Someone asked me, "John, how'd you get started with writing?"

I got my start from reading. That's not meant to be a smart aleck reply, because that's the way it happened. When I was a very young kid who didn't have a lot of toys or video games like today, but plenty of free time, I snuck a couple of my dad's paper back Westerns and found they were pretty good reading. I didn't know much about some of the stuff cowboys talked about, but I really liked how they lived.

As I got older, I found an author named Edgar Rice Burroughs, whose hero was named Tarzan. There were 24 books in the series, and I read every one of them at least twice. Then, over the years, I found Arthur Conan Doyle, Dick Francis, Daniel Brown, Michael Crichton and a slew of others, too many to mention. (Don't tell folks that I also had fun with Mickey Spillane and the tough guy Mike Hammer, who was helped by his very sexy secretary Velda.) 

My requirements when it came to choosing my authors was pretty simple. When I read their stories, my mind could make pictures of the surroundings, I could smell the smoke-filled back rooms and I could even hear the background noises of aliens, dinosaurs and traffic, and ... well, the list could go on and on. 

These were not just words on paper. My imagination made the books come to life for me! Movies are okay, but you are to leave your imagination in the lobby because the director sets the stage, picks the characters, fills in the gaps and controls the ending. You get the picture.

To continue, I begin thinking on Monday right after walking Charlie and eating my cereal. I keep a stack of yellow notepads next to my chair and jot down stuff that pops into my head. Hang on now. Here's where things begin to take shape.

Existentialism versus essentialism. What gives your life meaning? Some can and some can't. Things essential to function. Hmmm.

Search for answers in a universe with no reason/meaning. We have no guidelines, so we invent our own guidelines. Absurd. "I am responsible. I was not born with a purpose. I choose my purpose. No value. The world is not fair. Why?"

People toss the word around for some inexplicable reason.

"You mean I have to choose?"

Humanism? Maybe.

Socrates said, "Know thyself." Maybe he did, and maybe he didn't. I think this is what Plato, his student, said he said.

Essence ... life does have a purpose. It is up to us to find that purpose. 

Who wrote, "Everything that exists is born for no reason, carries on living through weakness and dies by accident."

Let's try to do anything but not everything and realize we can't have it all or do it all.

"I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me."

Okay, a way of thinking and not doing. Getting close, John.

If I had or could do just one last task before I kick the bucket, what would it be? We're moving from a house to a condo. What can we save? What must we leave behind?

We are a nation of "must have." It's called "Exaggerated expectations."

Take a nap. What does God think about all this stuff? Well, He knows and He'll share His thoughts eventually.

Thanks, God!

Thanks for being so patient, friends. It will all come together and make sense.