My blog isn't required reading.

I think I'm learning how to think without straining the brain. And that feels good. Because it feels so natural. So relaxing. It's like when I sit down and write a love letter. It's no strain. It's pure pleasure. Before I retired, when I was writing for newspapers, I got pleasure, too. From many of the stories I wrote. But hey, some of the stuff was drudgery. It was forced writing. Maybe toward the end it was like that. To a higher degree. Maybe that was a sign for me to retire. And now that I'm retired, I write every day. But I write what I want to write. And the way I want to write it. No editors. Just write for the pure pleasure of it. And so that's the state of my mind. The state of my thinking process. I think as a romantic idealist and a liberal and a free-thinker and a lover. I'm comfortable with myself. And I proceed at a leisurely pace. No hurry. No stress. No pressure. Used to be I had to write under a deadline. Especially breaking news. I had to think quickly. At a very rapid pace. That's no way to write. Oh, it takes skill. To write fast. But I prefer a different kind of skill. As a lover. Of someone. And of life. One must savor life. And love. That's my way. Nobody dictates what I do, or what I write. That's a nice thing about blogging. Gives me a sense of freedom. And it doesn't bother me if people don't like what I write. They have the option not to read it. They can come and go as they want. They can offer comments, too. But I'm the dictator. I decide whether they get published here. For a while, I allowed readers to say anything. But some of 'em got downright nasty. Obscene. So I drew a line. I decided that if they want to say such things -- well, then do it in their own blogs. This is my blog. I'm the boss. The editor. The commander-in-chief. After all, my blog isn't required reading. --Jim Broede