Creative nonfiction. Literary journalism. Unpleasant facts are littered through this work like landmines, lovers, literary outlaws, educational malaise, geography, butterflies, rice, luck and sex. He facilitated taught English at The Language Company in Ankara and Bursa Turkey in 2008. He returned in 2012. Creating field notes. A Vietnam veteran, journalist and facilitator of courage he's been gifting luck to people in China, Turkey, Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Burma and Laos since 2004. He showed up to sit for a spell nurturing positive relationships in the long now. Accompanied by Humor and Curiosity he helped students speak English with fluency minus their illusions of fear and phobia's relatives: Fear of taking a risk. Fear of being incorrect. Fear of peer ridicule. Fear of poverty. Fear of starvation. Fear of being ordinary. Fear of success. Fear of abandoning a manuscript by Zeynep entitled The Language Company. Fear of accepting responsibility for their choices. Fear of accepting the consequences. Fear of letting go of old conditioning. Shadows. Fear of being alive and real. Growing. Humor and Curiosity observed parents, schools, and religions fostering passive acceptance, fear, indifference and rote learning teacher controlled systems. It was all about passing exams, not learning how to be more human and think for your self. Status quo. Sheep mentality. Blend in. Questions are forbidden. Authority washes your brain daily. Zeynep, his young genius friend in Bursa, Turkey taught him about life in her totalitarian country. I say what others are afraid to say. Anxiety is a chronic national problem. Adults here are good at two things, eating and fighting. Dissent is terrorism say our corrupt manikin authority figures. Leo, the Chief of Cannibals revealed dystopian China. I spent years carrying word shit in a Re-education through Reform Labor Camp for questioning Authority. Everyone here belongs to the Big Ears, No Mouth society. Oh the shame. Rita, the independent author of Ice Girl in Banlung shared stories about Khmer culture and Cambodian history. We've had twenty years of hopelessness. We breed. We work. We get slaughtered. Poor people see education as a waste of time and money. Rice comes first.I dream I am a free person in a free country. A seven year-old Vientiane kid explained Laos. I develop my authentic character with critical thinking skills, gratitude, abundance and wonder as an independent individual.If you want to do great things you must take great risks and suffer greatly. You either let go or get dragged along. Awareness. Mindfulness. Compassion. It's not about people buying this book, said Zeynep. It's about people reading it. His web site. Journeys: https: //tmleonard.com/
