Men Don't Listen and Wayne L. Misner 2023©    

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My Writers Group of Mench-es©

   (By Wayne L. Misner www.MenDontListen.com, MenDontListen@aol.com)


 Gandhi once said, ‘Be the change you want to see in the world.’ Well, I’m surrounded by those who are the change they want to see in the world.


 I never in my wildest dreams anticipated a group like this. It is a family. More than just a family, it’s a loving family.


 I joined the group to find help with my writing, motivation and a new level of energy. I hoped to discover the secrets of the other writers. What techniques did they use to help the reader see, feel, and experience the thrills, memories, excitement, and emotions of what each of these fine stories had to share.


 I have seen life from the eyes of others. From fine cruises with great meals-to the oldest student ever-the gift wrappers-the irate citizen sending letters to the local municipalities-from the eyes of a daughter writing about her mother and having such deep love that she volunteered to be stationed with her husband overseas-and to nightmares of a little boy surviving Adolf Hitler's rule of Germany. Hitler was a maniac whose evil led to the deaths of millions in World War II, and has placed him among history's most hated psychopathic villains.


 Aristotle writes that ‘the excellent person is related to his friend in the same way as he is related to himself, since a friend is another self’. So here in this group, I have found my other self through friendship and sharing.


 We share stories, tea, cookies but so much more. We share ourselves. Opening up our hearts we expose our inner thoughts and feelings, from happiness to sadness with some of us still raw and bleeding inside.



 My writers group wears many hats, as family and friends. All are coming and going. Our leader thinks she has a better chance of controlling a herd of cats, than controlling this group.


 We are like group therapy members, sitting around a table and having a rap session. No subject is off limits-sex, politics, health, you name it and someone has either written about it or talked about it.


 I look around this table and I see adults with the hearts of children and I think of the old Chinese proverb, "The world belongs to those who cross many bridges in their imagination before others see even a single bridge."


 This group has imagination and has crossed many bridges.


 We all have agreed that one of the main secrets of surviving in life is to be able to laugh at ourselves and to have a great sense of humor. It is said, "Humor is to the soul what rain is to the earth".


 So my fellow writers, I sprinkle you here on earth with a little humor today, and plead that you all have the chutzpah to face life and its tests, and above all, the motivation to write about it when you do.