Aging Capriciously

For Thanksgiving this year, I want to share some advice with you that I recently shared with a friend.  There is an old saying “Never give advice.  Wise men don’t need it and fools won’t heed it.”  I am going to part with this wisdom and give you the same thoughts that I shared with my friend.  These come from 35 years or more of writing five books, publishing nearly 30 professional articles and now more than 1700 blogs.  I have taken numerous writing classes and while working on my Ph.D. degree published about a dozen or so academic manuscripts.  During the ten years of my writing classes with Dr. Carolyn Wedin, I wrote several articles that were published in the local newspaper.  I also  had a monthly column in a national magazine called Quality.

All of these “credentials” have not earned me a Pulitzer prize or any other prize.  My books never earned enough royalties to pay for my time.  Nothing I ever wrote made the Amazon or Times best seller list or any other best seller list.  My mother used my doctoral dissertation for a door stop.  A scanning of my followers and the total number of hits on my blog do not amount to enough to fill a teaspoon with much less rival Taylor Swift’s fan base or her daily hits.

Heartache, heartbreak and a desire for recognition help me to identify with Hemingway and others.  Google AI says that “A high rate of suicide has been found among those working in literary occupations, with many citing battles with mental illness, alcoholism, and professional struggles as contributing factors.”  I cannot swear that my malaise is the same as Sylvia Plath’s or Ryūnosuke Akutagawa’s or Hunter Thompson’s.  However, I have had numerous spates of depression and self-doubts wondering if I am really any good as a writer?  What should I really be writing?  Am I just a hack with delusions of being a good writer?  When I die, will anyone remember a single thing I wrote?  What do I do this for?  What do I hope to accomplish?

Thus, when I sensed my friends quandary in dealing with some of these same issues, I took a minute to send him some advice that that I need to heed myself.  Who said the “Cobbler’s kids always need shoes.”  Such is often true for those giving advice.  Nevertheless, perhaps you can be kind to me this Thanksgiving and forgive me for giving you some advice.  Thoughts that will probably not bring you a Pulitzer Prize or even get you a free coffee.  Here is what I wrote to my friend with some minor editing.  I hope you may find some of my thoughts useful in your writing journeys.

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To My Friend Dave,

I received your query about reading your blogs.  Take my advice or leave it.  But do not worry about who reads your blogs, how many blogs they read, if they like your blogs or not, if they like your religious beliefs or if they like the style of music that you often reference in your blogs.

Write for one reason only.  Write for yourself.  if you must have a statistic for your readership.  Make it only one person a month who enjoys your blogs and finds value, merit, solace or meaning in them.  Jesus said, “Do not hide your light under a basket.” You have a lot to offer people but mostly yourself.

Write like there is no tomorrow.  Write like you love humanity.  Write like you want to save the world.  Write like it will be your last day on earth and you want to make it meaningful.  Write full of passion.  Write for fun.  But don’t worry about how many people love you or love your messages.

Buddha, Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, Baháʼu’lláh and many other great leaders did not worry about how popular they were or do any opinion polls, that I know of.

Happy Thanksgiving

From Hopefully, Still Your Friend,

John 

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Happy Thanksgiving to all of you writers, bloggers, poets and authors as well. 

May this be a day full of blessings and gratitude for all of us. 

But let us not forget the people who have much less than we have to be thankful for.