When I was 16 years old, a psychologist (yeah, that's a whole 'notha story...) told me that I had an "addictive personality." Basically, she was saying quit experimenting with drugs and alcohol because, as you can see, you will most likely become addicted to every single thing you try. She was right. Not that it stopped me.

So, addicted I am, and not only to substances. I am absolutely addicted to words, to the art of uniting words to acheive a metaphor that people don't just hear, but feel. Addicted to the search for the right words and the people who already discovered it, because I know I haven't. My name is Erin...I'm addicted to poetic language...

So imagine my fascination when I came across the word-promoting project entitled "Free Words" (http://www.freewords.org). Created by visual artist Sal Randolph, the book proclaims that it "belongs to whoever finds it." Three-thousand copies were produced and placed in random spots around the world, bragging "no-rights reserved" and free for the taking; echoing the "gift society" proposed by Monsieur Mauss in the late 19th Century, it's oddly inspiring to think that someone spent nearly 10 years collecting words, never expecting a dime in royalties or publicity, and encouraged the pink-label finders to take the book home, think it over, and pass it along.......SIMPLY for the sake of loving and sharing inspirational words. The 13,000 word stream of consciousness is somehow exactly what I look for when I go to the bookstore, but never find...never actually knew I was looking for, in fact... It consists of semi-random words and word phrases, gathered together but heard separate, listed in a free-form style that begs word-addicts like me to print it, cut it, rearrange it, and begin making something my own again. Soooo...I have challenged myself to look t the words and be inspired, especially by the ones I don't know or never use. I NEED badly to write, as I have kept so much inside that I feel like I'm suffocating, and "Free Words" may very well be my new beginning.......