Last Saturday evening I was sitting at The Village Grind, a wine bar and restaurant located in Wrightwood, California, almost 6,000 feet above sea level in the San Gabriel Mountains, about eighty miles northeast of Los Angles.  Why?  I seldom drink wine, and I wasn’t there to order their chili or other house specialty.

The short answer is that, on impulse, I’d decided to enter a poetry slam held as part of the Fourth Annual Wrightwood Literary Festival. I was at The Village Grind waiting for my turn.

A more comprehensive answer is that Tim Green, editor of Rattle, the literary magazine I founded, moved with his family to Wrightwood to escape the traffic and hassle of Los Angeles.  Even though I appreciate that my own commute is less than ten minutes, there are days when I’m jealous of Tim.

Wrightwood is a tight-knit, community of about four thousand residents in a beautiful mountain setting. You don’t have to drive any scary roads to get there.  Four years ago Tim, with help from his friends and neighbors, founded the Wrightwood Literary Festival in this pleasant but off-the-beaten-path community.

Saturday was the third time I’ve participated and I thoroughly enjoyed each previous festival.  A month ago I decided that this time I would enter the poetry slam.  The problem was that when I arrived in Wrightwood I hadn’t written any poems.  But Saturday morning I was struck by inspiration and wrote three poems I thought were pretty good. I would need three if I advanced to the semifinal and final rounds.  My first round poem was I Don’t Date Poets, or How I Met My Wife.  I thought it was pretty funny.

I was the sixth competitor out of eighteen.  Tim recruited three audience members as judges – no particular credentials or experience required. He told me that the scores always tend to go up for the later competitors.  So my placement was not ideal.

Neither was my score – 21 out of a possible 30.  I had hoped for 25 or more.

Did I make the semifinals?  No.  I wasn’t even close.  So I appeased my disappointment with a baked potato and sour cream, and discovered the upside was that I could just sit back and enjoy the rest of the show. I freely admit that the two poets who tied for first place were both outstanding.

The man sitting next to me was a local. “I was at the poetry slam last year, and loved it,” he said.  “When I heard that it was tonight I had to come.  It’s really fun.”

My biggest motivation for founding Rattle was to bring enjoyable poetry to everyone, so I was delighted to hear this enthusiastic endorsement.

Even if you don’t think you like (or understand) poetry I encourage you to take a look at the Rattle.com website. Better yet, you should sign up for the free daily poem – many are excellent. Even better, come join us in Wrightwood next year. I’ll be there.

Will I enter the poetry slam contest again?  That depends on whether inspiration strikes – but it will have to be sooner than Saturday morning.  As I said, the competition is high quality, and I will have to be better prepared.

Alan

This past Sunday I watched Tiger Woods win the Tour Championship, his first winning golf tournament in five years.  Since I’m a Tiger fan, I was thrilled, but since I also like to be efficient I was playing Free Cell on my iPhone, and thinking about what topic I should write about for my blog at the same time.

Most of us have a preferred way to communicate – in person, in writing (text or emails), or by talking on the phone.  I’m an “in writing” guy.  “In person” is also a good choice for me.  But, for whatever reason, I don’t like talking on the phone, especially on weekends.  In fact, I seldom answer my cell phone unless I know who the caller is and, though I’m not a millennial, I don’t even have a land line at home.

I was enjoying the golf tournament when my phone rang.  The call was from my daughter who lives in Colorado.  I briefly considered not answering, but I almost always take calls from my family.

She was just calling to say “hello.” We had a delightful chat.  As a rule people who call me have an agenda – they want something, or want to share some news, so I was pleasantly surprised by the “just hello” aspect of our conversation.

After we hung up I thought, “That was unusual.  I rarely call anyone other than for work.  I was both surprised and pleased that my daughter called me, and that she has made it a practice to reach out to me regularly, especially over the past few years.  It feels great.

On our call my daughter mentioned that she has also been regularly speaking with my dad, and he has been asking her questions about her life.  She enjoys their long-distance phone visits.

So even though my blog is in writing, I’m putting in a pitch here for phone calls to friends or family “just because.”

Was Tiger’s victory the high point of my weekend?  Almost.

But the real high point of my weekend was a short, friendly phone conversation with my daughter.

Alan

Even if you don’t appreciate math you probably think there is something wrong with my arithmetic.  Four minus one is three, not zero.  Everyone knows that.  But give me two minutes and I will demonstrate I’m right.

Specifically, I will show you how your entire profit from four excellent financial investments can be wiped out by a single loss.

Suppose you have a one hundred dollar bill free and clear from the shackles of rent, food, transportation, or insurance (you do like fantasy, don’t you?).  You’ve thought long and hard and have decided it’s better to have your money work for you than for you to work for your money.  So you resolve to invest.

You want to invest carefully because you don’t want to lose your money, so you decide to convert your one hundred dollar bill into five twenty dollar bills (check out my math on this). Then you invest twenty dollars in five separate investments.

You can invest in whatever you like.  Your daughter or son’s lawn mowing business would be fine.  Your friend’s expedition to Las Vegas, maybe not so fine.  If you decide to invest in the stock market I suggest you check with me first because my timing there has been terrible for years.  (Hint:  I’m not invested in the stock market right now.)

What annual rate of return should you expect?  In general, I would say that ten percent is not unreasonable. That is two dollars profit every year on a twenty dollar investment,

But let’s assume you are an extraordinary investor, or just plain lucky, and on four of your twenty dollar investments you actually earn a fifteen percent return.  That’s twelve dollars in profit on eighty dollars invested.  Fifteen percent! Good for you!  You might be tempted to reinvest your twelve dollars, along with the original eighty, for even more profit next year, but the concept of compound interest is a topic for a future blog.

To summarize so far – you now have four profitable investments, and twelve dollars more than you started with.

But, alas, your judgment, or luck, or pizazz, ran out on your fifth investment and – handkerchief please – you lost twelve dollars. From the original twenty you only have eight dollars left.  That’s depressing.  And it happens all the time.  Even to me.  Even when I invest with a reputable money manager.  Stuff happens.

But when you subtract your twelve dollar loss from your twelve dollar profit, what are you left with?  Nothing.  That’s the zero.  So four (profits) minus one (loss) equals zero.

Do I suggest that instead of investing you spend your hundred dollars on wine, weekends, and whack-a-mole?  That’s entirely up to you.

But I do suggest that if you do invest you consider being careful, because one large loss can wipe out all, or more than all, of your profit.

The same idea applies equally to other areas of your life.  I have been known to occasionally drive a little faster than the speed limit.  My profit was the time I saved in transit.  But three time over the years my entire time-profit was erased when another driver unexpectedly turned left in front of me.  The time I spent in the emergency room and in arranging for body work for my car was much greater than the few minutes I saved on all of my other driving trips put together.

Four minus one equals zero.  So be careful with your investments and, especially, when you drive.

Alan