“IF I COULD TELL YOU ONE THING” PROJECT

I have been thinking about this idea for a couple of years and have decided to accept its challenge. I am interested in how people will answer this question: If you could tell me, or someone you care about, or someone you have never met, just one thing about life (any component of life; it could be about liberty, loss, love, loyalty, luck or lust), what would you say?

I can envision several ways I will use the knowledge you and your fellow submitters provide. If nothing else, I will surely learn something useful to living my own life better. Occasionally, I provide homilies for my church and your answers may provide grist. Depending on the insights, I might pull some of the material into articles. Maybe the material will be sufficiently thought provoking to justify writing a book.

I’ll never know, if I don’t ask the question.

Feel free to pass this request on to your friends, family, business associates, anyone. I have no idea where the most intriguing thoughts may come from. I do ask that your response come in the form of an email to an account I have set up specifically for this project

onething@jamesmjackson.com

I will not open any attachments. (It may be my loss, but so it goes.) In order to provide some identity, while maintaining anonymity, I am requesting your first name and state of residence. In a litigious society, I need something to grant me permission to use your words, and so I have included a release at the bottom, which must be included in the email.

Here is the format I would prefer you use. Please feel free to copy and paste this into your email.

If I could tell you only one thing about life it would be this:

First Name: ___________________________

State of Residence: ________________________

I understand that by sending this email, I certify I am over the age of eighteen; I have not quoted anyone else, the thoughts above are mine; and I give you permission to use my thoughts however you choose, including, but not limited to: books, articles, homilies and blogs (regardless of the media format).

Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts.

James Montgomery Jackson