Sifter Stickers Introduction

What sticks to your mind?

As we go about our daily lives we are bombarded with information; much more information than we can possibly process. So our minds automatically do the only sensible thing they can: they discard most of the information presented to them, processing only what they feel is useful or important to us. The decision regarding what to throw away and what to keep is made mostly without the benefit of our conscious input, so we have little control over what is considered important and what is summarily discarded. Although the part of our mind that manages the selection process attempts to base its criteria on our conscious needs and interests, many times information which we would consider highly important, even critical, is allowed to fly right past us, while useless data is inexplicably captured and stored away.

Further complicating matters, each one of us selects information to be captured based on our own unique criteria. Therefore, two individuals deluged with identical sets of data will wind up with different subsets of that data in their minds. One person's discard is another's keeper, based on reasons unbeknownst to us all.

While considering this selection process, the great Stephen King once drew a metaphor between the human mind and a sifter, where most of the information presented is filtered through the holes and lost forever, while some of the information sticks to the sifter. While paying tribute to King, whose work I enjoy immensely, the title of my book attempts to explain its contents: essays about material that, at some point, found its way into my mind.

"Sifter Stickers" consists of seventy-three essays, related to each other only in the location of their genesis. You will find some recurring topics, which loosely correspond to areas of interest to me. Perhaps there is some overlap between what our minds have selected as "keeper" material over the years, and you've had similar thoughts about some of the same topics. Or totally dissimilar thoughts, and opposing points of view. Or perhaps some of my mind's selections were never even considered by your mind, in which case you may find the essays about such topics refreshing, infuriating, or of no interest whatsoever.

Writing about random topics that come to mind is enjoyable to me, mostly because it seems to somehow put the matter to rest. Addressing the topic in an essay helps it stop banging about in my head, bringing some measure of tranquility and making some much needed space for the next item that may come flying in.

I hope you enjoy reading about the stuff that sticks to my sifter as much as I enjoyed writing about it.