Pogue,

I’ve had a morning of self examination and have decided to continue this by writing a letter addressed to you but probably written to me. By sending it to you I feel I will maintain some honesty in my reflections as, well, you’ll hold me accountable if I don’t, in your own sweet fashion.

So, I’m thinking I write better than I talk and I know you and I can talk long and deep at times but you’re one of the few I do that with. One of the Special Ones. You see, I don’t consider myself a great conversationalist. When writing I turn my ideas over, put them down, come back to them and modify. It’s like picking up a unique pebble on the beach and turning it in your hand, spotting different colors, characteristics, blemishes the longer you observe. But then you’ll tell me every pebble is unique and so is every idea. My ideas can be presented and represented until I achieve the best possible view…in my opinion. Plus, no one interrupts me!

When I talk I go away and find myself thinking, “I wish I’d have said that” or, “hold on, that point she made doesn’t stand up because…”. Usually it’s too late to give the better response. However, if done in correspondence I can nail my response, BHAM.

Then there’s the fact that in conversation I get bored because, honestly, most people don’t have much to say. The issue is, they don’t seem to know it or if they do, they’re certainly not accepting it. Am I being unkind? Yes I remember the Desiderata says:

…and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.

Max Ehrmann

It’s not the stories of others that I thinking of. As a good friend of mine recently told me, in correspondence:

We are all shaped by our narratives and we all try to form our own stories within them.

John Arthur

I’m all for listening to your story, it’s the meaningless froth that pervades conversation at every level that I abhor. Harsh? Life too precious to spend on listening to a point being made, or an opinion given, a dozen different ways. I got it the first time around, move on or I will. Small talk, absolutely not.

Words can be used powerfully, beautifully, kindly. Words can help, guide and empower. They can also lean the other way. So we should use then mindfully and not squander such a commodity. Pen and paper allows me to exercise restraint and economy. And we all want to appear beautiful to the world, do we not?

So however you express yourself, communicate, spend your words wisely. Exercise restrain, as if you had a limit and you want to achieve the greatest profit from what you invest. And me, I will delight in my ideas and give expression with pen and paper.

Yours, investing with ink,

Wic.