we took a survey of you, the more than 3,000 readers of our newsletter.
The results:
- 11-19 yos – 0.5%
- 20-29 yos – 2.6%
- 30-39 yos – 6.2%
- 40-49 yos – 9.3%
- 50-59 yos – 14.4%
- 60-69 yos – 36.1%
- 70-79 yos – 20.6%
- 80+ – – 10.3%
How cool is that!!?? Two out of three of our readers are OVER 60. Half of our writers are OVER 60. Dad is 67 and Mia is 13.
Our bet is that nearly all of our readers have kids or grand kids that are near Mia’s age. The tagline for our books is – for parents and grandparents of pre- and early teens who love to read.
Notice the double meaning here. For parents and grandparents who love to read and for preteens and teens who love to read.
We include discussion questions at the end of every chapter that are natural segues into meaningful talks that all parents and grandparents would like to have with the future, the young people in their lives.
And example of one of those questions (it shows up in chapter 2 of The Heliuna Academy) is the title of this email/post:
Have you ever felt you are really different from somebody else?
I (Dad) spent nearly 20 years living in the Far East – Japan mostly. However, I spent considerable time in Russia, China and India.
I can say with confidence that every day I lived in Japan I was reminded that I was different from the people I lived among. And, not always with kindness!
The Japanese are not unkind. Or at least I never thought of them as so. They have a word for folks that are non-Japanese. Gaijin, or a more polite form – gaikokujin. They are pronounced – guy jean, and guy coke oo jean respectively. The meaning is outsider and country outsider. They can also mean alien. I was referred that way, without exaggeration, nearly every day. As in every every day.
The Japanese also begin many of their sentences with, nihonjin wa – pronounced knee hoe n jean wah. This means, we Japanese, as opposed to you who are not Japanese.
I’ll repeat myself. I never thought the Japanese were being unkind. They were, however, very keen on the fact that I was NOT one of them, nor would I ever be. I owned a company in Japan. My employees were Japanese. I had personally taught well over 1000 (more) students who were Japanese. I owned a home in Japan, paid Japanese taxes (a LOT of them) … but I was never accepted as one of them, nor would I ever be accepted as such. On the other end of a phone line, the caller could not tell if I were Japanese or not (I learned the language), but that didn’t matter.
I can say with confidence that I have felt and been reminded repeatedly that I am/was different. Yet, here I am, no worse for the wear.
Young people want to be accepted. Peer pressure is real. In the Bible, the Israelites suffered from the ‘be like ’ems’ when they demanded that God give them a king.
What I have learned is that we are all children of one God and that one God sees each of us as one, that is individually, much the way we look at our own kids and grand kids. The lyrics, ” … red and yellow, black and white, we are precious in His sight …” If only …
How about you? Have you ever felt you are really different from somebody else? Please … do tell. Hit reply to the newsletter. We read EVERY email and respond!
The Gift We Promised
We promised to give a gift to everyone who clicked through. Some of you may have this already. If not, this link goes to Amazon and you can download:
Seriously. No strings attached. The book is free at Amazon.
And just for fun … an author friend of mine is giving away a free copy of one his books – Remembering Kaylee Cooper. <= Click to get.
I understand about feeling different. I grew up in Brazil (8 years) with blond hair and blue eyes, so Brazilians always thought I was German. Then, as a missionary kid, my family moved to Texas, and I really felt different, although I looked like the majority of my classmates. After college I lived in France for two years (still a foreigner). A year in Canada was yet another experience. But the most different feeling of all, as with your experience in Japan, was living in West Africa for 15 years where we were constantly addressed as foreigners, and we REALLY stood out. But there are some advantages in being an outsider: we never forget that this is not our real home, we have a perspective that is multidimensional, we have the opportunity to “recreate” ourselves to some extent, we get to learn and experience all kinds of things that our fellow Americans can’t even imagine (speaking as an American), and we can love people who are different from us.
Yes,as a matter of fact I felt I WAS different from others! It was when we landed in Germany 1959 and dad wasn’t able to get quarters for us right away, and he procured a fairly large apartment (5 kids +him n mom) o the “economy” as it was called back then…at first I felt Sooo out of place–picture it–i was quite tall for a puny girl, with buck teeth (with a gap no less! But became to adjust to that when I discovered Lauren Bacall also had a “gap-tooth” smile too!😁) and no idea what the kids were saying to me!!! But learn the language I did (and not because it was required in school) but because I wanted to….I kept several of those first friends for years! The last of my German “economy”friends passed away Jan ’21…. . .to finish, I enjoy the newsletter..I believe I’m one of two 70 yr young! My grand kids range from 9-17 ( all girls ) have a grandson 29 with 2 children 4 and 6!!….—P/
I have many times felt I was different. You see, I was born very small and remained small for most of my life. I have also had a limp for my entire walking life. The older I get, the more pronounced it gets but I am not very self conscious about it after all these years. I am 61 now.