Locals Mourn the Passing of Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, Iconic Motivational Speaker  

Published in Woonsocket Call on September 6. 2015

On August 30, 2015, the internet was ablaze with the news that Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, one of America’s most popular self-help authors and motivational speakers in the field of self-development and spiritual growth, had died one day earlier at his home in Maui, Hawaii.  He was 75 years old.

On his very popular official Facebook page (with over 2.5 million likes) Dyer’s family announced:  “Wayne has left his body, passing away through the night. He always said he couldn’t wait for this next adventure to begin and had no fear of dying. Our hearts are broken, but we smile to think of how much our scurvy elephant will enjoy the other side.”

Who was this man, raised by an alcoholic father and in orphanages and foster homes as a child, whose books, lectures and workshops, CDs, DVDs, streaming videos and weekly radio show, would strikes a chord with millions all over the world?

A Prolific Writer

According to a statement released by Hay House, over four decades the internationally acclaimed author, born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, penned 42 books, 21 of which became New York Times bestsellers.  Devoted fans would give him the affectionate moniker “the father of motivation.”

After a four-year stint in the United States Navy, Dyer would go on to earn his doctorate in educational counseling from Wayne State University before serving as a professor at St. John’s University in New York. Throughout his early years as a college educator, and as a clinical psychologist, he realized that there was a need to make the principles of self-discovery and personal growth more accessible to the public.

In 1976, Dr. Dyer began his writing career as an author by traveling the nation selling his first book, “Your Erroneous Zones”, right from the trunk of his car.  The self-help book went on to become one of the best-selling books of all time, with more than 60 million copies sold, printings in 47 languages, and 64 weeks spent on the New York Times bestseller list.  This put Dr. Dyer firmly on America’s radar screen, resulting in the bookings on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson a whopping total of 37 times.

With the publishing of a number of best-selling books on self-improvement under his belt, Dyer turned his attention to exploring the spiritual aspects of human experience. “My purpose is to help people look at themselves and begin to shift their concepts,” Dr. Dyer noted at that time. “Remember, we are not our country, our race, or religion. We are eternal spirits. Seeing ourselves as spiritual beings without label is a way to transform the world and reach a sacred place for all of humanity,” he said.  Throughout his life this theme would be woven into all his writings, lectures and workshops.

In 1993, Dyer began publishing his books with Hay House, founded in 1984, and he quickly became one of its most prolific and popular authors.  The company, with its headquarters in Carlsbad, California with international offices in the United Kingdom, Austria, South Africa and India, has published over 300 books and 450 audios from 140 authors.

At Hay House, Dr. Dyer also created several audio programs and videos, and appeared on thousands of television and radio shows over the course of his long career. His books “Manifest Your Destiny”, “Wisdom of the Ages”, “There’s a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem”, and the New York Times bestsellers “10 Secrets for Success and Inner Peace”, “The Power of Intention, Inspiration, Change Your Thoughts—Change Your Life, Excuses Begone!,” “Wishes Fulfilled”, and “I Can See Clearly Now”, have all been featured as PBS specials, raising over $200 million for public television stations nationwide.

Dyer did not even forget his alma mater, Wayne State University.  He raised over $1 million for the educational institution.

Dyer’s Death Hits Local Followers

In 1974, Gary Calvino, 62, remembers reading his first Dyer book, the “Erroneous Zones,” one that would totally impact how he would live his life.  “It changed my life and got me to think about looking inside my being for my happiness rather than seeking it from others.” The author’s “authenticity” who lived his principles and “walked his talk” kept Calvino reading more of Dyer’s books that ultimately would total 42.

Calvino, setting up a new nonprofit, Mindful Rhode Island to create an interconnected web of mindfulness throughout the Ocean State, also treasured a chance meeting with Dyer at a lecture in New York City, he says.  The Providence resident described a 10-minute private encounter with the motivational speaker, “a gratitude conversation,” he says that would ultimately give him a way to communicate in more “heart-felt way” with his dying father.

