Just A Thought

Often, as a humble gesture, a person would tell advice to someone and end it with the phrase “just a thought,” in order to not be outwardly argumentative or arrogant, yet still being persuasive. That is exactly the writing style of author Richard Byrd in his collection of about 100 thoughts titled Just A Thought.

Surely some of these epiphanies of realization have been thought of before by readers, yet for the large part they have certainly not been articulated in such an exact phrase. Being hard to disagree with any of his concepts, this collection reads as a very insightful realization of philosophy of the human condition. I had to pause many times to reflect on situations within my mind as to how true his observations are, with regards to situations in my past. It is a unique genre of communication having the ability to condense so much into such few words. Boiled-down philosophy written in contemporary verse is how I would describe it.

For example, “It’s better to be poor with integrity than to be rich with no friends... just a thought,” holds true to anyone who has experienced someone putting greed in front of friendship – or family, for that matter. “Money and friends are a lot alike, easy to get but hard to keep... just a thought,” is a realization one sees as they get older, especially if money runs out so do their friends. I also liked, “Be like a sponge and soak in the joy of living... just a thought,” which made me think of some people that can squeeze out the joy with negativism. Yes, each of Richard Byrd’s one-liners will cause readers to stop and think about it both verbatim for the semantic content and as a reflection to other tangents of thoughts stemming from the root of the comment. In this way, this book has many more words then simply the word-count of the galley text; resulting in readers’ minds carrying forward their own chapters of life experiences launched from the statement humbly followed by “just a thought.”

A book which can be opened at any page, put back down and reopened at a different spot, it is like a treasure chest of thoughts making it an ideal book for intermittent reading opportunities, such as when traveling or in a waiting room. The originality of Byrd’s comments will have readers raise an eyebrow with appreciation of the inherent wisdom, as well as a smile in agreement to the statements contained within. I hope to read more from this exceptional author, just a thought.

Pacific Book Review