A Conversation With A Young Man - April 20, 2018

Originally I was going to do as I usually do, which is "make a mess, clean it up".  I write and type like the wind - and I once met a man named E.B. White.  Yes, it was "that" E.B.White, the author of Stuart Little, and Charlotte's web - and countless other stories and books.

The one thing he told me, when I with a group of other young award winning youth met the famous writer, was that phrase.  "Forget writers block - just make a mess, and clean it up."  "Write every day if you can."  "The difference between writers and everyone else, is that writers write."

E.B. White, also told me when I met him as a young writer, that he had learned his craft from a man named McGuffey, a famous citizen of Ohio and professor from Miami of Ohio.

This shaped my life, as when I was offered the opportunity to study at Miami, I accepted without hesitation.

Miami of Ohio - the oldest school West of the Allegheny mountains, Miami of Ohio at Oxford - near the Ohio river, and Cincinnati.  He always claimed he learned to write from a man long-dead when I came along, 

EB wrote "Charlotte's Web", and like most real books, it contained truths embedded in simple words - terrible, real truths about life, about human greed, deliberate ignorance and injustice.  

From the moment I met Mr. White, I knew I would write - and speak, and words would be life.  Thus, this short story.

So as usual, I let the words flow to my young friend Rainer Shea - a 17 year old man, a very mature man, a man of power and incredible influence, who in our opinion here at New Hope is destined for either a Nobel Peace Prize or a bullet....

I described my yesterday to Rainer Shea - and then as I so frequently do, prepared to condense and edit, and craft a well-rounded document using the skills I've gained in a lifetime of writing on the topics of peace, equality, human greed and institutionalized injustice.

And then - I stopped.

I thought.

I listened to my heart - and remembered I wasn't just talking to the wind, I had written these words to Rainer Shea.

So here you go - screenshots, warts and all.

"A Conversation With a Young Man"