Notes

Hey Corin,

I am that french fan who brought a crazy old «parker lewis style» shirt in the convention in Paris, in last October I think (see my firtst tweet). There’s something I meant to tell you at that convention, but of course I was too impressed to tell you much that day. I think that during this hard time, it might do you good to hear about my experience with Parker Lewis.

When I was in high school I watched Parker Lewis on TV every afternoon and I always loved it! A few years ago, I came back to it, and realized it had quite an influence on me. I probably always was an optimistic kind of guy, but I am totally sure that Parker Lewis philosophy made my life easier. This cool guy, always looking at the sunny side of life, is my first role-model!

My girlfriend and I went for a wwoofing trip around the world in 2010 and 2011 (wwoofing is a system in which you go work in a farm somewhere, and they don't pay you with money, but they give you food and accomodation; It's a great way to travel almost for free ans discover the real life of people there).
We went in India, Japan and USA, 3 months and 2 farms in each country. I know that you've been in India and you like Indian Music, then I guess you had a better experience than we had in India. Probably partly because of us (couldn't speak hindi) and partly because of the people we met, and also because wwoofing is probably not the best way to enjoy the country (as you only see the real hard life of farmers there), we didn't have a very good time there. Especially we were kind of annoyed of Indian people always sayng "no problem, no problem" when a problem arose, like when some kind of bugs and worms were falling on us from the roof at night :)

Then, a few months ago, I was telling some german friends about this particular experience, then also about Parker Lewis and his philosophy: "Not a problem". They pointed to me that the Indians said just like Parker Lewis! But then I actually realized there was a difference: In India, we felt it as if people were denying problems, trying not to see it, when Parker Lewis says that there's no problem big enough to be unsolvable. You can always sort things out, or anyway realize that it's not such a big problem.
And it's funny because just as I am writing this I'm wondering if I didn't misunderstood the indian philosophy. Ultimately, maybe it's like Parker Lewis': when life is hard, all the little problems you thought were very bad seem much less important. And that bugs problem was probably not a big deal compared to the general roughness of their lives, it was actuelly "not a problem"...

Well, this is a bit long and I'm not sure I'm clear!
What I mean is that Parker Lewis taught me to be optimistic, stay cool, and take life as it comes. I never had really tough times in life, like the death of someone very close, a bad injury, or big problems with money, but every time I got a problem, I try my best to stand back and, again, look at the bright side of life.

Of course I'm sure absolutely sure you're not a cry-baby, and you seem to be in a very rough time. I just wanted you to know how Parker Lewis is important in my life, how glad I was to be lucky enough to meet you (and will be to meet you again, I hope!), and I hope it's gonna help you to get through your recovery process, and again, keep your big smile!

All the best,

Jan MINNE,
Dieppe, France



PS: if you wanna think about something else and are interested by our trip, here's the address of our blog: www.claireetjan.blogspot.com. And if at some point you need to talk to someone new or something like that, just contact me (this sounds like the worst line in a Z-movie...). But you don't have to, of course. You do just what you want. I don't want you to think I'm an unbalanced desperate nemecaholic :-)
Take care and get well soon.