Often when I introduce myself, the response I get back is, ‘wasn’t there a famous jazz musician by that name?’
The answer is No. There was not anyone famous with my name, at least not yet. ‘The person you are thinking of is Thelonious Monk. He was an amazing musician. And there is no relation. At least not that I’m aware of. I have been through this so many times, it has almost become routine.

However, Recently it was brought to my attention, that the next generation may start to confuse me with someone else. This one is more a peer of mine since Thelonious and I only share a decade from 1972-1982. Anyone who is familiar with either of these men and has at least one good eye would have a hard time finding any familial resemblance, then again, we are supposed to be color blind.

As with Thelonious Monk, Felonious Munk is a performer of sorts. Here is his latest performance that is making waves.

WARNING: This video is not appropriate for work, children, politically correct or the easily offended. This video contains foul language. It also contains the sentiment of many Americans.

While I recently wrote something critical of the President, let my critique not be confused with the work of Felonious Monk. Let me set the record straight here and now. I am NOT Felonious Munk. We’ve never met, he’s probably never heard of me, and there are no familial ties. At least not that I know of. Then again, aren’t we all related at some point?

Dear President Obama, My thoughts on the US Budget Crisis

I finally had a chance to sit down a watch the President’s speech last night. If it hadn’t been for someone complaining on Twitter that He interrupted Bachelorette, honestly, I would not have known he made a speech. So, after I put the kids to bed, finished my most pressing work, I pulled the speech up on You Tube and took a listen. A few minutes into his speech I found myself talking to my computer. I decided to share the thoughts that went through my head as I listened. Here they are in the form of a letter to the President.

First the Speech, in case you haven’t seen it.

President Obama Addresses the Nation on Dangers of Default

Dear Mr. President,
I sat down to watch your speech tonight. As I did, I realized that some of the things you were saying, weren’t exactly correct. I hope that this little letter will help you set the record straight.

1st.(0:22) You don’t spend money on a Tax Cut. Taxes are the income. If you cut taxes, you cut your income. No American takes money out of their paycheck and spends it on getting a smaller paycheck. That’s just silly.

2nd.(0:30) The nation doesn’t have a credit card. We don’t have a CHASE or CITI piece of plastic that Tim Geithner takes around and swipes everywhere.

3rd.(0:33) About the $1 Trillion deficit that you talked about inheriting in 2009 $700 Billion of that, or 70% was the “Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008” that you campaigned and worked for in 2008. So, I think 70% of that responsibility should be yours. Then a year later you campaigned for and spent another $787 Billion, The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. These two things alone add up to nearly $1.5 Trillion and account for 50% more than the deficit you say you “inherited.”

4th.(0:44) You said that because of the recession there was less money coming in and that required you to spend “even” more. I don’t know where you come from, but here in America, when we run our household budgets, when we have less coming in, we don’t spend even more. We spend less. Then we don’t rack up debt that we can’t pay.

5th(0:55) I’m not sure I disagree with giving money to states to help keep teacher’s jobs, but I don’t think we should have spent money we didn’t have especially when you can’t keep spending that money. Now teachers are losing their jobs anyway. And it seems that more teachers are losing their jobs now than would have lost jobs before.

6th.(2:00) What you’re saying about cuts in the budget I think should be done. The quickest way to get out of debt is to stop borrowing. That means stop spending. I get that. (4:00)The part about not asking the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations to give anything at all? What do you mean?

Everyone knows that the wealthiest Americans pay the most in taxes. Dollars per person they pay the most of any American. What about asking those that don’t pay any taxes to step up? Millions of “Americans” don’t pay taxes at all. In fact, they get money from the government. If this truly is an American problem, then maybe ALL Americans should help out.

7th(4:18) What cuts would put a greater burden on working families? I am in a working family, and I don’t know what cuts you could make in Washington that would cause me to have a greater burden.

8th(4:36) Mr. President. This whole thing about asking the wealthiest people to give more, I don’t understand. It seems like you are talking about raising taxes. That is not asking people to give more. That is making them. If you really want to ask them, just ask them. There is nothing in the Constitution that says the Government can’t take gifts or donations that just go into the Treasury.

(5:01) If you want to give more than you are giving now, just do it. If you want to ask Americans to give more money, just do it. Let each American give what they feel moved to give. Americans are good people. We are always chipping in and lending a hand. We freely give more out of our pocket to help other people in need than many nations in this world have total. I’m sure if you ask some of your friends to give, to set an example, I’m sure they would do it. Why don’t you just ask instead of making them do it by raising taxes?