“It hit me very hard when I heard of Dyer’s death,” says Calvino.  “I know he had no fear of dying and he is now in a great place,” he adds.

“Reading and watching him on videos over the years actually allowed me to grow with him,” says Calvino, stressing that he was able to follow the author through all phases of his personal and spiritual growth.  “Every book he wrote was a learning experience for him.  With his passing I will miss his inspirational wisdom.”

Wanda Morrison, whose family business, Mind Body Barre is located in three locations in Southern Massachusetts, has followed the teachings of Dyer since her early teenage days. The fifty-two year old says “I have always known when his books came out and I probably have read them all,” she says.

Morrison’s says Dyer had the “most soothing presence and aura about him,” adding that people felt his “powerful presence of love and healing.”

“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change,” is one of my favorite Dyer quotes, says Morrison, stressing that it’s made her more aware that she is a co-creator in her world.

“I was speechless and so sad when I heard of his passing,” Morrison says.  “There will never be another person like him.  His wisdom and way he chose to dedicate his life to help others with writings that were so simple and easy to understand will be hard to duplicate,” she noted.

“I will be reading his books and listening or watching his lectures for the rest of my life.  He will forever be a part of my world,” says Morrison.

Yes, Dyer taught us to overcome both their perceived and real physical limitations to make their dreams come true.  If his life mission on earth was to teach his loyal following to connect with their “Highest Self,” he truly succeeded.

Dr. Dyer was married three times, separated from his third wife and had eight children and nine grandchildren.

To order books, videos, CDs, go to www.drwaynedyer.com.

Wolpaw’s the Reel Deal

Published in Senior Digest on September 2015

When planning the 2nd Annual S.A.M. Fest, in conjunction with the Pawtucket Arts Festival, Slater Mill’s Executive Director, Lori Urso scheduled a showing of Jim Wolpaw’s “Complex World.” Urso, also a professional musician, knew featuring the film at her event last month was a great way to promote a local Providence filmmaker and give homage to The Young Adults, a popular rock band playing at the nonprofit’s weekend festival.

 Rediscovering a Classic Film at S.A.M. Fest

On Aug. 30, more than 80 people gathered early evening under the large white tent at Hodgson Rotary Park to watch on a big outdoor screen the 81-minute offbeat cult rock ‘n’ roll comedy filmed at Providence’s Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel. While the film attracted the curious, many adoring fans of The Young Adults came to check out the flick, too, says Urso.

The story captures one night at Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel, with its zany plot involving terrorists, political conspiracy, 100 pounds of explosives in the bar’s basement and drugs, with music from iconic Providence bands such as the Young Adults, NRBQ and Roomful of Blues. The “Complex World’ had a two-month run in a Boston and one week in New York City, and it garnered good reviews. However, a distribution deal with Hemdale, a major film distributor that released “The Terminator” and the “Last Emperor,” fell through, ending up in a lawsuit. Even though Wolpaw won his case and a small settlement, the legal suit sealed the fate of the film. The filmmaker’s DVDs are sold on a website, and the last public showing was in 2010, for two days at the Cable Car in Providence to raise money for a charity.

Urso, 51, remembered being an extra during the 1987 film shoot, “a biker chick hanging out in the bar’s parking lot” at 79 Washington St.  “Quite a few people that I knew showed up to be extras that night. I’m glad I was able to be part of it,” she said.

Rudy Cheeks one of the founders of Young Adults and co-writer of the Phillip & Jorge column published in “Motiff Magazine,” was in attendance during the S.A.M. Fest screening, and he observed people of all ages in attendance, many of whom watched the film for the first time.

Even though the film was produced about 25 years ago, “it’s held up pretty well over the years,” says Cheeks. “The strongest part of the film was its ‘mise en scène,’ the capturing of the inside atmosphere of the bar.”

