Throw it off! Get rid of what there is in you. It is only lately, in fact, that I have realized it is more important for a writer to say whatever he has to say than to worry about form. It is what he says, not how he says it that matters, although he must know the rules in order to break them effectively.

Time is important to the writer. There is so much I want to do, so much I will never have time to do now. Life just is not long enough.

The great mystery to be solved is why society has become so dysfunctional. No matter how much I try to write about good things and focus on the beauty of life, the bizarre keeps knocking on my door.

Rather if it is a man wearing a leather slicker, hat, and sunglass on a hot summer’s day, looking like the killer from, “I know what you did Last Summer,” to tell me the lights on my car are flashing, or if it is someone speaking up about how Mayor Kevin Johnson, of Sacramento, California is suing the city, has private employees posing as city employees, bankrupted a black organization, sued a local newspaper for requesting public documents. Not to mention the Mayor a trail of sexual assaults under his belt, and these are not just baseless accusations.

There are only two subject to write about in Sacramento, California—sex and crime. A few night ago, I was out for a walk and a young lady was walking next to her, this guy, sitting on a bench, in front of a controversial apartment complex says to her, “I have been waiting outside of your house for you to come out, but I have not seen you lately.” She replied, “Yeah, I have been gone.” I turned to the lady and said, “Did you hear him?” She says, “Yes, I am used to it, this is Midtown. I have had people put things under my house, and they are always wondering around on my property, I even had a bum take a bowl movement on my lawn.” I told her, “I am sorry to hear that, be safe.” She replied, “You, too.”

It would seem to be astonishing because these things are so outrageous. However, it seems this is the new normal. I was talking to another lady and she told me her in-laws were losing their minds, too. Someone moved in with their great grandmother, and turned her out, now she is drinking, the great granddaughter, a teenager, is selling sex, and a group of hooligans converged on the great grandmother’s property and she had to pull a gun out and scare them away.

Another lady, he 45 year old son, who has likes six kids and cursing his mother out and asking her what can she do for him, even after she supported two of his children, and his entire family, at one point.

Then her daughter, who is near the age of 40 met some guy in San Francisco, and went from having a nice $2000.00 a month apartment and a job, to sleeping on someone’s couch. Then she had to move back in with her mother, and the boyfriend was sleeping outside of the mother’s house in a car.

However, it gets even worse, it seems the daughter and the boyfriend took a liking to heroin. So he started stealing money from her bank account and they would check into sleazy motels and shot up heroin, and having séances. Within a year, the young lady was rushed to the hospital three times, and had to be put on life support, and the doctor told her the next time it happens she will likely die.

So a few days after she gets out of the hospital, the boyfriend calls her and she is sitting on the phone like she is in a trance talking about, “I love you, you are the only one who understands me, I will come to you right now.”

Luckily her car had been blocked in the drive way, and the family took her keys and phone away because she was on the way to that motel to get someone heroin.

I flat out told her months ago that guy was no good, and everyone got upset with me. Then after she got out of the hospital this third time, I told her he is going to get you hooked on that heroin and having you out there hoin’ to bring him money. Then when you end up dead, he will move on to the next.

So the family sent her out of the state for a few weeks, but no telling what she will do when she gets back. Nonetheless, this type of behavior is unbelievable to me. Many of you might be used to it, but I am not.

Even today policemen are anathema to the valley people. If you come into our valley you will never get out! I feel like I was taken out of my idyllic Connecticut neighborhood and out into a satirical thriller.

However, be wise, and that wisdom shall be a God unto thee; be contented, and that is thy Heaven. We are wise by other people’s experiences. So many things in my life have embarrassed me, but so happy that I know not to get involved with a person, who does not have a job or their own place.

And yes, I almost went down that rabbit hole before, but I was tricked into it. Then when I realized what was going on, I got out of it. I know not to get involved with people who are in to drugs because they will pull you down, and you may never recover, especially if they are poor.

We may make the World allow for and respect us as we please, if we can but be sturdy in our wills, and set out accordingly.

Niccolo Paganini is considered one of the greatest violinists of all time. He was a virtuoso, performing his first concert at age eleven. His great technical ability revolutionized violin technique across Europe. When he died in 1840, he willed his violin to Genoa, Italy, the place of his birth.

However, he did so upon one condition: that no other artists ever play his instrument again. Glad to have the violin come into their possession, the city’s fathers agreed to the request, and they put in in a beautiful case for everyone to see.

However, wooden instruments have a certain peculiarity. As long as they are handled, they show no wear. Yet, if one lay unused, it begins to decay, which is what happed to Niccolo Paganini’s violin. His once-exquisite instrument became worm-eaten and useless.

Other violins of the same vintage have been handed down through the generations, from one gifted musician to another, and they continue to bring great music to attentive audiences. Still, Niccolo Paganini’s violin is crumbling relic of what was once.

That talent you have been given by God cannot be set aside like Niccolo Paganini’s violin. If you do not nurture your ability, grow, it will steadily decay until it is useless.

However, if you consistently work with it, diligently trying to bring out its best, it will bring forth “music” that will not only give you joy, but will also serve others and bring you success. Success is a continuing thing. It is a growth and development. Prayer draws us near to our own souls, and purifies our thoughts.