My sincerest thank you to all my dear tribe friends. You all fill my heart so magically that I can't express in mere words my gratitude. This past year has been a tough journey and your loving arms have lent me strength in time of desperate need. From the top,bottom, inside and out of my humble heart, I thank you.

I know I've been absent from the scene a bit lately, and I apologize. Life's got me by the proverbial balls right now. Send me a verbal spank, I deserve it.

I ask one thing....My wish...

Call one friend, one relative, one loved one, that you haven't seen or talked with for some time, no matter how long, and tell them how you care. It's a simple gesture that will take you little time and will have an amazing, resounding impression upon their lives and those they take that feeling to afterward.

Happy Thanksgiving (((ALL)))
My love to everyone,
~T~

My peers on a writer's website were involved in a discussion that I'd like to get your opinion on as well. The topic at hand was "Are we becoming a paperless society?" Some made a point that they thought writers use more paper than most other business people.

As an artist/writer/creative soul, I have a need to physically hold the piece in my hands. It makes it more real in some way. I don't know if I can do my meaning justice, but when I am reading an actual printed page it is easier for me to see the corrections or changes I'd like to make to the work. I can feel the weight and magnitude of the piece, decide if it needs more or less in body, or actually see the flow of words so much better than staring at a brightly lit screen. I wonder if it has anything to do with my generation and/or the fact that the computer age came after my most formative educational years and at least the first half of my business career. I'd like to hear feedback on that thought.

I worked for a number of years in both the advertising field and the fine paper industry. At that time businesses relied heavily on the printed passage of information in order to market their wares or services. You could walk into a lobby and see brochures and business cards in neat little piles here and there. Owners who engaged in business together would scratch each other's backs in this way also; pre-cyber networking days. As computers grew in popularity and affordability, we saw the numbers of households with a home computer grow by leaps and bounds. Advertisers could then cater their exposure via how an individual uses the internet. Based on what types of sites that individual visited, a business could sponsor a page or site and thus streamline the type of consumer they are advertising to.

In some ways we've become a paper-less society, but not a paperless society. Short of a major cataclysmic occurrence, I don't see the world, at least in my children's lifetimes, coming anywhere near being that free of the printed medium. The do-it-yourself trend has given birth to a vast number of new publications. You need only walk down the isle of a grocery store to see the increased number of specialized magazines we have available today.

As an industry, I don't think writing takes more paper usage than a myriad of other types of businesses. Writers may use more "than the average person," but we could say the same of attorneys as well, or government officials for that matter. I can't foresee a time in the near future where a courtroom would be set up with networked computers sitting in front of the defense, plaintiff, jury, and judge, nor the Congress in session with only these terminals to relay information for debate or consideration. That may very well come to fruition one day, but my concern and disbelief in a paperless society is seated firmly in the fallibility of technology. Even alternate storage devices, i.e. USBs, CDs, DVDs, memory cards, aren't immune to malfunction, but the written page is. Properly stored and preserved, it remains an at-a-glance representation of that moment or event in time. I guess you could argue the vulnerability of paper to fire and eventual biodegradability as well.

We refer to postal delivery as snail mail. We are becoming an impatient society where we want that information passed at lightning speed. In a way it truly saddens me to see this. I'm thrilled that I can connect with someone in another part of the world and exchange ideas, but there is nothing like receiving an amusing note from a friend penned by their own hand. Just knowing they sat down, smiling as they jotted some witty phrase geared toward poking you in the ribs, or consoling you personally, makes it all the more invaluable. That's my humble opinion. I am a creature of sentiment and habit. I'll forever be a slave to the tablet and pen I keep near me at all times just in case a thought comes to me, even though my lap top may be set up on the desk beside my nightstand or slung over my shoulder at the time. I walk through the isles of a book store and literally salivate. I wander around an antique store on a mission to find the discolored bindings and pages of books written generations before I took my first breath and relish the feel of that work in my hands much the same way as I would stare in awe at a painting by an artist who died long before I first touched a paintbrush...the sheer timelessness of art.

Perhaps one day we will become that cold society when the insignificance of the physical page will come to pass. I just hope I'm not around to witness it.

I know I have been absent as of late--actually, for awhile now. Life has been a real challenge in time, work, relationships...The ride has not been kind enough to slow down so that I could at least jump from the car I'm strapped inside.

My friends, my love for you has not diminished in the least. Not a day goes by that the pangs of guilt do not tug at me to drop a line, a smile, a hug or a simple nudge in your in box. But, when e'er I sit and begin to type, the gravity of all that is present becomes overwhelming and any simple sentence seems inadequate or forced or impossible.

I am strong. I am alive. I am moving forward. My steps will sync with yours soon.

Love, Peace and Serenity my dear kindred creatures.

And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair. ~Kahlil Gibran