I love writing. I love words. Ms. Beazley at Glenn Hills High School taught me to taste and savor every word in a sentence, a paragraph, a short story, a poem and a novel. She is one of those teachers you never forget for her class, style and gentle presentation.
Over the years I have read countless novels. Thing is, the book or novel either had to be on a subject I had interest in, or of peculiar interest, such as fiction. It had to grab my interest during the first chapter like John Grisham did when I travelled for a living or Stephen King. I read many self-help books, including a cassette series that was gonna make me rich flipping homes with other people’s money. Never got the OPM down pat, just felt dirty.
Maybe this accounts for my lack of breadth of subject knowledge. I can obviously put into words my first hand experiences. That’s the easiest! I could write about local, state and national political situations, but I have honestly believe the subscribers, readers and commenters of this paper are savvy enough to know what is happening just by turning on the big screen.
I am too lazy to attend commission meetings much less sub-committee meetings. Let me rephrase that. I lack the desire to attend commission meetings. Unlike my friend Scott Hudson, I have not developed a network of political insiders willing to drop a dime and alert me of skullduggery, whistles they want to blow, or some other breathtaking happening to be exposed and charges to come. In essence, deepthroat ain’t ringing my phone, unless he shows up suspected spam. Or suspected spam is not whispering city secrets in my voicemail. There will never be another Scott Hudson in Augusta.
I write when I write to share with someone else an interesting story, a different take on a situation, and other things that cross my sometimes twisted mind. I truly do not write to satisfy some internal need or scratch an itch to feel satisfied. I don’t write for the money, although money is good for what it buys and I do have hobbies (my wife calls them habits, which is okay till she starts calling them addictions).
All of this begs the question of why I write this, or anything else beyond a shopping list.
I am now 40 articles in with The Augusta Press, meaning a little over ¾ of a year. I have had from 25 comments to two comments range of those who take the time to comment. Frankly, I have gotten a good feel for my commenters and how they will react. In this magnificent age of AI, I have asked for data on readership or clicks. Understandably, not everyone comments, so clicks or readership is the true gauge of readership, and readership reflects interest in the article…. Proving subject matter and presentation has generated interest or not.
So, in absence of quantitative data to know when I have struck a topic of interest, I am coming to you my readers. Obviously only readers will comment.
What interests you? What titles do you see that drag you deeper into my web of words? This column can focus on my memories from 1959 on, although I think it boxes me into a boomer box of readership. I could rant about nationwide or global ridiculousness, but most of you see that without having me say “look at these idiots.”
What subject matter makes you feel good or feel better?
You can read in this article I need direction. Direction if I am to continue to write. This is no cry out for help. It is simply a survey to readers as to what they want. “Give the people what they want” is an age old saying (to those still reading).
I leave you with a steal from a man more artful in the spoken word, a politician by surprise. Written by Noah H. Sweat Jr., reportedly he worked over two months to write and make every word precise and properly placed.
Credit to Wikipedia:
The “whiskey speech”, delivered on Friday, April 4, 1952, when facing the question of the prohibition of alcoholic liquor, a law that was still in force in Mississippi at the time the speech was delivered.
My friends, I had not intended to discuss this controversial subject at this particular time. However, I want you to know that I do not shun controversy. On the contrary, I will take a stand on any issue at any time, regardless of how fraught with controversy it might be. You have asked me how I feel about whiskey. All right, this is how I feel about whiskey:
If when you say whiskey you mean the devil’s brew, the poison scourge, the bloody monster, that defiles innocence, dethrones reason, destroys the home, creates misery and poverty, yea, literally takes the bread from the mouths of little children; if you mean the evil drink that topples the Christian man and woman from the pinnacle of righteous, gracious living into the bottomless pit of degradation, and despair, and shame and helplessness, and hopelessness, then certainly I am against it.
But, if when you say whiskey you mean the oil of conversation, the philosophic wine, the ale that is consumed when good fellows get together, that puts a song in their hearts and laughter on their lips, and the warm glow of contentment in their eyes; if you mean Christmas cheer; if you mean the stimulating drink that puts the spring in the old gentleman’s step on a frosty, crispy morning; if you mean the drink which enables a man to magnify his joy, and his happiness, and to forget, if only for a little while, life’s great tragedies, and heartaches, and sorrows; if you mean that drink, the sale of which pours into our treasuries untold millions of dollars, which are used to provide tender care for our little crippled children, our blind, our deaf, our dumb, our pitiful aged and infirm; to build highways and hospitals and schools, then certainly I am for it.
This is my stand. I will not retreat from it. I will not compromise.
Sweat later recalled, “When I finished the first half of the speech, there was a tremendous burst of applause. The second half of the speech, after the close of which, the wets all applauded. The drys were as unhappy with the second part of the speech as the wets were with the first half”.[2]
So, what you wanta read?
