Your Conscious Stream
One of my favorite authors to read is James Altucher. I love reading his stuff because it often seems like his pen (or his fingers) are just spewing out what happens to be in his mind at that moment without any filter. We have these rules for what is good writing versus bad writing. When you are in school, they tell you about creating an outline, then writing a main idea, then substantiating with additional statements. But, reading his stuff seems to be to be like…well…freedom. What comes to his mind is what gets written and it all comes together in a beautiful, often hilarious mess!
I love it because I often wish that I could be more like that. We all have these rules that we grew up with and they got transformed into political correctness under the guise of kindness. I’m not saying that we should just go around blasting everyone and saying whatever we feel. It just feels like the constraint placed on most of what we say comes from the same place that causes us to “be careful” with what we say.
I’m sure there is some line. But, there is a certain freedom and beauty in being able to say what comes to mind and express ideas in a way that is not yet clearly thought out. There is a beautiful freedom in being able to think out loud without being concerned about phonics police coming to serve you with an infraction. There is a watery flow that only happens when you are able to express your mind on the way to a complete thought. Call it the Conscious Stream.
To be fair, we can all access this. Writers often use free writing to express thoughts in an unencumbered way and some may even use that to overcome writer’s block. But I’m not sure if we encourage people to do free speaking even though we say we have free speech. Why? Well, our feelings are at stake. Once it comes out of your mouth, you can never take it back. We would have to afford everyone the same privilege and that can be a pretty scary thing. Because even in the world where there are “rules of engagement” or “rules of kindness”, it’s still scary to think what some people might say. And yet, we find low-key beauty in those who are able to say what they feel without concern for the repercussions. It’s one of the things that initially endeared Donal Trump to some of the American population. It’s different. It’s not the norm and somewhere deep down, most of us want to access that freedom, that Conscious Stream.
However, we all live in this world together…yep, all 7 billion of us. So, we have to figure out how to work together otherwise this “freedom” would ultimately be chaos. Everyone’s “freedom” affects another. So, with freedom comes responsibility. With a Conscious Stream comes a level of concern for the well-being of others…that is, if you’re a good person.
And with that, my Conscious Stream calls for a pause.
