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From: Joseph Dewey
Date: 22 Oct 2005
Time: 17:58:40 -0500
Remote Name: 24.10.194.97
Hi Kate. You're very welcome, and thanks for the interesting question. This is the advice I would give. "This advice isn't going to make sense for a couple of years, but eventually it will make sense. I believe that being a clutterer is very positive. The coolest thing that I ever heard was a cluttering researcher (Weiss) who said that he thought that Winston Churchill and some other famous people were clutterers. He said that 'perhaps they succeeded because of, rather than in spite of, their cluttering.' That sentence has really inspired me, and ever since I heard it, I've been trying to figure out what the positive aspects of cluttering are. It's taken me a couple of years, and like I said, it will probably take you a couple years, too. Here’s what I’ve learned so far. Clutterers are above average intelligence. Stupid people can't clutter. This means that you’re smarter than most people even though expressing that is going to be hard for you. Also, clutterers have an above average capacity for abstract thought...this means that you can excel in the more abstract sciences like mathematics and a lot of the arts. A lot of cluttering focuses around the disrhythmia you'll probably be hearing about. One of the positive things about your disrhythmic speech, attitude, and life is that you have a very unique style. Another is that you've got an above average capacity for not caring what people what people think about you. This may be hard to see right now, especially if you've been self conscious, but when you combine your unique style with not caring what other people think, and when you fully develop that, then you can be a huge inspiration to others. Having this combination is something that most people try for years to attain, but you have it naturally. I'm trying to focus on the positive, because as you learn about cluttering and as you go through therapy it will seem like there are a lot of negatives. Therapy is important, even though you will probably end up knowing more about cluttering than your therapist by the time that you're through with it. I have to warn you that not much is known about cluttering, but within about ten years I think that there will be a lot known about cluttering. My biggest advice about the therapy is to stay in therapy. You have a speech problem, even though it will seem to you to come and go. It is going to be very hard to get to the things that are the root of the cluttering problem, even though it will be really easy to get cluttering to go away in certain situations. You'll be able to say things uncluttered and with practice months before the therapy should end. The key is to be able to use the therapy in all aspects of your life, and that will take a lot longer than just being able to speak uncluttered. A big part of what you'll need is a burning motivation to improve your speech. I was lucky since I had that almost from the first day I learned about cluttering. Maybe you'll be the same way or maybe you'll have to cultivate that motivation. The last thing I'll say is that there are people out there exactly like you, with your personality, and I'm one of them. I understand what you're going through and I understand how you think and I understand what it's like to be you. Because I understand means that you’re no longer alone." That's what I would say. Joseph