9th(5:30) You just said that families that make less than $200,000 won’t see any increase, but that we should ask Millionaires and Billionaires to “share in the sacrifice that everyone else has to make”. You just said the vast majority “98%” of Americans won’t have to make a sacrifice. Which is it?

10th(6:00) “I think these Patriotic Americans are willing to pitch in. In fact, they’ve pitched in every time we’ve passed a bi-partisan deal to reduce the deficit.” What is the definition of “Pitch In”? I thought it meant to help out as a result of free will. But you’re talking about raising taxes. There is no free will in that. In fact, if you don’t pay your taxes, the government hauls you off to jail. I don’t think that’s pitching in.

In fact, I thought we told the King of England to ‘Shove Off’ when he wanted the colonies to Pitch In their “Fair Share”. My teachers taught me that we didn’t like being overtaxed. That’s why many of our ancestors took up squirrel guns and fought the British for freedom. In fact, I think we just had a holiday celebrating that.

11th(7:04) This whole debt ceiling thing, that’s like asking the bank for a higher credit limit. They usually ask if we have higher income to afford it. As I understand it, you’ve said we have less income, and that as our income has gone down, our spending has gone up. If I tried that, the banker would laugh at me. He would consider me too high a risk.

12th(7:42) You say that, if we don’t raise our debt ceiling, we won’t be able to pay all of our bills. Maybe it’s time to cut the cable. Maybe it’s time to not eat out so much. Maybe, even as hard as it seems, and as painful as it is, maybe it’s time to sell this big house, downsize into a smaller house, maybe we need to do the same with the car too. Maybe it’s time to bite the bullet and swallow the pill.

13th(7:50) These Republicans are just saying that the US Government must do the same thing the majority of Americans are doing. But you say if that happens we would default on our loans, that we wouldn’t be able to pay our bills, that we would not be able to pay all the contracts we have with businesses. Well, Mr. President, many Americans have had to take their hat in hand and go to their creditors and explain the bad news. As our President, maybe you should take your hat in your hand.

14th(8:20) I’m not sure I understand how raising our debt limit makes us a good bet. It seems that doing the same thing every American has to do to keep a good debt score is spend less than you make and don’t borrow too much money. It seems to me that all this increase in spending that’s been happening is what threatens our Triple A credit rating. Mr. President, any EMT, Doctor or nurse will tell you, that if a patient has serious bleeding, you stop the bleeding. Pumping more blood in doesn’t help if you don’t stop the bleeding.

15th(8:30) You said, “Interest rates would sky rocket on credit cards, on mortgages, and on car loans. Which amounts to a huge tax hike on the American people.” What the hell are you talking about? How does sky rocketing interest rates on my personal loans and credit cards equate to a “Huge Tax Hike”

16th(9:00) You said that the spending cuts that Speaker Boehner has proposed today would only put off the current problem for six months. Then maybe his cuts aren’t deep enough.

17th(9:17) I can understand that not cutting enough spending could still hurt our credit score because of the situation our nation is in.

In summary, I think this is a crisis. And I think it takes an honest look at what got us here to put together a real solution to the crisis. At the very foundation of this problem is government spending. Say what you will about obligations to this person or that cause. If the government hadn’t spent the money, we wouldn’t be in this situation. That said, STOPPING THE SPENDING has to be at the heart of the solution.

It seems that is not enough to fix this problem soon enough. It seems we need some more money and we need it fast. In my house that means getting a second or third job. Many Americans have done that and will have to do it again or face defaulting on their own debt. We understand what that means to our own credit score. I think you are right when you said that the vast majority of Americans don’t want that.
I also think this is a problem that faces ALL Americans, each and everyone of us. Unlike both Parties in Washington, I think it’s only fair that each and everyone of us should step up and play a role in helping get America out of this mess. I do think it means new and possibly higher taxes. I think the first step, even before we ask some Americans to pay higher taxes, is to ask every American to pay taxes. There should be no bottom to the tax bracket. If you are an American and you live in America, you should pay taxes. I think it is as simple as that. Next, I think the taxes paid by immigrants should go up. If they want to live here, let them pay for it.

Here are my priorities Mr. President.

1. Cut Spending, and cut it drastically.
2. Make everyone pay taxes.
3. If we need to increase taxes start by increasing taxes on immigrants and non citizens working and living in the US.

