Believe it or not, this is the 100th post I have done on this blog…100 posts that have covered everything from my kitchen reconstruction to the election; the state of humanity and my beliefs in a sentient universe; my life as a father and how I managed to survive 9/11, depression, alcoholism, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Pretty much everything under the sun. So, I’m going to pick out a few pieces pieces that I think you should read (or perhaps re-read) since we started this blog back on September 10th 2008. (Feel free to read each post by clicking on its title and you’ll be directed straight there. Then hit the back button to return to this post.):
If you want to understand your humble author, the guy who writes the stuff that you keep coming back to for enjoyment or punishment, you need to read a few relevant posts: Memories Of Two Towers Struck Down is what happened to me on September 11, 2001. Outside of my own birth, marriage, and birth of my children; it is the single most important and life changing even in my life (for better or for worse). A Silent Awakening, Day 2558, and The Unheralded Paragons, are follow up pieces that highlight where my thinking was headed in the days and years following the attack. Redemption deals with my battle with alcoholism and my last bender before I got sober; Grace and Redemption relates somewhat to the former post, but it essentially ties up what exactly happened to me this past September that got me to start writing again and the founding this Blog, all within the context of Barack Obama’s election to the Presidency.
I’ve been extremely controversial during this campaign. I made absolutely no bones about the fact that I was a supporter of Barack Obama, despite the fact that I am an Independent. I could run off a list of posts that dealt with just about every aspect of the campaign, but I have a few that I am really proud of; not so much because they went out and attacked McCain and/or Palin, but because I thought they pretty much encapsulated what both campaigns were all about. A Danger To The Republic Part I, Part II and Part III; and Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been A Member Of The Republican Party? all got a lot of hits from all over the web and pretty much summed up my feelings about the McCain campaign, and the fear I was feeling as I watched some of my fellow citizens slowly lose their self-control (as did I in some of the writing contained in the pieces; but that’s how I felt at the time and I offer no apologies). After President Obama’s Election, two posts (A Moment To Remember and The Closed Circle [Prologue])were forever enshrined here as soon as I knew the results of the election. Needless to say, I was a happy man. As for the rest of the election material; there’s a wealth of stuff in the Blog, but you’re just going to have to have a look around.
Not everything was serious, though…I had my moments of humor as well. Like during the seven weeks it took to reconstruct my kitchen, which provided a plethora of entertaining moments for many of you (and in retrospect, some of it WAS pretty funny, but not quite so at the time). So with tongue firmly in cheek and rapier wit unsheathed, I unleashed The Kitchen Chronicles, The Never Ending Kitchen Chronicles, The Return Of The Son Of The Kitchen Chronicles, and it’s coda Our Long Domestic Nightmare Is Over (Sort Of) on an unsuspecting world. Finally, two posts that really got a lot of traffic were I Just Need A Small Bailout: A Letter To My Favorite Uncle and Dumb People.
Those are the “elite eighteen” of the posts I have written since September that pretty much tell you where I’m coming from as far as my personal life, politics, and crazy situations go. There is one piece that I am probably most proud of, about the closing of the old Yankee Stadium when the last game was played in it. It was a very tough piece for me to write emotionally, because my dad and I are kind of estranged at the moment, so there were a lot of tears shed when I wrote it, and I still get a lump in my throat when I read it: For Absent Friends, In Memories Burning Brightly. You’ll see why when you read it.
It’s very rare a writer is satisfied with their work, but every once in a while, The Universe gives you a perfect moment of inspiration and you seize it and do something with it; that’s why I think that particular post is one of my all time favorite pieces of writing. It just captures something in me that is the essence of why I write in the first place. Why I sit here at ungodly hours typing away when I should be in bed. It’s also why writing is such a lonely thing as well. It’s just you and the computer, paper, or Underwood…just your thoughts and a means to somehow get them all together into coherency so that someone will HOPEFULLY read it. As I mentioned on another post, a fellow blogger once told me that a writer needs an audience to make their art complete unlike a musician or sculptor. They do not necessarily need that participation of another human being to complete their art…writers do. It is essential for us; moreover, we just love to hear what you have to say (good or bad) about what we’ve done.
I never thought I’d get to 100 posts…but this time I did (after trying to start blogs over the years, but I was an active alcoholic back then) and I think outside of the election it was encouragement from many of you that kept me going onward, and making me very happy that I was achieving a goal I set out to do when this blog went on line in September 2008: if I can get you to laugh, or cry, or think about something…then I’ve done my job. That’s what I wanted to do; and what I’ll continue to do. You see, this is essential to my soul now, more than it ever has been before. Somewhere along the way, the spark that got this blog started to ignite that which I am inside so that I may be able to become what I know is my calling in life. I have been many places and done many things; but nothing gives me the joy like this blog and writing my book does; outside of my family of course, for they too are the other part of my soul that is slowly putting itself back together after many years as an uncertain phoenix, arisen from the ashes with no idea where to fly to.
Now I know how to spread my wings and soar upon the currents. Thank you for providing me with the compass, and let’s continue to journey together.
Peace…Arkangel
Intersections In Real Time 