 The Making of a Classic Film

While it took about two-and-a-half months to shoot the film in 1987, it took more than two years to bring “Complex World” to the screen of the Cable Car Theatre in 1990, says Wolpaw, noting that it ran for a record four months. The veteran filmmaker, who was nominated for an Academy Award for a 1985 documentary, was brought into this film project by Rich Lupo, the owner of Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel, who just happened to be his roommate at Brown University and later a bartender and manager at the Providence bar.

According to Wolpaw, the efforts to create and fund a film began a year before the bar was going to be torn down to make way for condos. The film was to use Lupo’s as a basis for the movie to “explain the spirit of the bar,” he said, noting that it would be shot like a documentary film.

Lupo invested the most to produce the film, but with increased costs, other friends chipped in, said Wolpaw. The unique film stood out among films that were produced in Hollywood, he said, “noting it was not the typical movie.”

Two years of editing and reshoots would later result in the final film, says Wolpaw, noting that over the years and even at the Slater Mill screening he “had trouble watching it.” Shooting the film like a documentary just did not work for the plot, he said, but it captured an early era of the Providence music scene.

Even after more than two decades since being released, orders for “Complex World” keep trickling in, says Wolpaw, who has worked as an adjunct film professor at Emerson College in Boston, the University of Rhode Island and the Rhode Island School of Design. He is pleasantly surprised that orders come in from such faraway places as British Columbia and France.

 A Prolific Filmmaker  

Besides his Classic “Complex World,” Wolpaw is known for innovative approaches in considering artists and issues in the arts, and he has an impressive number of films under his belt:  “Cobra Snake for a Necktie” (Showtime 1980), a portrait of rock ‘n’ roll legend Bo Diddley; “Loaded Gun: Life, and Death, and Dickinson” (PBS 2003, INPUT 2004), a quirky look at poet Emily Dickinson that was chosen by “The Library Journal” for its list of Best Poetry Films; and “First Face: The Buck Starts Here” (PBS 2011), an accounting of the dollar bill portrait of George Washington

Even at 60, Wolpaw, who has won awards at more than a dozen film festivals worldwide, has not slowed down. He is still working on three projects, a film about Cleveland poet and activist Daniel Thomson, one detailing the history of Rhode Island’s Ladd Center and a fictional narrative film about poet Dickinson. Hopefully, they will have a long shelf life and audience like “Complex World.”

“Complex Word” can capture viewers who wish to relive their experiences at Lupo’s, and purchases of the DVD benefit the Gloria Gemma Foundation and Advocates in Action. For details, go to www.complexworldthemovie.com.

Quality of Life Amenities Make Providence a Great Retirement Mecca

Published in Woonsocket Call on August 30, 2015

Today’s retirement age is not set in stone at 65 years old for aging baby boomers, the milestone age where their parents and grandparents retired from the workforce.  Retirement Confidence Studies are finding that retiring in your mid-sixties is not a sure bet for many. According to WalletHub, a leading personal finance website, one such study, the Employee Benefit Research Institute’s 2014 Retirement Confidence Survey, found that  23 percent of workers expected to retire at age 65, but only 11 percent actually were able to.

The latest EBRI survey, released last April, said that many respondents blamed the nation’s poor economy for the continuing need to work in their later years. Others pointed to “inadequate finances” as another key reason for not retiring.  For 51 percent of workers and 31 percent of retirees, their accumulated debt kept them at their jobs.

WalletHub adds, the Report on the Economic Well-being of US Households in 2014 prepared by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, says that 24 percent of the survey respondents are not at all confident at having enough money to finance a comfortable retirement.  The government report also noted that 50 percent cited cost of living and daily expenses as obstacles for putting money into their retirement egg nest.

WalletHub calls for a strategy to slide into a more comfortable retirement for those whose nest egg is small, just relocate to a City to “stretch your dollar without sacrificing your lifestyle.”Sars by Relocation

WalletHub decided to pinpoint the most cost efficient and retirement-friendly places in the country because of the research studies indicating that feelings of financial insecurity have an impact on how retirees make decisions to save for retirement, says WalletHub Spokesperson, Jill Gonzalez.

