Shrug Your Shoulders, Repeat after me… IDK…I don’t know…
For over 8 years I’ve been penning this blog with personal thoughts, observations, teaching moments and a host of internal words that have looked for a place to be published. For many, thoughts like these only happen when the other part of their conversational routine is in fact themselves. You know. Talk it out. Verbally, or not so loud, but you do it with yourself.
Hearing your own words spoken out loud, though a little intimidating, can reveal your vision of the present, past and future, it also helps you hear how it’s perceived, even if only to yourself. This exercise sharpens your thoughts and gives you a different way of saying what you believe!
Try it some time. Have a conversation with yourself!
Too often there is nobody around to have these conversations with. Friends. Family. Co-Workers. Strangers at the coffee shop. Travelers trapped in the Window seat of your next flight! They may or may not be used to your viewpoint, but arriving at a place where you want to discuss what you feel and think, well, there’s few that will be a party to that conversation. “Let’s hash it out,” you say, looking around at others, only no one want’s to take the opposing view. Why? Scared of thinking out loud? More than likely they do not want to be spotlighted!
I won several awards back in Junior High for Impromptu Speaking and Writing. You walked into the competition, chose a topic out of a bowl, and then took a few minutes of preparing your mind and then either wrote a one page paper on the topic or stood in front of the other competitors and spoke your mind.
I’ve been doing this ever since. Ready to write or speak my internal thoughts that represent my reading and studying habits, identify who I follow, what platform I stand on, and essentially quick to share my beliefs to whoever, where ever.
The past few days I have reviewed my blog, with a certain purpose in mind and find that it’s easy to re-write a topic and not remember that you’ve written about it in the past. I’ve written hundreds of draft blogs to be picked up and covered at some future point. I’ve published over 2,000 posts that sometimes represents deep thinking, a preached message, or simply a memory of my past.
Regardless, for me, it almost seems I can say, like Solomon, “There’s nothing new under the sun!” In fact, he references this 29 times in Ecclesiastes, but his summation goes like this:
I returned and saw under the sun that—
The race is not to the swift,
Nor the battle to the strong,
Nor bread to the wise,
Nor riches to men of understanding,
Nor favor to men of skill;
But time and chance happen to them all.
(Ecclesiastes 9:11 NKJV)
The only way I know that I’ve written everything I know about is to categorize everything I’ve written, compare it to everything I know, all I believe, practice, live and teach. Notch the “covered” topics and consider the results. Have I covered it all? Is everything I know written about on my blog? Have I made “sense of life one blog at a time?”
Well. The easy answer is, “No way!”
On my bookshelf are volumes of tomes written by mankind all around the globe and throughout time. In my digital library are hundreds and thousands of volumes. I know I can never read them all, but they are good research volumes as I dig into varied subjects.
I’ve asked some of my friends to add their words to this stack. “It’s already been said“, is the most common response, “Why do I need to say my version of it?” If the truth of the matter were revealed, not everyone has read everything that has been written about any single subject! Your voice, style, revelations, examples all show how your mind works and why you are a great leader, parent, friend and confidant to so many of us. The words you could put down into print will not speak to everyone, but there are many who want to hear how you say what you think and follow the path to your conclusion.
Can you say it differently than others? Sure. Will you say it better? Maybe. Regardless, there are generations of people that look back through time trying to find the wise words of prior centuries. Who knows! Maybe that will be you next year or in the next millennium. And…language, examples, and communication styles change with time, so you may have the way of saying something that will stand the test of time.
So. What’s going on, you ask? I’m getting ready to compile several “books” as a result of my blog postings! You reading, sharing and commenting have given me the impetus to step out by faith and produce some works. You may ask why publish a book? Surely my blog says it all. It’s really about organizing my thoughts into an approach to particular subjects. I know my blog(s) are being read and my old one shows the span of readership. Every continent, except Antartica, and most countries, although I’ve got to work on Greenland, some of the Middle East, and other Equator locations!
Language barriers, access to the internet, politics…and the fact that WordPress could pull the plug and go belly-up at any moment due to any reason you can imagine. One electromagnetic pulse (EMP) could wipe out electronics, but a book will always be available, barring fire, flood, or some other disaster not named. Think “Fahrenheit 451“. If Free Speech can be banned, and it is everywhere with different labels to prevent anyone from saying whatever they want, then the history of books that document the past could find themselves banned. Think about the statues around the world that have been pulled down because they no longer represent the present!
So. I have a plan. Un-shrug my shoulders and put them to work tackling the task I’m compelled to accomplish. Roll up those proverbial sleeves that show you’re ready to tackle the task. Put your game face on, and get into the game!
It’s time to Publish a book. Or two. Or a series.
I have a lot of family and friends who have done this with differing levels of success, but if it were all about the success of the action then I’m sure we would all still be living in a cave somewhere afraid of the future!
Will you join me in the process? Read my blog. Post your comments. Share my writing. Help me get the word out. A new endeavor is on the horizon and I could sure use your help!