On facing the brutal truth.

I wonder. How many people talk to themselves. Shut out everything. Turn off the radio. Set aside the book. And then carry on a conversation. With their inner being. I do. Every day. That’s how I spend most of my idle time. Alone. Often, I sit down. And record my thoughts. In writing. In the process, I want silence. Solitude. No interruption.  Yes, I call it thinking time. Opportunity to get my act together.  To better understand what I am all about. Oh, I could socialize. Engage my friends and associates in conversation. And I do. But I find the confabs with the inner me to be more interesting, more penetrating, more revealing. I try to be truthful. To hide nothing. Even my most embarrassing moments. Of course, I also aim for the truth. In my conversations with others. But that’s harder to do. Because the truth sometimes hurts. Don’t know if I have the right to hurt others. It’s easier turning the truth on to me. Better to offend myself rather than others. Many, many people, I surmise, are unprepared for the brutal truth – about themselves. --Jim Broede