I believe that words – read or spoken – can cause us to experience physical sensations. While often not nearly as intense as we may experience in other forms of stimulation, they still cause some depth of stirring. A well-written novel of mystery and suspense does, at critical times in the storyline, instill us to take a small gasp of breath, or blink our eyes; gory enough and some of us will shudder and make a face of distaste.

Anticipating the beginning of a book – postponing for a few moments the actual realization of the power formed by ink on paper, but for a moment, just a glance that it awaits us – understanding the potential of those words to touch us deeply, knowing of its ability to transport us to a place far outside ourselves, to be given the power to wander through another’s thought process…to capture a glimpse of a journey so much less mundane than our own existence – fiction or non, each compels us to explore another’s sense of perception, a way of thinking perhaps close or distant to our own. It matters not that we know the author personally, we shall still trust the written word in its entirety, believe in the places that we will travel by nature of those written words. No matter what the words are, no matter how great our need to escape to that place, listening closely, one can hear the voices as the story unfolds.

Words are needed to record for posterity the hopes and the failures of the treasures of life – past, present and future – to explain to what end we as individuals and as a society justify our means. As a society, we seek to avoid conflict yet continue to remain fully armed for it. So we do as individuals – on a smaller scale, but nonetheless – in some ways, our progress to avoid conflict is spurred on by our fear in our ability to conquer it. To conquer – to survive – to what ends do we seek the tools that will ensure our safety, be that safety real or imagined? Society retards the evolution of trust in a naïve, if not foolish, belief, we trust in a society that has no regard for trust. Yet, that society seeks to have us trust in it without question. So it is with us individually – by nature, we retard the evolution of trusting in another while simultaneously expecting that person’s blind trust in us. Trust is like an open letter that allows another to see us with little or no conscious thought or limitation placed upon the idea of emotions expressed – a pure stream of consciousness with no restraints or barriers. In the name of goodness in humanity, we push to be allowed the choice to accept another’s weaknesses while hiding our own….