Writer’s Rant

March 16, 2025

Words of Wisdom

“The wise man hath his thoughts in his head; the fool, on his tongue.” (Ivan Panin). I have never been very vocal and certainly not the first to speak. It’s just not in my nature. I learned through years of practical and work experience that sometimes you just need to listen first and temper your response. It’s called, biting your tongue. For me, the first to speak is usually single minded and is not open or care about the viewpoints of others. It’s a matter of self-importance.

I like to think of myself as open minded. I didn’t used to be this way. I used to be a very opinionated person and while I admit some subjects, such as religion and politics, drive me to drink and still get my goat, I am much more open than I used to be to less controversial subject matter and opinions of others. I have gone from being very closed minded and opinionated to where I am today. I am much less conservative in some regards and more conservative in others.

But who really cares what I think? I’m just a writer of fiction and make up s— as I go along. As far as your opinions, sure they matter…to you. “You are entitled to your opinion, no matter how wrong you are…” I’m not sure if I actually coined that phrase or some other obscure person did, so I’ll just take the credit for it. Mark Twain wrote: “It’s better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than open it and remove all doubt.” It’s easy for me to live by that. I just keep my mouth shut and write it all down.

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