Z00-BP-0001 — Who Is Uncle Bubba

The Vow 

*Before the work. Before the words. There was this boy.*

James Beck as a child holding a ceremonial pillow at a wedding

I made a vow.

I would follow everything that was put on my heart — without question and without hesitation.

And every decision I made had to be inspired by someone or something other than myself.

Real or fiction. Ancient or modern. It didn’t matter.

It just could not be me.

I put my entire life on the chopping block.

Everything had to go.

Everything except three things:

Truth.

Light.

Love. 

Not as ideas — as tests.

If something wasn’t true, it was tossed.

That one was easy.

If it couldn’t survive in the light, it was removed.

And if it didn’t operate in love, it no longer belonged in my life.

When the dust settled, one thread remained —

the only thread I found running unbroken through every culture, belief system, and corner of humanity I had ever studied:

Service. 

So I rebuilt my life through it.

I gave away everything I owned.

I began serving families across the country — three days at a time, one family in every state —

letting other people choose my path so my own mind couldn’t cheat the reset button I had pressed.

It wasn’t heroic. 

It was necessary.

⸻

Choosing Love 

When I came back, I had no possessions.

No safety net.

No performance left in me.

I was empty — but I wasn’t broken.

It was like a brand-new computer: incredibly fast, but with no programs installed yet.

Full of potential… and no direction.

I remember standing in front of the mirror, pulling the skin of my face away slightly and thinking:

Who is this?

What is this essence inside this body that is me? 

The day after I finished two full years of service —

one structured year across the country, one unstructured year wherever life took me —

I met the woman who would become my wife.

I told her the truth:

 “I have nothing to offer you but me.” 

She answered: “I want to know what it’s like to experience the world with a man who has a heart like yours.” 

So I chose her.

And then I chose to earn that choice every day.

Quietly.

With my hands.

With integrity.

Every morning, I still wake up and ask myself:

How can I serve my wife first?

How can I make her day better? 

Sometimes I nail it.

Sometimes I don’t.

But more than a decade later, I’m still married to my best friend —

and she’s still married to hers.

⸻

Why I’m Here 

Now I am a father.

And I understand something I didn’t before.

If the wisdom I spent my life earning —

the wisdom I spent my life cultivating —

were to die with me…

then all that effort would be wasted.

Uncle Bubba exists to make sure it isn’t. 

But make no mistake:

I am not a teacher to follow.

I am not a man to imitate.

What I am… is a reminder.

You can reset.

You can become coherent again.

And you can choose the right mountain.

And the best part is —

you don’t have to do it alone.