Let’s try that and see where it gets us. Then, if we need to do something more we can re-look at the situation.

Mr. President, Thank you for your time. May God bless you and May God bless our United States of America.

Sincerely,

Thaddeus Fonck

13th Generation American Citizen, Taxpayer, Neighbor and Friend

It is the first day of summer vacation and what are the kids and I doing? SCHOOL! I know, I know. It is a bit crazy. But there are several things that have gotten me to this point. One is this thing called 39 Clues. 39 Clues is a series of mystery books for children that has the characters traipsing across the world looking for clues to their ancestry and power of their family.

My children are super excited to read the books. As I pre-read several of the books I realized that knowing some information would make reading the books more enjoyable. The first one involves Benjamin Franklin. So I decided that before the kids could read the books, they needed a little schooling.

I recently found a very nice curriculum about Benjamin Franklin from the Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary. This recent discovery mixed with the need to find something to keep this kids busy as my wife, the teacher, is working all week has led us to attempt a summer school of sorts.

My hope is that the kids will have fun learning as we embark on this journey. They will be busy and I will get some work done. This will be a log of the things we do and learn as we proceed through this curriculum and study Benjamin Franklin. I hope you have fun reading about our experiences and I hope we have more fun than you.

We’ve heard a lot about Volunteering and Community Service. You’ve heard phrases like “Give back” or “Lend a Hand.” You’ve also heard about giving a “Handout” or a “Hand Up.” Well I prefer to take a different perspective. These all seem to place one person in a different position then another. For example, If I were to give you a ‘Hand Out”, or a “Hand Up” it would seem I am in a better position than you are. I don’t necessarily think that or believe that.

Instead, I think we are all in this together. While we have different roles to play at this time we all have the same role. We are all on the same team. If we are on the same team, then there is not anyone in a position of superiority. If we are on the same team, then everyone is expected to pull their own weight. This doesn’t mean that everyone is in it for themselves. It means that everyone does what they can.

The underlying idea behind several popular thoughts in America right now is, ‘From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.’ This sounds like a wonderful thought. It even sounds very much like what I am saying. In fact is is very much like what I am saying. It is not, however, what I am saying. This ‘From each..to each..’ idea is from a government, overseeing organizational, perspective. This is the idea that the overseeing body has the authority and should take (read squeeze) from everyone what they have, according to their ability, and redistribute this pile of goods back out according to each person’s “need” (read ‘as determined by the overseers’). This seems like a great idea.

The problem is that it removes the value of the individual. It separates the efforts of the person from the fruit of his labor. He no longer sees what his mind and hands can create and accomplish. He no longer sees the good that he does for his family and his community. When he cannot see that his efforts make a difference in the world, he stops striving to make a difference.

This basic idea is why NGOs are so successful. In America you can’t swing your checkbook, if you still even have one, and not hit a dozen Non-Profit Organizations that are directly benefiting your community. If you give even $10 you can immediately see the impact in you community. I live in a community of around 200,000 people. I can not name all the organizations that are integral parts of making this a GREAT town to live in.

This is not meant to be a political statement, though by it’s very nature it is. This is not a Republican or Democratic, conservative or socialist agenda. It is however an activist, anti-government statement. Simply put we solve our own problems better when we work together here.

I am encouraging Activism. I want you to get fired up and hit the streets. I want you to take your husband, wife, brothers, sisters, kids, neighbors, friends, coworkers, and anyone else you can. Get up. Get out there and make a difference. Volunteer. Give some of your time and money. Encourage others. Let someone else encourage you.

I call this the ‘Be In’ campaign. ‘Be In’volved in the community! ‘Be In’touch with what’s happening! ’Be In’terested in the people in your community! ’Be In’vested in the future of your neighborhoods, parks and schools! ’Be In’gaged in the lives of the people around you! Most of all, what I’m saying is turn off the entertainment box and Go! ‘Be In’ your community. You’ll be glad you did.

I loved school at first. I loved my teachers too. Then there came a time that school mostly bored me and teachers were to be avoided. I had a couple teachers that frankly, left me cold and outside. Literally, one teacher said I could be her Outstanding Student that year. She meant Out Standing in the Hall. I didn’t write the book, Thirteen Ways To Sink a Sub, but after that, I could have written the forward. Now, I would love to go back and be a student again. I never dreamed I’d be a teacher. That was the furthest thing from my mind. Now, a lot of my friends think I ‘d make a pretty good teacher. How do you go from disliking school to being a pretty good teacher? I can attribute this to several things.

