Dear Reader, I've had the worst luck in the history of human kind recently, okay maybe not that bad but it's been pretty darn bad I tell you. Instead of withching and moaning I've decided to take the high road in the following column...Read this if you're playing poker but you really don't feel like reading about it, sort of.

Dear Jennifer, I always look forward to your writing in Poker Player, and your latest column has continued to resonate within me long after finishing it - enough that I have been inspired to write! While you did your usual exceptional job of making your point concisely, I sensed some introspection just beneath the surface, and you've certainly catalyzed the same in me. I'm grateful for that, and I want to pass along some heartfelt encouragement. If it is indeed the case that your column was the fruit of some soul-searching on your part, I would like to strongly implore you to follow the path that you so eloquently outlined in that column.

In particular --- DON'T GIVE UP! I firmly believe that the best aspects of the human experience are most closely available to us when we are tuned in to the actuality of the moment and not the feared possibilities of the future or the flawed realities of the past. I want to thank you from the depths of my soul for helping to once again clarify that all-important point in my own thinking, and again, I encourage you to heed your own words. My best friend was born with a life-threatening lung disease; he has outlived every dire medical pronouncement and best-case timeframe put to him by every doctor he has known, and he and I both attribute that to his indomitable spirit. He will not ever allow himself to focus on anything negative, or to dwell on any distasteful prospects. As a result, after repeatedly defying the odds, he has now been the spectacularly successful recipient of double-lung transplant and has been accorded a true new lease on life. What makes that all so satisfying is that precisely BECAUSE of his conviction that attitude MATTERS, he is well-equipped to take full advantage of the new opportunities for quality of life that now lie before him. When trying to comprehend the magnitude of the obstacles that he has faced throughout his life on a daily basis, I am almost embarrassed any time I find myself engaging in counterproductive thought. At any rate, I believe that if you can stay on the path that your column describes, your life will bring you all of the joy that you so richly deserve. Thanks for the reinforcement of how important it is to take things seriously, and for the inspirational quality of your self-examining writing in general. Warmest best wishes to you always...

Fond regards, Greg Sellgren

Dearest Mr. Sellgren,

There are people reading your oh-so-lovely words that just found out they have cancer or that a loved on does, there are people reading your words that have to go in for quadruple bypass surgery next Tuesday, there are people who have lost limbs (especially those in unfortunate, war zones) that are reading your words, there are those who are reading them because they have lost all their money and are pissed and are waiting for their friend to give them a ride home from the casino, there are those whose arthritis is searing through the joints of their bodies causing excruciating pain reading your words, there are those who find it difficult to walk because they have MS, reading your words, there are those who are so depressed they cannot find the strength to get out of bed, reading your words, there are those who are completely misunderstood reading your words.

Mr. Sellgren I can go on for hours, days, months and years about what our fellow humans are suffering from and how hearing about your thoughts and about your best friend has helped them gain perspective and illumination. And lastly, there's me who feels just as they do, who read your lovely, lovely and again, lovely thoughts while suffering from a dose misguided insecurity. I read and read them again and again and decided to get up, dust myself off and continue running. I pray that your words have a profound affect that reaches deeply into the depths of being and psyche of all those who come across your all encompassing lovely thoughts. And, on behalf of them and myself THANK YOU!

Until next time, don't ever, ever, ever, give up!