Decade

This little blog is ten-years-old today. I wanted to mark the occasion, but wasn't sure how. New posts have been a little sparse of late, as I'm not always sure what to say, or how to say it. There's mental energy involved in writing, and sometimes it just isn't there. Life, and all its idiosyncrasies, can get in the way. There's close to five started posts sitting here, in draft mode, that may or may never see the light of day. So it goes.

Regardless of how frequently I write a new post, this blog has already lasted longer than my previous one. That was a very political endeavor -- almost exclusively so. I was a lot more righteous back in the early-to-mid aughts. Life, experiences, a bout with cancer, and simply aging conspired to mellow me somewhat, at least in what I choose to (figuratively) put to pen to paper about. Also, I owe a debt of gratitude to the late, great Roger Ebert.

When I fired-up the account for this new space on the web, it was basically driven by that egotistical impulse that drives nearly all blogs -- that of wanting one's random thoughts shared with others. But, reading Ebert's blog made me realize I could do more with this venture. I could take a cue from my favorite film critic and use this site to write about my life and experiences. I could make this a truly personal space. And I could make it warm and inviting. Or, at the very least, try to do so.

I'm not going to pretend as though every entry during the last ten years has been great, or even worthy of being published. And, I haven't always been kind. Through it all, however, I've wanted to use this as a place to grow and learn (even if only about myself). It's been a place of remembrance, of living in the present, and of looking forward. I've tried to sharpen my empathetic skills (to varying degrees of success), and I've sometimes been very open and raw about my life. Perhaps too much so, though your mileage may vary on that.

I think (hope?) people who've regularly read my thoughts here have appreciated the experience though, sometimes, whenever I've written about some rather topical and harsh topics (such as being profiled in my own neighborhood), the response has been troubling. Those posts have been some of the most popular (in that they've drawn the most views), and people often publicly respond to more of those. Honestly, that's mortified me, and I even took down a post I wrote last year about a negative encounter with the police because it garnered such a big response in so little time.

I want to be conscious of what I'm putting out into the world. Some people dwell in the negative, either by offering it up for consumption, or else feeding off it incessantly. We shape our souls by doing this and, to the extent that it's possible, I want to shape mine in a sense that, if not absolutely positive, is at least contemplative. I want to write about things -- or write about them in such a way -- that aren't taken as knee-jerk responses to the world we live in. Hopefully, the 700 pieces I've written here over the last decade are more food-for-thought than recipe for disaster.

Ultimately, what we write is, in some way, a reflection of ourselves, Writing is also an often cathartic experience. Communicating my thoughts here the past ten years has, I hope, been as thoughtful an experience for those of you reading the posts as it has been for me to write them. You've no doubt learned a little more about me, as I've definitely learned more about myself along the way.

Here's to another decade.