I’l mention just a few. For starters, I had some very good teachers; Mr. Robinson, Mr. Mickelson, Mr. Venner, Mr. Smith (the Grouch), Mrs. Zahaki, Mr. Schuetzle. These were not good teachers because they were good at teaching Math, Latin, Government, English etc… They were good teachers because they taught me about me. They taught me how to understand myself. I remember Mickelson teaching me how to take tests. (I then remember his head shaking as I did very well taking a test by flipping a coin.) I think most importantly, they taught me how to learn about me. I learned to recognize my strengths and weaknesses. I learned how to study others, see myself in them and then get better.

I eventually married a teacher, an English teacher. English was my worst subject. It’s interesting how life happens.  To this day, I’ve never said, “God, I’ll do anything you want, just don’t send me to Africa.” I’ve learned better. I’ve seen other people end up in Africa, metaphorically speaking. As a student, I hated reading and writing. Now, I read and write for a living. Because I have to? Nope. Because I am doing what I love. I’m not saying that I love reading and I love writing. No, I’m only slightly above neutral towards these disciplines.

I made a concerted effort to become learned. Why? Because knowledge is power. Who doesn’t want power?!? Even before watching He-Man  say, “I HAVE THE POWER.”  I wanted the power.  The power to control my life. To control what I did and when I did it. I wanted to go where I wanted and do what I wanted. Is it any wonder that one of my latest ventures is titled To Do In This Town? I discovered early on that it took the combination of Time and Money to create that kind of power. I saw that knowledge could lead to money. It was later that I heard words put to the idea that if you have enough money you can buy back your time.

First I learned good study habits. Then someone pointed me to a book about learning styles. The Way They Learn by Cynthia Ulrich Tobias. It was in this book that I started to actually put myself together. Cynthia taught me to understand how my mind works, how to order information so that my mind would best be able to take it in and process it. It was here that the door to education was first opened to me. By understanding how people learned, myself included, I began to learn how to communicate better with people. I combined this with another book that moved me substantially forward,  The Language of Love by Gary Smalley and John Trent. Now I was a communicating fool. Emphasis on fool.

In recent years another group of teachers reached into my life and pointed the way to the next milestone in my journey to becoming a teacher.  These teachers are John, Jack and David. These are very common names, but they are certainly not common men. This group of teachers  turned me inward as well. John taught me the gift of using story to give vision and inspiration. Jack has taught me many things, I think they could all be surmised as discipline. Were I to surmise what David has taught me, in a word, Love.

Some of us learn quickly. Sadly some do not. I’ve come to the conclusion that we all have the ability to learn. We all have different styles of learning. Some by reading and some by doing. Some of us learn in a classroom. Some of us learn best at the School of Hard Knocks. Me? I’ve had to go to school in all these ways and places. It depends on what I’m learning. I am learning how to learn better every day. The interesting thing is that the more I learn how to learn, the better I get at teaching.

As I reflect on this 1200 word ‘piece of work” (insert Sarc mark here), I find it interesting that my list of heroes, some of the worlds greatest leaders, can in some way all be considered teachers. I heard John tell a story of how he plants trees. He gives each tree a name, the name of one of his students. He talks about how each tree is different. Each tree has different needs. Each tree grows or dies. Some grow with his help, some grow inspite of it. When John told this story, I think he was making a different point. But as I recall and reflect on the story, the point I take from it today is that good teachers don’t really teach. They may help you remember certain facts or rules or whatever. They may even be very good at it. But what good teachers do, is not teach students, but grow people.

Over the last several years I’ve found myself surround by teachers. It seems that of all the people I’m around on a regular basis, they either are a teacher, were a teacher or are married to a teacher. I kind of feel like the odd-duck Irish in-law that married into a large family of Italian immigrants. Everyone around me talks this strange language. They all know that I’m standing there slack jawed and wide eyed with not a clue what they are talking about. At least there is a lot of love and good food.

It’s not likely that I’ll ever be a teacher with a classroom. I won’t use the word never, because in fact, I’ve taught in several classrooms. I’ve taught close to 100 students. Not for very long, and I’ve not taught them very much. I guess it’s hard to be around so many teachers and not start to look and act like one. I’m beginning to get the language down. I’m beginning to understand that these people are ‘called’ to their profession. More importantly, I think I’m catching the spirit. The spirit of growing and building people. The spirit that says I’m best at teaching, helping and growing others, when I focus on making me better. I guess I’ve learned to love helping others grow.

