I love writing letters as if I was sitting over a cup of coffee with a person (In Europe, it would be a pint of beer). Writing can come alive when it is not constricted to the rigid grammar and spelling rules that have been drilled into our heads since Kindergarten. For instance starting a sentence with "And", or sometimes I'd just like to write incomplete sentences that would be considered fragments, but that's exactly what they are. It's a fragment of my thought, and if the freaking spell/grammar check doesn't stop putting a squiggly green or red line underneath it, so help me...

When I write in this weblog, I sort of use the same style except oddly enough, it turns out to usually be a conversation with myself, or I pose questions that go unanswered. A lot of times, I don't even know what I'm going to write and what I'll find out about myself in the process, so you can be just as suprised as me. Another thing I do is I address a group called "you." I haven't quite figured out exactly who falls into the "you" group. I guess it would be made up of the reader as well as anyone else who would identify with what was said whether they ever read that bit of writing or not.

Another interesting thing that I've figured out is that the brain is a lot like a filter. A lot of people who have a lot of book smarts and lock themselves up in a room with their books is like a filter that air hits one side and doesn't come out the other. You just end up getting knowledge constipation unless you have something to apply it to. I think it is the same for your thoughts. People who journal and talk about their thoughts and feelings run a much better chance of understanding themselves and what is going on in their life if they not only think about it, but talk about it and put it down on paper. There is always a sense of release that I have when I put my thoughts down on paper. Almost as if my mental inbox was full and I read through the e-mails and replied when necessary and deleted when necessary. I guess it is how I do my mental filing and how I keep my thoughts organized.

I've always tried to keep both sides of my filter open. What I put in my mind comes out in my actions and what I do. Knowledge that is not applied is lost. What good is storing up information for the sake of having more knowledge? How much is the guy who knows all the answers on Jeopardy? About the same it would cost me to buy a set of Encyclopedias.

Successful people aren't necessarily book smart. They just surround themselves with people who can take care of the small things, while they busy themselves with putting together a winning team. In order to do that, they have to be good with dealing with people.