I do much of my best thinking while driving.  In fact I have extensive conversations with myself while driving to and from work or even shuttling the kids to and fro.  I used to be concerned other drivers would observe me chatting to no one and think I was a little bit off, but now every one is talking on their cell phones so I just use that as cover.  The last few days I have been conversing with myself about this little blog project of mine.  What am I trying to accomplish?  Should I have just limited myself to one topic in order to build a more streamlined sense to the blog?  In the end I have settled on the following as a means of explaining my little challenge: words matter. What we say and how we say it matters.  I tell my students, especially those uncomfortable with writing that writing is a craft that you have to practice.  But really it is more than that--words, whether expressing beauty, critique, or commentary, to name but a few, convey what makes us human. So I have concluded in my self-talk, self-help sessions that I am undertaking this project because I need to make my words matter more, at least to me. Why do words matter to you?