The Ride Of Your Life Joyce Weiss uses bicycle metaphor in her guide to being happier in life. RONELLE GRIER Special to the Jewish News 111 or author and motivational speaker Joyce Weiss, learning to ride a bicycle is more than a child- hood experience; it's a metaphor for life. In her latest book, Tike the Ride ofYour Life! (Bloomfield Press; S12.95), Weiss shows how those early bike-riding lessons can be used to bring more fun, fulfillment and optimism into everyday life. "There are two things we never forget from childhood: how to ride a bike and how to laugh," said Weiss, a Detroit native who lives in West Bloomfield. "It's never too late to become happier." Weiss writes about the steps involved in this rite of passage — the anticipation, the trepidation, the inevitable spills and the freedom that comes from finally tak- ing off those training wheels and flying into the wind. Weiss conducted interviews with peo- ple from all over the country; men and women, young and old, in a variety of professions, from all walks of life. The book is filled with anecdotes about those first "bicycle" experiences, includ- ing their dreams, growing pains, victories, falls and what inspired them to get back up and try again. The upbeat mood of the book is' reflected in chapter titles such as, "I'm Afraid to Take Off the Training Wheels — Go from Fear to Joyce Weiss In-Gear," "I Feel Like I'm Stuck in High Gear — How to Slow Down and Stay Balanced When the Road is Bumpy" and "You Can Teach an Old Biker New Tricks — Never Stop." Each chapter ends with exercises called "Gear-Shifting Action Steps" that allow readers to use the information to enhance their own personal lives. "Joy is not trivial and humor is not optional; it's a survival skill," said Weiss. "Today, we need it more than ever to fight against all the negativity in the world. People are hun- gry for that little ray of sunshine." Weiss recommends keeping a "humor journal" to record at least one inci- dent each day that pro- duced a laugh or a smile. "If life is a creative jour- ney, laughter is the shock absorber," she writes. Weiss suggests employing "verbal aiki- do" (aikido is a Japanese form of self- defense) to counteract pessimism and negativity and create optimism. The spirit of Weiss' book is best summed up in this paragraph from a chapter entitled, "Look Ma ... No Hands — Give Yourself the Freedom to Have Fun": "Do more than just live. Be creative and design the best ride possible. Take a detour and see where it will take you. Don't be afraid to try new things. Look at where you are on the road, instead of concentrating on the destination." Weiss is a nationally known motiva- tional speaker and corporate coach who has spent many years teaching businesses to increase morale as well as the bottom line by helping employees become more confident and optimistic. Her first book, Full Speed Ahead: Become Driven by Change, focuses on perceiving change as a vehicle for oppor- tunity and finding creative ways to deal with stress so that it becomes a positive force. ❑ Joyce Weiss is participating in the Local Author Fair at the Jewish Book Fair 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 10, in the Janice Charach Epstein Gallery of the Jewish Community Center in West Bloomfield. Seeking Meaning In The Shoal' Learn about the Holocaust, reminds Dr. Sidney Bolkosky, but expect to find no lessons. HARRY KIRSBAUM Staff Writer D r. Sidney Bolkos s new book, Searching for Meaning in the Holocaust (Greenwood Publishing Group; $59.95) is not an easy read. For 25 years, Dr. Bolkosky, professor of history at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, has been recording Holocaust sur- vivor testimony. When he was approached to write a "think piece" as part of a series on Christianity and the Holocaust, for a pair of editors in Connecticut, he obliged. Calling it "a rare opportunity to write something that you can put part of your- self into,' the book is not a serious research-oriented text, Dr. Bolkosky says. "This was pretty much an essay." He addresses the question of Chris- tian complicity in the introduction. 2002 116 According to Dr. Bolkosky, Christians prism of survivor testimonies," he writes, asking: "Do survivors seek and/or find did not actively seek the destruction of meaning in their own experiences or in the Jews in the Holocaust as they did in the Holocaust? Do they think or talk the Crusades, but centuries of hatred about it at all?" towards Jews "could not have The author says helped but provide at least the attempts to bring survivors basis for Christian indifference [in and perpetrators together, the Holocaust] that stalked to discover some connec- Europe as an almost materi- tion from which genocide al presence." could explode, has been The rest of the book fruitless. seeks to find lessons from He writes, "No rational the perpetrators and mean- point links the two ing from survivors. groups, no reasoned ani- Most perpetrators concentrated mosity, only what appears on their jobs, Dr. Bolkosky says, Sidn ey Bolkosky to be an arbitrary and writing: "The craftsmen who built deadly crossing of paths. the camps, the electricians and the No generalizations apply. There were plumbers, the railroad people, the anti-Semites who rescued Jews, Nazis bureaucrats, the administrators — many who helped hide them and devout of them filled out forms but never left Christians who helped hunt them their desks to see what those forms did." down." Meaning seems to "elude any purely We must learn about the Holocaust, rational examination of these events, he says in his book, but there are no clear especially when viewed through the lessons to be learned. He writes: "Contradictions mark the nature of the experience and its aftermath for sur- vivors." In speaking to Holocaust survivors, Elie Wiesel once noted, "If you ask them if they are happy they survived, whatever they answer will be a lie. The urge to speak exists simultaneously with an equal urge to remain silent; there must be meaning from the Holocaust, but there cannot be." And all these feelings are true, Dr. Bolkosky believes. As he writes: "Speaking and silence inexorably and often enigmatically coexist; we may extract meaning from the Holocaust, but it may be sacreligious to speak of it." ❑ Dr. Sidney Bolkosky speaks .11 a.m. Sunday, Nov 10, at the Jewish Community Center in West Bloomfield and 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 12, at the JCC in Oak Park.