On 03/23/08 I wrote a two sentences. These were an answer to a my first blog post title and they comprised the entire text of that first post. The questioning title was, “Why?” The body read, “Because the desire to create and think out loud is very strong. My hope is that this turns into something with usefulness, at least for me.” With that sentence I began my blog. In 11 ½ years I have, with this entry, created 800 posts. Some were no more than a sentence. Some were thousands of words long. With those posts I am pretty sure I have created something useful, at least for me.
Topics I have talked about include Easter memories at my Grandmother Joyner’s in Horry County. Also I raved about the delights of an oyster roast. My musings have broached, on numerous occasions, the challenges of parenting an autistic child. I have talked about my love of riding my bicycle through my home town when I was 10 or maybe 11. I have ranted about politics. Some of the pieces I am proudest of are tales of the Ocean City I lived in between 1971 and 1976. And by that I mean Ocean City, New Jersey, America’s Family Resort.
When I first starting writing, I posted things that I wanted. At that time I really didn’t think I had any kind of audience. Some of what I wrote is uncomfortable to me now, but I am not going back to change it. Over the years I have talked about two bouts of cancer. In addition I have talked about books that made a difference to me. I linked to music that really moved me. Some of those links are dead now and I really don’t remember who I had situated on those pages.
800 posts are not a novel, sorry Muse. But 800 posts are the chronicle of one being’s life as he moved from mid-career to retirement. 800 posts are a chronicle of faith and questioning. 800 posts are how I set down some of who I am so that you can understand it, if you wanted to.
To keep a blog is out of fashion now. In many ways I am out of fashion now. In a few weeks I will be mostly irrelevant, just old and in the way. But up until I can write no more I am going to keep posting.
Maybe somebody will find something to turn into an episode of some TV show. Maybe they will find something to make them laugh at a time they really needed to. Maybe they will find a thought that just resonates with something they have felt inside, but just couldn’t formulate and capture in their own mind.
For more than a decade I have tried to remember, I have tried to think and I have tried to entertain. Jean Shepherd convinced me that a self deprecating narrative, with an eye to the absurdity of the situations we find ourselves in, is worth the telling. Here is a link to a favorite.
1 comment:
I will not agree that either of us became (Or will soon become) irrelevant upon our retirement. Old, yep. In the way? Ask Vicki....but probably. But never irrelevant.
Keep blogging, dude. The ventilation will do us all good.
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