Hey Kids,

Whoever said that no man is an island has never seen me in a swimming pool.

I keep to myself for the most part. I like people so long as I don’t “have to” have interaction. I’m quiet in groups, more than willing to let others talk at meetings, and am more inclined to stay home than go to parties. I do like to talk but not necessarily to other people.

Yesterday I met with my brother and we had dinner together at a local popular burger joint. It was his birthday the other day and I owed him. We ended up sitting and talking for over 5 hours. And I would say it was pretty much split 50/50 on who was talking.

We covered a number of things with nothing extraordinary; just Bro talk. Family, jobs, cars, bikes, and the like. We also talked a little about our futures and what we had coming up and what we hope would happen in the ever shortening long run.

As a writer, I spend a lot of time in my own head. This blog is one way to get out a little but it’s still talking into an open mic with no ear piece. But I find that, from time to time, it’s good to spend time with fellow humans and to say things out loud.

During one of my turns to talk yesterday, I shared my writing goals and in the midst of sharing, I told myself the theme of a possible 5^th book in the OPR series. I had never had or heard the idea before.

I know it’s a brave thing to talk about book 5 when I’m writing book 2 of a book that only me and my mother have read (exaggeration, but not by much)(OK, exaggeration again but only by a little). Anyway, it is odd to talk of book 5, but it made books 3 and 4 become a given. Their possibility of becoming real happened because in order to have a book 5, 3 and 4 have to exist.

I struggle at times to see the big picture. Talking out loud told me that I do see it, I do believe it, and more importantly, I do want it. I don’t think I would have come up with it without speaking out loud to my brother and hearing the words sounding in my ears.

Maybe this is just living in my own head again but in another way. Maybe my brother didn’t have to be there. But the fact remains that the idea didn’t happen until he was.

Despite who you are, what you do, or how weird you might be; time spent with fellow human beings can be a good thing. Even if self-serving.

Day 47