Amazon Living the Dream Deferred Category:  Self-Help Publisher: Firebird Rising ISBN-10:  0986332100 Type: Non-Fiction Pages: 276 Copyright: Jan 15, 2015 ISBN-13: 9780986332104 Price: $5.00 (eBook) A Boomer's Reconnaissance, Rumination,& Redemption on the Road Reinvention Join former high school principal, RW Klarin on an odyssey from Marfa, TX to Maui, from Ram Dasss to Marley, from the Darkside of the Moon to Jung’s Red Book as he searches for redemption. After taking early retirement this Berkeley grad and card carrying , 70s counter-culture dreamer, soon discovered that a routine of jazz clubs, margaritas, and tennis was not enough. He knew something needed to change. Taking inspiration from the famed Langston Hughes poem, Klarin embarked on a vision questing, soul searching adventure to not just find the dream deferred, but start living it. In this book, he shares his inner turmoil, insights, and victories while exploring a wide range of reinvention strategies, esoteric personalities, and unusual locations. At times a vivid travelogue, at others times musings about everyday adventures in his home town of Ocean Park/ Venice, CA, Living the Dream Deferred offers a distinct counter-cultural perspective on retirement. Although written for the Boomer generation, Klarin’s ideas of reinvention, creative expression, and purposeful living apply to all.      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQpCHcKcYAc&list=PL1powFrZOSjXGmaikjz-l147eBUFM6Z_A Excerpt Open the Last Door and Wake Up! Why do you run around sprinkling holy water? There’s an ocean inside of you and when you’re ready, you’ll drink. —Kabir The true vocation of man is to find the way to himself. —Hermann Hesse A time of reckoning had arrived, suddenly, banging in my head. Sixty was a major turning point for me. Inescapable—I was now one of the older generation. Coming from a generation that made a cult of youth veneration, this was a tough awakening. How could I blame the ‘old’ people? How can I be young when my body has numerous aches and pain? How do I look for a soul- mate when my mental pictures are still thirty years old? How do I find right home when I don’t have to commute? In other words, how do I live my maximum life now that forty years of adulthood have passed and old dreams are waking up? Facing this phase of life with honesty, optimism, and joy presented a different challenge, perhaps more challenging, than the ‘career’ phase. Basic needs ruled; making money, building a professional career, healing neuroses, and buying a home and luxury car—for many marrying and raising a family, and for others traveling the world. And maybe seeking enlightenment. There is more to life than the job or career, but many of us don’t know how to begin again. Or as I say, refire—as in ‘I’m fired up.’ Is my life about playing more tennis and traveling every month? Returning to the old job as a consultant or substitute? Learning to play guitar? Starting a business? Pursuing that long forgotten art? Volunteering for a worthy cause? Questions such as these vexed me. Shifting into the after-work phase or 3rd Chapter, as one writer calls it, was an opportunity to at last live that long-forgotten dream. Other facets of one’s char-acter may have been suppressed by the exigencies and practical aspects of life. Now, there was an opportunity to liberate myself and experience authentic happiness in the final act. Not the ‘smiley face’ leisure of our parents or grandparents, but the deep satisfaction of completion of inner purpose. And we continue to be role models for the younger generations who are watching, listening, and learning from us Boomers. We have had an exciting time for the last forty years; let’s make the next phase our crowning glory. As the old hit song by the Chambers Brothers said, ‘Time has come today, won’t come another day.’ And as I say LIVE the DREAM DEFERRED! Inner Journey: Reflect on your self-concept at 20, 30, 40: What were your fears, insecurities, and questions? What was your dream of the future; home, work, relationships, and emotions. Action Steps: Select and write a paragraph describing an old dream to revive or if you have none, create one. Do one thing to act on that vision.

Review for Living the Dream Deferred
A book of many angles. Written in a simple language that mixes the popular and the professional. A narrative that flows with the rhythm of poetic prose, the popular culture and the culture of the middle class youth and the college graduate adult. This book reflects a sector of the population of California that became of age during the Viet Nam War. It is structured in short chapters. One, two, three pages. Each expressing one moment in time. One experience and one question. All adding up to the ultimate question: WHAT IS LIFE?. The book is a search for the meaning
of life. Ran speaks for the mostly middle class youth indoctrinated in the 1776 European ideals of "equality. freedom and fraternity" modified by the American political, social and economic circumstances of the times to "inalienable God given rights of freedom of speech, the right to be secure in their person and property, the pursue of happiness and equality for all. Plus the separation of state and Church. The Bill of Rights for the business class and the landowners. Ran represents the California middle class youth caught between dreams of freedoms, the pursue of happiness and foreign imperial wars, a growing police state and disenchantment.
This book can be read as great Literature, Anthropology, Philosophy, Sociology' History, a class study, Neuro-Psychology. And for those so inclined, as "spiritual".
I will say no more. It is up to the reader to enjoy the search for his own questions.