I write as a form of therapy.  Not the “I need strong anti-psychotics” kind of therapy, but because I need a way to release all the pent-up stuff that comes with being an introvert.  Extroverts tend to have a lot of ways that are natural for them to let off steam. They love people and doing things and being places.  I tend to do the opposite.  I like a book in my comfortable chair or reading before I go to bed or puttering with some new hobby.  I like stuff I can do alone.  For work, though, I think I need people and structure and, well, routine.

I have written before about how a good book takes you away and draws you into a world of the author’s imagining.  That is what I wish to create for my readers.  I want to draw you into my imaginings and give you hope and a laugh and perhaps a moment to reflect.  I think that great writing doesn’t just state or re-state the obvious, it brings ideas together in a manner that creates new insight.  I want to bring you a glimpse into a world that could be, or should be, maybe that can be because you and I got together for one of those inspiring minutes that change our worlds.

I know that some will think all we need are the words from the great religious tomes.  There are great spiritual truths there, but how many world changing ideas do we apply from those books?  There are some, but most look to their religion to change them inwardly and don’t apply those ideas to societal needs or (with a couple of exceptions) political agendas.  Politics and religion should not be mixed.  Either politics will corrupt your religion or religion will corrupt politics to serve the few who have the same religious views.  A good example is the article I saw that told about Christmas being cancelled because it offended some Muslims.  I did’t check to see if the story was factual (I saw it on Facebook) but it made me smile because someone was trying to stir up outrage against Muslims.  In point of fact, a lot about Christmas offends me as well.  But it is more about the societal inspired greed than the religious aspect.

Words are powerful.  We all tend to believe the ugly things said to us while disbelieving the beautiful things said about us.  You see nearly every day about some child or teenager who kills themselves rather than face the taunts and lies spoken about them.  That is a horrible, ugly thing.  Why does it seem easier to believe that we are broken than that we are as whole as we are likely to be.  I can be a smartass, I admit it.  I have said somethings that I wish I could erase from someone’s memory.  So, I try to just keep quiet, even when I have something nice to say.  I don’t say nice things to strangers or casual acquantances for fear of being thought a suck-up or flirting or being inappropriate in some other way.  Unless they work at a register or customer service in a retail establishment.  There, I go out of my way to be pleasant because most of them get too much crap from everyone else.  I have been on the receiving end of unwarranted wrath and I would rather have a stranger act kindly.  Those random words do more than make one’s day, they can help the recipient cope with all the cow dung we face daily.

Q&A

I get asked several times a week in the comments about how I deal with spam.

I do get about 15 to 20 spam comments every day.  I get a lot of duplicate comments as well.  I just consider it part of my role to delete them and go on.  I also get some comments that are hard to tell.  Some of them are in English and do have some coherent phrases in them but are spam nonetheless.

I have shelves to build and fill and empty boxes to recycle.  Y’all have a great weekend, see ya on Monday.