Stars, Upchucking Online, Leadership, Photos, Tron

What do you do when you have to write a blog post but you have tons to say on several different topics and a paragraph break just doesn't do it for you?

I'm going with dashes. Or maybe asterisks ... and by asterisks I mean stars, and I'm going to refer to them as stars from here on out because I always have to look up the word asterisk, and besides, it sounds like a dirty word.

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So last night my wife and I were watching this movie we got from Redbox. It's called State of Play, and even though it had several big names in it, the movie wasn't completely awful. Towards the beginning you have Russell Crowe and this other lady, both of whom are writers, going at each other, the principle accusation towards the girl being that she's a blogger. At one point Crowe's character alludes to the lady's next blog post as upchucking online.

Upchucking online. That's a good way to describe blogging. It's a whole bunch of upchuck that is seldom cleaned up. Of course, there are those who would argue against my point, but they're probably too busy watching Jerry Springer reruns or Oprah.

Wabam!

But don't let me stop you from letting it out. Sometimes we just need to puke it out, blow the chunks, toss the cookies--whatever. I'm guilty too, if you hadn't noticed.

My opinion is that writing is therapeutic. It's healthy. It leads to greater understanding of self and ideas. But if you expect people to actually read it you will be let down. If you expect to become the next Leonardo Babauta (spell check?), you'll be disappointed. And then you might stop. And that's the true tragedy. Don't let stupid stuff like that stop you from writing. Puke it on out.

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I did a mental inventory of people I consider to be leaders. I'm talking about leaders of all types--global, business, community, family. I thought about how they do the things they do and why. Some of the answers make me think ... and then want to puke. Why? Position. That's why. What we consider power is nothing more than position. Maybe that position came because of courage or honor--but more likely circumstance and hard work--but what moves the leader's machine is no longer what his passion is, or where is honor lies; it's his position. He leans on his position to get what he wants.

Okay, so I'm not too morally shocked by this revelation, but it still makes me feel uncomfortable. After all, decisions made based on position rather than integrity, for example, seem questionable to say the least.

But then again we were born to question.

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I'd like you--yes you, the person reading this--to go take a look at some of these photos and tell me if you're not moved. This lady has outstanding talent behind the camera.

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That is all. End of line.