What this blog is all about

When I was in the 5th grade, our elementary school put out a decree throughout the land. If you had an article, if you wanted to write a little something down, and it was given to the editor in a timely fashion, it could be published in the school newspaper. It sounded like a lark, and I thought I would try my luck. I spent a whole portion of an afternoon and wrote something poetic, heroic, epic. It was sheer genius. I don’t remember what I wrote, but I remember laughing with joy as I wrote it. I didn’t know what the Pulitzer was, but if I did, I would have considered it a foregone conclusion. It would be some years before I learned what Pulitzer meant. Perhaps it happened the same day I felt comfortable enough to use “foregone conclusion” in a sentence.

Of course, you know what happened. The article was rejected out of hand. I was told that it wasn’t “really what the newspaper needed at this time”, or some such thing. The taco bell napkin that held my prose was handed back to me and I was wished a “fare thee well”.

You might think that the loss of 5th grade prestige crushed my fragile psyche. It did not. It probably took a few days to put it behind me, because I’ve always been that way, but with time I simply moved on to something else. Perhaps as a 5th grader, all it took was something bright and shiny in front of me, since all 5th graders I’ve ever met have had A.D.D. in one form or another (I didn’t have A.D.D. because it wasn’t invented yet, but I had whatever we had back in the days before A.D.D. was invented. Perhaps it was B.C.C. ).

As an adult, I look back on those events and I am comforted by a few things: 1) the paper that rejected my article was an elementary school newspaper. 2) The editor that rejected my article was in 6th grade. 3) The school that rejected my article had asked a 6th grader to be its editor.

I also look back and remember that I had a lot of fun writing that article. I enjoyed spending almost an entire half hour of an afternoon writing something that made me laugh and I thrilled at the idea of sharing my odd and strange viewpoints. The whole experience was worth missing a “Hogan’s Heroes episode” to do, and it still makes me laugh that the article was rejected by a teeny, tiny, prepubescent editor.

That enjoyment hasn’t gone away. I still don’t mind in the least missing “Hogan’s Heroes” episodes, and I still enjoy jotting down thoughts that have others wondering what medications I’m taking or if I’ve recently stopped taking them. I don’t have to risk my quirks and odd observances being rejected. I do have fun explaining them, and this is what this blog is meant to do. I still write with the same purpose as I did back in the 5th grade: have fun, write in such a way as to bring a smile to the face of the reader, and avoid getting punched during recess. These are ample enough reasons for having started this blog.

So, here, for your perusal, are my thoughts and ideas. I don’t have to rationalize them, but I can laugh at them and with them. So can you if you feel so led. My advice for us all is to have fun. Hopefully you’ll enjoy my viewpoints, even to the point of feeling free to share a few of your own, while at the same time steering away from underage editors with no sense of humor and no idea what is Pulitzer worthy. This is sage advice no matter who you are.