JPF Home Page Forums Creative Arts Forums Creative Writing Forum Untitled

"By all means, marry. If you get a good wife, you'll become happy. If you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher." Aristotle.

"If someone leaves you, let them go. They're doing you a favor." Anonymous.

"I've discovered that it's easier to see another man's ass than it is to see one's own." Philosophical observation in a book I never bought.

I recently ended some three relationships with people who I realized are not my friends. I wrote a Lyric about them but it opens with obscenities unfit for sharing with other human beings, which ruins the rest of the Song for sharing.

Fran's a genius: "Fault Line". Remember 'no-fault' insurance? Earthquake 'fault' lines. Your fault. My fault. Nobody's fault. The girl's a genius I tell ya!

But you may be only looking for a way to vent your frustrations. I remember a girl who screamed in her car, driving down the highway, and said it relieved stress. A friend, arguing with his wife, said he let her rant. Then went for a drive, knowing someone would inevitably do something that enabled him to vent on them. A violent man, I hope he was able to do his venting without involving them to that degree. He just passed away so his hell may be just beginning.

A more academic approach is writing. People recommend writing a letter to your younger self. Or writing to your ex- , ex-wife, ex-boss, ex-best-friend-forever who ran off with your wife. These aren't letters you mail. Just write them as a way of crystalizing your thinking. Beware. Anything you say can and will be used in a court of law. You have the right to remain silent, and suffer. Some say to burn the letters after you write them, as a finalizing act. Or simply writing in a journal, without addressing yourself to anyone. Just expressing thoughts, feelings, and ever with an eye towards moving on to a more positive state of mind. Life is good. There's not much of it left, no matter how young you think you are. So every moment deserves investment of your consciousness, an awareness, mindfulness, that this is the 'now', and 'now' is all there is. The past is gone. You can change how you think about it, but not the facts of it. The future may never get here. Now is all there is. So what are you doing 'now'? If you don't like what you're doing, do something different. Grow something. Get a dog if you're willing to commit to sharing your life with one of these sentient creatures who understands you more than you will ever understand them. Don't get one unless you're willing to take it for long free wanders through wild woods on as frequent a schedule as possible. Chaining one up in the back yard is not a kindness for it or you. Explore the world. It's a quite interesting place. Nature is full of interesting things we once were fascinated with as children, and then forgot to enjoy as our lives became cluttered with other things. Stop and smell the...well...whatever's out there. Become the person you think you'd like to be. Who is he? What does he do? Where does he go? How does he interact with other people? Does he lift them up, wherever he goes? They all need lifting up. Almost none of them needs bringing down. Even those who need bringing down are demonstrating that they need to be lifted up. Lead. Don't follow. Unless you like where they're leading you. And even then, beware. Many will mislead you for reasons of their own, if you're foolish enough to follow. Explore. The world is full of endless possibilities. Find a place of flowing water. Spend, or invest, some of that precious time, the stuff of which life is made, there, beside the waters. Find a place where the water becomes still. Listen to the wind in the trees. Be. Let it be. Climb, deliberately, out of the oppressive thoughts that loop back and re-oppress you if you aren't deliberately constructing the person you want to be. Or...well...what else can you do? You're pretty much in control. There are limitations. But mostly they're things you impose on yourself. Or I do anyway. Find. Look for and find better places, better wa
ys to spend your time. Vent. Write the letters. Burn them and move on. If it doesn't work, I'll give you your money back.