'Old Guy Rules' for bouncing back

If TLC was around 20 years ago and Jim Rodgers agreed to allow his private life to be on television, there would have been quite a following for his emotional roller coaster.

As it is, TLC wasn't around to document the shocking end to Rodgers' marriage, but the Batavia resident is making it all very public in a book titled "The Old Guy Rules."

Rodgers, an English teacher at Glenbard North High School in Carol Stream, was determined to rebound after his wife left him and their two small children.

"This book is about how I put my life back together," Rodgers said. "It's about a single father raising his children alone, while teaching and getting a master's degree, and picking up the pieces of his life after his wife did everything she could to destroy it."

Sounds like an angry fellow? Rodgers admits he was driven by anger for a long time, and his book gives you an idea of why - having moved to California after his wife was transferred, and then having her seeing another man and leaving Rodgers behind.

But he said the book project was not fueled by anger, because he had let that go. He was more interested in delivering a positive message to men and women facing similar situations.

"What pushed me to write about my experience was that I wanted them to know that they could come out of it just fine," said Rodgers, who wrote the book over the summer when he wasn't teaching. "I wanted to share my 'rules' for coping with adversity with other people."

The book can be purchased at smalldogma.com and Rodgers has his own Web site at theoldguyrules.com.