The one with the schmuck "good" writer.

I have never met a good writer who said he/she is a good writer. I think the real good ones leave it to their writing and not with their mouth to proselytize their passion for literature. 

The story behind this post stems from a eavesdropping incident that I can't help but write about. First, the person who is subjecting himself with self-praise is seated behind me, not to mention, airing his fantastical view of himself in-front of two bored females with a solid proud voice projected towards the whole crowd of hungry people eating dinner at McDonald's.

I was there, tormented and obviously disturbed by this man's unabashed, shameless broadcast of how good of a writer he is. Picking bits and pieces from his story-telling session, I assume that he is a blogger who gives advice to young lovelorn individuals online. He said he started giving advice and get ready for this, massive praises for his status messages which he used as the overrated catalyst and a major motivation to start his blogging career.

This is the part that intrigued me the most, this guy spoke with intense confidence, overflowing, overwhelming confidence, whew! That I almost choked when I heard him utter a statement so wrongly put together, so messed up with too much adverbs and complicated phrases that I almost stood up, walk towards him and hand him a paper with the words written: " Dude, you may be a good writer, yeah, keep it to yourself please and heed this when you write and maybe when you talk " eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation", do spare us from your self-absorbed, overly self-righteous statements and just keep on writing good advice to your followers. Just write"

But then again, I did not do this although it was well-rehearsed and well-played in my mind. I did not do this because I think, an honest to goodness fan of the written word will just pen this story down instead.

May humility be bestowed upon that arrogant schmuck.

A Promise To Write Back- A cross post.

This is a letter exchange project started by an unassuming working class individual from Manila, Philippines.  Realizing the ornate ordinariness that constitutes the work life of the writer and author of this blog, she decided to contribute and ignite her passion for writing letters and essentially the written word through the birth of this project.

Describing her need to read and write random musings and ramblings, of which can be classified from (rewriting) and (proof-reading) event announcements, nutrition labels, exuberant commercial poster copies to handwritten postcards, lost letters from the past, to dusty books juxtaposed with 30 yr. old Reader's Digest and National Geographic Magazines, it can be simply put that her thirst to learn the affairs of the world through reading, is simply, unabashedly insatiable.

More than the pursuits of the author herself, this is a small yet hopefully, in its own snail-paced way, significant. Significant in the matters of the compassion- because it allows the writer from both ends to believe that someone, somewhere out there would still carefully read and actually appreciate a note to express even the most minute happiness of your heart. Second, for the matters of keeping a tradition - letters has been around since time in memorial. We, the educated, wise and forward-thinking individuals of today, owe it to letters that humankind's history is well endowed with scientific and institutionalized preservation methods. Our history lives because somewhere during the course of our evolution we have a letter dug up, hence revealing a moment from the past and studied and archived in a tight vault somewhere in this world. Lastly, for the matters of expressing an artform- writing for me, is an artform. May it be a letter, a poem, a single line sentence, it will mirror the very depths of your soul. It can either define that particular moment in your life as you write it down, or it can defy it. Like a true artist honing its craft, writing letters is a self-image manifested in carefully, passionately crafted words. It is your heaven and hell, what you write is what you feel, truly an artform.

Write anything. Write the events of your life that you're willing to share to the rest of the world. Write both the yearning and tidings of your heart, your life, or even your pet's. It doesn't matter, expect to be written back as a promise and a gratitude for your trust. Expect the most positive light in every letter, so in her own little way, the favor will be brought and sent back to you, from the stranger from not so far away, wanting to write letters.