While we all get cranky from time to time, there’s a whole industry of books telling us not to be. Telling us to practice mindfulness and meditation. Implying there is something wrong with us if we can’t cope with the world. Too often, all of this makes us feel inferior, broken, and, well … cranky.
But what if being cranky was okay? What if instead of fighting our natural instincts, we learn to embrace and accept being cranky? And what if I told you that crankiness began with the last surviving dinosaur?
Yes, you read that right. We are talking about cranky dinosaurs — the TyrantoCrankaTsuris, to be exact, star of The Last Surviving Dinosaur: The TyrantoCrankaTsuris, a children’s book. Which is something of a companion piece to The Crankatsuris Method: A Grownup Guide to Effective Crankiness.
The author of both books, Steven Joseph, is a first-generation American, son of a Holocaust Survivor, an attorney, a negotiator, a speaker, an author, and a 5-time Boston Marathon and 16-time NYC Marathon runner. He’s also a humorist who has spent 28 years as a partner with therapists, a lifetime of schuckling at countless synagogues, and many years sitting on a cushion staring at a white wall at the Village Zendo. Despite everything, he’s still smart enough to know that he hasn’t figured it all out – except for crankiness.
