Home»Blog»blog»Men: A Guide to Healthy Aging, a Chapbook by Robert Pasick
A chapbook is a small book or pamphlet. Traditionally, chapbooks are inexpensive, often handmade or self-published, and range from 20 to 40 pages. They are commonly used by poets and emerging writers to showcase a collection of work without committing to a full-length book. Typically sold at a lower price than regular books, they make excellent gifts.
More and more throughout our lives, we experience a very hectic pace of life. Learn to slow down. Find a sacred place or serene spot where you can retreat, reflect, and rejuvenate.
When you experience a loss, do something specific to remember. For example, buy a bench, plant a tree, or throw ashes into the ocean. Do something meaningful to honor the memory of your lost person.
Find profundity in people, no matter who they are: rich or poor, educated or uneducated.
You carry in yourself the genes of all the ancestors who preceded you. Honor their efforts to keep going. Their strength is your beginning.
Your success has to do with how much you balance mind, body, and spirit.
The loss of a pet can be as emotionally powerful as anything in life. Just like with a person, it is important to grieve a pet just like with a person, it is important to grieve a pet’s death.
Try to build your emotional intelligence by learning to empathize with others. Put yourself in their shoes and imagine how they are thinking and feeling.
The world is a place of “miracle and wonder.” – Paul Simon. Appreciate the wonder of the world.
Don’t be afraid to reach out to friends who are in distress. If they are having a health problem, connect with them, even if you’re not sure what to say. They will value your presence more than your presents. Showing up is the best thing you can do.
Take up some activity where you can relax without keeping score. Examples are:
Forty-six years ago, in the autumn of 1978, Ari Weinzweig worked his first tentative shifts training as a line cook at a local Ann Arbor restaurant. With a newly-earned Russian history degree from the University of Michigan in hand, Ari’s intention in the moment was mostly just to make enough money to pay rent so he wouldn’t have to move back home to Chicago. Restaurant work, he figured, would help tide him over while he sorted out what he wanted to do with his life. Little did he know that that what seemed like a short-term sideline would, over the course of many years, lead him to a life philosophy. Those hard-earned life lessons are the subject of Ari’s new releasee: “Life Lessons I Learned from Being a Line Cook.”
Those life lessons are the basis of the worldview and values that have helped Ari to co- lead the creation of what has come to be known around the country as the Zingerman’s Community of Businesses. Their power is evidenced in inspiring case study that is Zingerman’s: What began when Ari and his business partner, Paul Saginaw opened Zingerman’s Delicatessen as a two-person, 1300-square foot storefront in the winter of 1982, is, today, a nationally known, iconic, 12-business, $80,000,000 organization that employs over 700, all in its hometown of Ann Arbor.
This month, Zingerman’s Press will release Ari’s most recent publication, his 15th, following on the heels of the pamphlet “A Revolution of Dignity in the Twenty-First Century Workplace.” “Life Lessons I Learned from Being a Line Cook” is a small handsewn 50-plus-page chapbook shares 18 of the life lessons that emerged from Ari’s experience all these years ago when he began learning to cook the line. As Ari offers,
What began with learning how to flip burgers turned, slowly but surely, into a life philosophy. It took me years to realize it, but cooking on the line became, in its own way, the advanced degree my mother had hoped I’d return to school for. Line cooking opened the door for me to settle into a set of beliefs, values, and worldviews that underlie everything I’ve written and done in leadership work over the years.
Compared to the large volumes (like the 600-page The Power of Beliefs in Business) Ari’s new chapbook is a concentrated in-an-espresso-shot-sort-of-way effort to share over four decades of experience and learning. The small booklet’s 5-by-4-inch format—with a beautifully illustrated cover by Ian Nagy—makes it great to stick in a pocket or a shoulder bag as well as a great stocking stuffer for the holiday season. It’s a quick read that, Ari hopes, will inspire others to find a positive life path of their own and as well as those who are already along on their own.
