I know, I know. Low hanging fruit.

I’ve spent the day thinking about words. How we communicate. How we use them to craft beauty, to evoke emotion, or to hurt others. There’s god inside sentences and the devil between the lines.

I’m thinking of three words today, though.

Few.

Mob.

Fringe.

I’ll assume you know that last one in this case doesn’t involve ornamental borders (I’d click if you have no idea what I’m talking about. Do some scrolling.).

I’m thinking about these words because they don’t necessarily work together, do they? I mean, a few people don’t make a mob, right? And a mob, being an entity of many seems to assume a consensus, so that wouldn’t necessarily be a fringe movement. Was the mob that ran Frankenstein’s monster out of town a fringe group? Maybe, but more than likely not.

So those words, at least understood by those who are capable of writing at a professional level, don’t really fit together in a single idea. You could absolutely put together something with multiple ideas that contradict each other for the benefit of hearing yourself speak out loud-and funny enough, garner a few head nods-but it still wouldn’t gel together unless you had a defining theme to your idea. Unless you had a mission statement in how or why you’re using those words.

I mentioned words can hurt. Really great wordsmiths can cut deep with a vicious rebuke, and while I don’t consider myself a master, I have dabbled in the occasional bout of acidity that proved the pen is mightier than the sword (or more, the keyboard being heavier than the hammer? That doesn’t make any sense…anyway). What I’ve never been too great at is metaphors and similes. There are dozens of incredible writers that have crafted gorgeous poetry in their prose, but I don’t think I’m quite there. I’m a fan of speaking what I mean without hiding its real intent – an irony since I do write fiction.

Again: words hurt. Words that demean and belittle the victimized hurt. Words built to defend those who’ve built their castles on the bones of the marginalized hurt. Words abused and misshapen to serve the ego and benefit a fringe element dead set on preventing positive change hurt. Words intended to create disorder; a means of reinforcing negativity, group think-they hurt.

I honestly can’t imagine using my words – my currency – to hurt people who’ve done nothing but support and enrich my life physically or spiritually. I especially could never imagine doing that to those who’ve parted with their money to read what I’ve created or to support the store fronts that would do me the honor of hosting my work. It would be insane – can you imagine doing that at the service of the few? It’s illogical. Kind of behavior you’d expect from a mob of savages, really.

Let me tell you a story about a guy named Julius; literally the worst human being I’ve ever known. I legitimately spend at least one day a month surprised the piece of garbage is alive. Mind you, this is a real human, I promise (you can read a story I based off of him in the first volume of Unloaded).

So, Julius. This was a player. Good looking dude (in his time), always wore a suit, long, Santa-white hair. Like, this was Gordon Gekko by way of Chris Kringle; hell of a sight. Julius was in the insurance racket: home and car. Again, complete waste of humanity.

I really can’t stress how awful Julius was and still is – I swear.

The point: Julius taught me A LOT about how to be a bastard. He taught me how to con people and how to hustle for what was mine (or wasn’t). I hated Julius enough to avoid using any of that trash because 1) I was a good kid and 2) prison never seemed like a fun place.

There were a few things I held onto that Julius taught me. Life lessons, really. All this mess reminded me of one of them.

When you’ve got power, you never show your whole ass. You show your whole ass, then everyone’s eyes will be on you and only you. That’s how you get caught when you’re up to no good and how you reveal who you are when you’re hiding some monsters.

I think it’s a solid lesson. Well, coming from the fringe element.