LESSONS WITH SCARS - A NON-TECHNICAL BOOK

Life doesn’t come with a manual, but it does come with stories, lessons, and the occasional banana peel.

At some point in his life, Robert Wagoner spent a night in jail. He also ate a fish eyeball for international diplomacy. And he once shoplifted tape as a kid and got away with it, which turned out to be the problem.

Not all of these moments came with a lesson attached. Some arrived immediately, with all the subtlety of a jail cell door closing behind you. Others took years, sometimes decades, to make their point.

In this laugh-out-loud yet deeply reflective collection, Robert invites you to pull up a chair and hear the stories that shaped a lifetime of wisdom and plenty of spectacular missteps. From childhood antics and questionable parenting strategies to middle-age blunders with email, sunscreen spray, and reading glasses, these stories prove that wisdom isn't about having all the answers. It's about admitting when you don't, and learning to laugh along the way.

Sometimes the lessons arrive in stranger forms. One chapter follows a Mourning Dove that kept returning to Robert's wife in the days after her brother's passing, a scene so improbable it unsettled even his engineer's instinct for tidy explanations. Encounters like that don't demand belief, but they do invite it. They remind us that meaning can slip in through the side door, disguised as coincidence, timing, or a bird with questionable boundaries.

Blending humor, humility, and heartfelt storytelling, Robert offers bite-sized reflections for every stage of life:

• Why "don't feed the trolls" applies far beyond the internet
• How boredom is secretly the best toy you can give your kids
• Why your retirement plans should start long before your knees give out
• And how love and family carry you through when life hits hardest

Whether you're older, wiser, or just pretending to be, these stories will make you laugh, nod, and maybe even call your mom. Part comedy show, part life guide and entirely relatable.