Earlier I said that I was doing what I loved and that it wasn’t reading and writing. Then I proceeded to WRITE about several books that I’ve READ. So what gives? This is what gives. I love growing and helping others grow. Now that you’ve READ this, I hope you’ll WRITE a comment that about how you’ve been helped in some way.

I have always been a fan of good stories. I’m a huge fan of stories with happy endings, and especially when the story is the story of me. Well, aren’t you? Don’t you want a happy ending? One of my, scratch that. I think I can safely say, my favorite author is the amazing Orson Scott Card. It started for me, as like many others, with Ender’s Game. This quickly led to the rest of the Ender series. I remember eagerly awaiting the next book in the series. It continued with the Homecoming series and The Alvin Maker series. While I have not read all of his writings, I have read the majority. I dare say that it  is obvious by the viewing my personal library that there are more books by Card than any other author.

Two things in particular that I like about Card is his way with characters. From Ender on, Card has wrapped me up in the characters in his stories. Then the stories themselves, though works of fiction mostly, are so rooted in reality and believable that you almost expect them to be true. His stories like Treasure Box and Empire based so firmly in today and the characters so much like you and me, that you expect them to really happen.

Card is amazing in the depth of his research for his books. This is one of the things that makes his writing so amazingly good. The wealth of knowledge and wisdom of human interaction that Card has attained, is equaled by very few. Whether his books are set in the present, the past or the future, Card is ’spot on’ with his portrayal. This is another of the many things that fascinate me.

I was sent and article about a speech that Orson Scott Card gave recently, in which he talked about story telling. The story that Card tells, sadly is not Fiction. It is the story of America. More specifically, it is the story of the dismantling of America. No, not by the Republicans or the Democrats. Not by this left-wing fanatic or that right-wing liberal. No, the dismantling has not done by any political party of movement.

Card has built and destroyed many civilizations in his stories, including the recent Empire. Two recent notations on hatrack.com, the official Orson Scott Card website, confirm the depth to which Card understands people and society. So it is with great interest that I read the excerpt of his speech. If you think think you know about the dismantling of America, I encourage you to read his speech. If you are concerned with maintaining the American society as we have know it for over 200 years or if you are interested in building a new and better society, then I strongly encourage to you listen to the story that Orson Scot Card tells.

Orson Scott Card on the Dismantling of America

I wonder where I fit in on this whole Immigration thing. I am a HUGE fan of Immigrants. They work harder than most Americans. They still believe in the American Dream. Many of them are very successful. I’d like to know how many Americans work for Immigrants (in jobs created by someone born in another nation).

I think one of the best solutions to the ‘Illegal Immigrant Problem’ is to increase the quotas, so more can come to America Legally. (to be honest, other than logistics, I’m not sure why we have quotas) You can’t call it a jobs issue. Most people I know who don’t have jobs, won’t work the jobs most known illegals take. On the other hand, for those of you without a job, quit looking and create your own job. Then find some other people to work for you. Put another way, Quit looking for a job and start creating them. Yet another way, Quit depending on someone else and start letting others depend on you.

Personally I think of many immigrants as Heroes. It takes a lot of courage to take your family someplace where you don’t speak the language. You don’t know anyone. The culture is very different than yours. The laws are so different, you never know if you are breaking them. You don’t know what your “rights” are. There is a lot that we take for granted that make life very difficult for an immigrant. It’s simple things like going to the doctor. Enrolling your kids in school. Driving a car when you can’t read the street signs. Have you gotten insurance lately? What do you suppose it is like to have to get car, home or health insurance, when there is no such thing as insurance in your home country. It’s a truly foreign concept. Then try to understand all the ins and outs and options of insurance policies. To put yourself and your family through that, just for the Hope (no guarantee) that you can create a better life for your family. In my book that makes you a HERO.

I would ask yourself what you can do to help. Americans should start putting out the ‘Welcome Mat’ for immigrants. By that I mean a couple of different things. 1)Volunteer to help them learn English. Stop saying that They” should speak English and start teaching them. 2) Learn another language yourself. That way while they are learning English you can still communicate with them. 3) Just be neighborly. Say “Hi” to them. Take them some cookies when they move into the neighborhood. One of my best friends is an immigrant. When he and I met, because I volunteered to teach English, he couldn’t understand a word I said. Now he speaks pretty good English. He is looked at as a leader in the company where he works. His wife is about to complete her degree from a major university. He will be starting toward a degree soon. Our kids are best friends. All this, and when we met, we couldn’t even communicate because of the language barrier.

