The voices go back a ways with me. You see I do not believe I have ever looked at the world the same way as most people do. The earliest example of this came when I was but five years old and entering school for the first time. I was the oldest kid in my family and as such had never really experienced being teased by other children my age. So it happened that during one recess I was confronted by two female classmates on the playground. My initial thought was that they wanted to be friends since up to this point all of my friends had been girls. I also had a close younger sister. So when these girls stopped me and said something I will never forget… The taller of the two, in a loud voice so she could be heard, said ” You’re weird!”

I was taken aback so for a moment I said nothing as I, even at that young age began to contemplate what that word really meant. The conclusion I reached would have a profound effect on me. I looked at the word “weird” and realized it meant different and more importantly not like these two mean girls who are teasing me. It was almost as if someone else was explaining it to me. The thought was that foreign to my mostly young thinking. But it lead to me deciding that being weird was a good thing. So when the other one butted in with another accusation of weirdness in my hesitation I answered for the first time in what became my customary response to that epitaph. I reached out taking hold of her hand and with a big smile on my face I thanked her for noticing. I then shook the hand of the other girl thanking her as well. The look on their faces was priceless as they could not get away from me fast enough. And more importantly they never teased me again. And that was the first time one of my ” voices” escaped. It would not be the last.

Being a lover of cartoons I soon found a talent for mimicking the voices of various characters, a trait I must admit to picking up from my dear sweet father along with a somewhat skewed sense of humor that could see humor in almost anything. Pairing that with an open minded and diplomatic nature gave me a fascination with peoples voices, with how different they could be. I received a love of singing and music from my mom who has a beautiful soprano voice which had a biting tone that always let me know when it was time to stop playing around. Voice was everywhere around me and it different voices had different effects to move people. I over time began to try to find how many voices I could create in myself. To this point I think the number of voices is equal to the number of thoughts that I think and each one wants to be heard. I to this day use my voice to assist me in my career. This blog will be the outlet for those voices as my wife tends to accuse me of allowing them to escape if I get to stationary. So enjoy the rambling and frolicking of my congress of voices. They are friendly and fun and mostly tame… mostly.

Nullus Anxietas