It's been a while.

Since my last blog. I haven't been inspired enough to write lately. Life has been good to me. I can honestly say I'm content for once. But once content, always lazy I say.

The reason I came back to writing was how inspired I got the other night reading. I read so often the words become a blur. I don't even see them. It rolls forth like a movie in my mind. Vivid details like the smell of wet grass all the way to drying blood. I can even perceive the smell of death.

And this is what strikes me me as amazing. The simple power of the written word. A beautiful dance of sounds that pit you in the middle of peoples minds, their emotions and their struggles.

I just finished reading a book from my favorite author. His latest in a long series of novels. And when I mean long I mean I've been reading his books for twenty years. All about the same group of friends. I've been though their battles. I was there for their victories. I've laughed with them, and yes I have felt their every pain and loss. All together around eighteen or nineteen novels spread over twenty years I have shared their lives.

And thats the reason I felt compelled to write this blog. At the very end of this book. Two of the main characters died. It was so powerfully written, so devastatingly beautiful. So agonizingly sad. I've literally grown up with this ensemble of diverse personalities. One of them that passed away was introduced to me fifteen years ago. In the beginning she was around sixteen. I've watched her grow up physically as well as emotionally all the way to her mid forties. I was with her through all her struggles, fought beside her in every battle. I've felt her every loss.

And this is why I have a passionate affair with literature. I didn't dawn on me how much emotions I have invested in these characters. I have been there for them for twenty years and yet so have they for me. When she died I was devastated. Albeit she is a fictional person.

But thats exactly the point I am attempting to make. The written word is a powerful thing. I took it for granted for so many years. And I was totally blindsided by her death. All I could think about was how I'll never share her adventures, her pain, her triumphs, her joy. Ever. This gave me such a profound sense of loss. Like a friend in the real world actually died.

But at the same time I am overjoyed. I have found a world I can completely immerse myself into. I find solace in my imagination. I feel inspiration fill my soul. Because if the human intellect can produce these feelings simply by writing, then there is hope for humanity left.

I feared that with so much technology around peoples imagination would grow lazy and incompetent. With gadgets doing all the work for us with no thinking involved. But there are pioneers out there that wont let the written word die. I know I won't.

I don't mean to sound like a PSA commercial. But, go read a book.