Where do I stand on Immigration. I am Completely and Entirely for it. I understand that everyone needs to be ‘documented’. I really struggle with the idea of just documenting those that are here unlawfully. It’s not right or fair to reward someone for breaking the law. I can’t say that I am for Amnesty. I also can’t say that I’m for sending them all home and never letting them back into the country. They’re here. They are managing to obtain food, shelter and the other necessities of life. So obviously our economy can sustain them. I see know reason that they shouldn’t be here except that the immigration quotas are not large enough for them all to come in to America as legal and documented. I say, “Set an extra place at the table and invite them in.”

The best option I can come up with that takes into account the logistics is to ‘drastically’ increase the quotas from the countries where the ‘Illegals’ are from. Maybe for a year or two. Make them file for immigration, work visas etc. from within their own country. This would hopefully encourage many of them to leave and return in a Legal manner. Let companies who have illegals currently working for them create a policy that would give theses people time off to go home, come back legally and still have their job when they get back. Then the company would not have to pay to retrain a good employee.

These are some of my thoughts on Immigration. Let me know if you agree or disagree, and then what politician or party feels the same way.

Every so often I feel a distinct need to get away. I feel that I’ve had enough. “I’ve had all I can take, and I can’t take it no more.” These times often coincide with times of fogginess. When understanding and vision are unclear. These are the times that I must take to the hills. I must find solitude.  Here is a piece of my writing from February 2008. It was typed on a phone and emailed to myself for record-keeping. It was not spell checked or edited for missing words, grammar or anything for that matter. Here it is in it’s original form.

Solitude:
Every man I’ve ever met or heard or read about that has achieved what they feel is success has found a time and place of solitude. For some it was chasing wild game in the wilderness. For others a cabin on a lake. Many find there solitude in a den or home office. Many a man has found his solitude in the garage or shop. A friend of mine loves to tend to her roses. She has a gardener tend to the rest of their property but he better not touch her roses. I imagine this has less to do with him harming the roses and more to do with her time with them being sacred.
I heard a man say recently that he has a hard time finding solitude because he is drawn into intellectualizing his thoughts. This exemplifies the necessity to find place that does not entice him into facts and figures but into peace and serenity.
Another man recently spoke of how limits on time obstruct him from finding serenity. It is the requirements on his time that prevent him from the ability to clear his mind. The thoughts of other things that need to be done or the next meeting or appointment prevents him from finding serenity in his mind.
These two men confirm that we need both a serene time and a place to go for solitude.
A place at home where you do not feel you have work to do. A place where you are not constantly distracted by things that you need to do.
Solitude is where your mind is cleaned out of all the rubbish that is put and taken in everywhere else in your life. It is the place where worries dissolve. This is where fear loses it’s power. Where pain is no longer a priority. Then the mind is organized. For cleaning is not enough. This is where thought are put into place. When a mind is clean your spirit will come ind and arrange your thoughts properly. This is when you mind starts to think accurately.
When people have been in solitude is when they are heard to say, that is when I started thinking clearly.
When you’re body and soul are brought together and united in organization and priorities is when your mind and spirit are one. This is when you are acting out of your true being. This is when you will be true to yourself. This is when you will flow. You will be natural.
It is in solitude where you find yourself. You become intimately acquainted with your inner being. It is here that you put your animalistic cravings and find your true self.
Solitude is the place where dreams and visions happen. Solitude is where facts, figures and rules don’t apply. It is the place where you are outside of the box. Solitude is where the abstract lays it’s foundation in reality. The great author of success, Napoleon Hill, stated that what ever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve. These first two steps take place in the solitude of the mind. It is in this serenity that ideas are conceived. Solitude from distractions and Nay Sayers is where the visions are sketched and drawn. Here is where they are colored and find motion. This is when they become believable. It is later that they become reality. Only after you have spent time alone with your dreams are you able to start creating them in this world. Castles must first be built in the sky before they can be built on earth.
In summary solitude is where you find clarity. Solitude is the home of sanity. It is in quite serene solitude that we find the answers we can find nowhere else.
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

For me, solitude is most easily found in nature. I have not found a place locally that I like. Mostly it has been walking the land that my family owns in South Dakota. I hope to find someplace that I like soon.