Sunday, May 1, 2016

If you like to write

I first entertained myself with writing because I could. I started writing like most kids do in first grade or around there. I found I was good at memorizing things so I was good at giving speeches in front of class or assembly. Though I was shy, somehow I overcame my shyness to be a good speaker in front of people. And in college I got an A in Public Speaking.

So my approach to writing is through the eyes of a story teller (in order someone who recounts their own experiences or stories told to that one by friends or relatives). Both my father and my grandfather were good at this. Of telling stories in such a way that they were entertaining. They were all true stories but there are ways of telling these stories so they are more enthralling to people who might be listening. Often you tailor how you write to your audience. Because as a story teller (in the old days) you were speaking right to them. So, often you knew who you were telling a story to. So, in the moment you might modify a story so it would be better for those in front of you because you knew their religions, their politics often, and also their likes and dislikes. So, unless you knew you were among friends one might be careful in the ways you told stories so you wouldn't be hurt or killed by what you said. In the 1950s and before getting beat up for what you said or did was much more common than now because people are much more dishonest with each other because of political correctness which has made most people liars in our society and in Europe.

And this is dangerous to the survival of all free world societies. Without enough honesty governments and peoples collapse through confusion.

So, finding a way to present truth as a writer that will be both palatable and survivable both for the writer and the reader is always a challenge for any writer whether they are paid or not.

So, I guess what I'm saying here is that I began writing around age 6 which would be 1954 in southern California in San Diego and Tujunga and Glendale (the last two are in Los Angeles County in California).

I have a much different perspective that most young people (under 50 do now) because I saw the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s 2000s and now the 20 teens. And the world now isn't the world I grew up in at all. Most people then might beat up or kill most people now for a variety of reasons. So, it is strange for me to see all the differences and to navigate the changes and to prosper in all ways in this society in comparison to the one I grew up in.

Is the world better than I grew up in? I would say no at least for me. But, for other people of all nationalities and creeds and ethnic groups, for many people I would say the world is better for them.

I sort of liked things the way they were in the 1950s and 1960s and 1970s the best. After that, it all seemed to get so crazy that just surviving in the world psychologically seemed to be more and more a problem for everyone.

However, the values I was taught to live with helped me by giving me values that are worth living for.

And in that sense I feel sorry for people of today because often they are bereft of these kinds of values that will actually keep them alive for a lifetime.

So, it is obvious many more people are going to die before 30 in the world we live in than did while I was growing up. But, it is important to note also that so many many people I knew died from reasons that they shouldn't have that don't even make any sense to me now in many ways that I knew from childhood on.

People are mostly dying because of different reasons than they once did. That is what is most strange about the present. So, is the world better than the 1950s. No! It's just different. That's all.

In fact it is so different that it sometimes seems we are living on a different planet than I grew up on.

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