For the second year in a row, WalletHub, conducted an in-depth analysis of the Best and Worst Cities to Retire.  Like last year, the financial website compared the affordability, quality of life, health care and availability of recreational activities in the 150 largest U.S. cities.  The compiled data included 24 metrics, ranging from the cost of living to public hospital rankings to the percentage of the population aged 65 and older.

“Our methodology makes the difference. It’s extremely well-researched and the metrics are developed in conjunction with academic experts that span several fields,” says Gonzalez.res

WalletHub’s 2015 Best and Worst Cities to Retire ranks Rhode Island’s Capitol City almost dead last as the worst place to retire. But, the City of Providence did place better than two of his cities, Jersey City and New Jersey.  

Some of the metrics compiled from this survey include: Adjusted Cost of Living (122); Annual Cost of In-Home Services (140); Elderly Friendly Labor Market (80); Number of Adult Volunteer Activities per Capita (23); Percent of the Population Aged 65 and Older (132); Emotional health (144); Violent Crime Rate (78); and number of Home Care Facilities per capita (129).

Gonzalez noted that like 2014, in this years’ survey WalletHub compared the retirement-friendliness of the 150 most populated largest U.S. Cities (excluding the surrounding metro areas) across four key dimensions: Affordability; Activities; Quality of Life; and health Care.  Twenty four relevant metrics were complied, ranging from the cost of living to the percentage of the elderly population to the availability of recreational activities.

“Every year we strive to improve our methodology by taking into account consumer feedback and industry trends,” adds Gonzalez.

It’s no surprise that when a financial web site publishes rankings, older industrial cities in the Northeast are at a disadvantage,” said AARP Rhode Island State Director Kathleen Connell.

“Some of the indicators where Providence comes up short are discouraging. However, many of the city’s greatest attributes – its arts and culture environment, community esources associated with world-class institutes of higher learning, proximity to Narragansett Bay and convenient travel distances to Boston and New York are but a few of the reasons people stay after retirement.

“There should be no confusing Providence with the state as a whole as a retirement choice. Granted, Rhode Island is more expensive than the sunbelt and in states where the housing market collapse has resulted in more affordable housing alternatives. And energy costs will always be higher in our region. That said, many downsizing retirees who value quality of life find a way to make it work. Others can’t, and we need to find ways to make retiring here more affordable. Eliminating the state tax on Social Security benefits was a step in the right direction, albeit in real dollars not a game changer for many retirees with limited resources. Affordable senior housing is a big issue and one of those challenges that requires urgent attention,” Connell added.

“The WalletHub analysis is useful insofar as it raises awareness and compels people to think more about retirement – and that includes both retirees as well as policymakers.”

“Although the WalletHub’s study is well conducted and well-respected in the financial sector, you have to look deeper into each of the categories when it comes to Providence,” says Edward M. Mazze, Distinguished University Professor of Business Administration, at the University of Rhode Island.  “There are some unique factors that make Providence a better place to retire than one would guess from the survey,” he adds.

Mazze explains that economists who list, through national surveys, the best retirement places generally emphasize three criteria, specifically the cost of living, income, property and sales taxes and state/inheritance taxes. “When considering only these criteria, Providence and most cities will not rank high,” he says.

According to Rhode Island’s widely acclaimed economist, the state has made significant improvements in changing the income tax rates, raising the bottom on estate taxes and removing some social security benefits from state taxes which makes Providence a “great place to retire from a quality of life standpoint.”

For those retirees who want to live in a city that has four seasons, is strategically located near other major cities like Boston and New York, and want an active life-style, Providence meets the criteria,” he says.

Providence’s downtown area is also a site of parades, festivals and celebrations, says Mazze, adding that after enjoying these activities, retirees can dine at world-class restaurants.  You might also add to your list the close access to over 100 beaches and 400 miles of coastline, bike and nature trails and historic sites.

While WalletHub’s survey may not show Providence as a top place to retire, the quality of life factors would ratchet up Providence into a higher rating.