Post 1200

According to the blogger count, this is my 1200th post in this blog.

If each post were only 250 words, and we all know my posts are not that short, that would be 300,000 words. I expect it is more like 750,000.

If that is the case, then that's a lot of words. That's ten 75,000-word books, which is what 300 pages of double-spaced manuscript amounts to. That's your basic mystery right there.

I began this blog on August 5, 2006. It is not my first blog; I originally started one in 2003 to protest the war in Iraq. That lasted about six months. Then in 2004 I switched over to AOL Journals and wrote there until AOL went nuts and I felt a change was in order.

I began blogging because it was a different outlet than the writing I had been performing for pay. It also helped hone skills I felt were in need of work, in particular reaching out to an audience in a more personal way and in finding my own opinions and voice. It served as a creative release, a different mode of storytelling, and a light journal (I try very hard not to be gloomy online as I don't need those deep dark moments preserved in the wayback machine forever and a day.)

I am surprised that I have been doing this for so long. In a few months it will be four years. That's enough time to have received a diploma at a college.

Occasionally I have thought of stopping but I enjoy the writing. The relationships I have made via this blog have stunned me. I have met a number of my local readers in person and befriended others on Facebook as well as on my blog. Some of the local readers have become real life friends, people I would not otherwise have met. It gives me shivers.

There is no money in this particular exercise, at least not yet. I have ads on here from google but let's face it, if I were depending on that for income we'd be pitching a tent and eating nuts and berries from the National Forest. I most recently added Amazon ads not because I expect people to buy the books I review but because google made it easy to do that and I wanted to be able to add the pictures without having to look things up. For me it was a time saver.

I have seen a number of folks come and go. Most recently Beth over at Blue Ridge Blue Collar Gal announced she would no longer blog because she needs to devote her time to finding a job. I respect that and certainly understand it, having found that the Internet has devalued my work tremendously. No one wants to pay a writer for their time, technique or knowledge anymore. Everyone thinks they can do it themselves, and the Internet and the business world is full of crap writing. It's a dumbing down of the worse kind but it's what happens when people reach for the lowest common denominator instead of striving for the best.

Even so, there is value in something like this that cannot be measured by the George Washingtons. I cannot put numbers on the friendships, the inspiration, the communication, and the ideas that have been bandied about on my blog and others. For someone like me, who values love, beauty and truth above all else, I fear something like this blog is priceless.

This anniversary of sorts has come at a great time. It is absolute proof that I can stick to something long-term. Somewhere along the way I got it in my head that I could not stick with a long project, most especially not novel-writing or weight loss. Those two in particular have escaped me time and again and I have always shrugged them away with that particular label. I don't know exactly where it came from, this idea that I am a will-o-the-wisp who dances and vanishes, but obviously it is not true. One doesn't blog for four years, or take eight years to finish college, stay married for 26 years, or freelance for 15 years and make decent go of it for most of that time without a little something of the swan in the soul.

So this idea that I cannot stick to a long term project must go. It is one of the 50 things I am throwing out of my life. I can do whatever I set my mind to, no matter how long it takes, if I take it just one blog entry at a time.

Thank you, blog friends, those I know and those I don't, for reading, commenting, and hopefully enjoying my work. I appreciate you very much, even those silent ones who come and go without a word. You make the world a little sweeter, and that's a very good thing indeed.