One Hundred-with a thank you to Chris

One Hundred was meant to be written last week. Now One Hundred is actually One Hundred and Two. But last week I was travelling and so this didn’t end up being the centennial blog entry. Back in the USA I have time to write and so here it is.

Last year my dear friend Chris made an aside that changed how I looked at writing. Chris is probably one of the most insightful and learned people I know, and I really do know a good number of learned people most of whom are really much smarter than me. Well Chris noted during one of our long back and forth e-mail conversations that a blog seemed like it would be the perfect forum for my writing. She implied it might free up some of the time I had spent in writing long e-mails to numerous people so as to let me focus my ideas for my prose. Blogging versus writing individual e-mails would create time to write longer stuff; it would let me set out clearly the things I often felt I needed to say.

Clearly I had heard of blogs. Hell I even knew one person who actually wrote one. Still when she first proposed the blog idea I was hesitant. A blog would be a commitment. If you put something out there people will come back to it. You could end up being judged not just for what you are saying but things like the continuity of your commentary as well.

During the months before the Chris suggested the blog concept to me I had been trying to journal. I would buy these notebooks on clearance from the local hyper mart. Cheap was good. Small was good,. With an inexpensive 5 x 8 inch journal in my hand I could capture the wild ramblings bouncing around in my aging mind. When I first decided to journal I thought it would be wonderful because I could capture everything I was thinking of. With a small unobtrusive notebook that I could carry easily wherever I was going, I would capture that part of the world my eyes surveyed.

Each morning as I waited for the bus I would write down some thoughts. Initially it was mundane stuff. Things like “January 30, 3007-It is cold today as I wait for the blue cat (our bus company is CATA and the logo is well a blue panther).” Duh, it is always cold in January in Michigan. Clearly I was not covering any earth shattering territory there. Yeah bon mots like these weren’t going to really free my soul and expand my mind when I reflected on them. While I had some thoughts that maybe journaling wasn’t taking me where I wanted to go, it did show me not to be afraid to write or edit. It also showed me I could stay with something that required daily drafting. When I considered these facts against what a blog required I decided to give it a go.

One of the things that anyone who wants to “write” struggles with is finding an authentic voice. Well, authentic and comprehensible would probably be a better description. Okay, authentic, comprehensible, interesting, and not too inflammatory or caustic. When I sat and thought about what I wanted to talk about almost all of it was a recounting of anecdotal events. When I go back over them most of my memories as they are saved in my odd little brain are funny. The flip side to that is that a goodly number of them while funny are seriously profane and usually involve illegality or sexual impropriety in one way or another.

Still the more I thought about it the more I realized that what I wanted to say was somewhat of a hybrid of the National Lampoon (1970s edition) and Jean Shepherd’s old radio show. My story was Animal House told by the narrator of a Christmas Story. A strange mix admittedly, but then so is my personality. At work my language is ragingly profane. Still, since my children have been in this world I have not used anything stronger than damn in their presence. Okay I may have slipped a couple of times, but really not many at all. My mind is drawn to the absurd, but my career demands normal. The product of these kinds of battles are what flows out onto this pages.

Doing this blogging thing has raised my comfort level with writing and maybe expanded my ability. Trying to create frequent posts that aren’t just rehashes of what I have said before has made me work to be an editor and to think creatively about what I really want and have to say. Maybe I will take a chance and tell a couple of the more profane, inflammatory and downright bizarre stories that I have percolating. Maybe not, but something will always keep flowing out onto these pages.

I appreciate everyone who reads this. I also appreciate Chris, she sent me on this journey.