I yam what I yam....

First off, Happy New Year's!

This is no big deal, but I want to address this, so you’ll understand if you already don’t.

This will be a little odd, for a reason. I'm a little odd, but I try to be useful.

I don’t want to turn anyone off from reading me. Without readers, there's no sense in writing. But that’s the talent, to say things people may not want to hear, and yet make them hopefully, thank you in the end for saying it.

I failed that in a blog I did recently, surely. But sometimes it's just good enough to start a thought about something. Or better, a conversation.

When I got into all this I told myself I wouldn't keep my mouth shut when I saw a wrong, I’d try to call the truth out, as I see it.

I deep down seem to have a true journalistic attitude in the Edward R Murrow sense, though I hated the idea of journalism when I was in college. They write in an upside down pyramid style, big info then details, where fiction is details then big picture. It’s just backward. And kind of boring.

But after years of tech writing, of also putting the most info up front, which I hated as there’s no suspense, no fun, I guess that after a while, I just got used to it. Because it doesn't bother me so much anymore.

After these past three plus years of blogging, I guess I've become a journalist of a sort.

So when I see that something needs to be stated, at times in the toughest terms possible (I mean sometimes people just need to be hit in the head with a brick), well then I feel I should do just that.

THE PROBLEM with that as you know, is walking the double edged sword of journalism/public service, along with having fans in writing fiction and entertainment. I mention this because someone pointed it out to me recently. They were concerned for me and I said, I'm not, because I'm doing what I need to be doing.

Now technically I should NEVER do anything to lose fans, yet I probably will if I tell the truth. I mean, you're going to piss someone off sooner or later, right? Which leaves me pretty much in a quandary.

My brother is an artist. He could have put his art in galleries and such and made a group of money, but then he'd have had to contend with himself, as a person, not wanting to conform the the gallery style of being an artist. So he is happy doing what he can do as he has been doing it and he works with that. Well? Me too, it would seem.

So the best case is for me to never lose readers, but the reality will be that sometimes I will.

But hopefully some people, will stick with me, even if and when I'm pushing some limits. And perhaps some others will feel attenuated to me somehow, in some way, and continue to return.

I was once told many years ago that what is important in picking a movie critic to follow, is not that you agree with them, but that they are consistent in their views. Then you will just know, if they hate a certain type of movie, so will you, or maybe you will know that you will love it. As long as you have that certain consistency from them, then you can know more about a movie than you would otherwise. Sometimes you can learn more from someone you disagree with, than from someone you tend to always agree with.

The thing about me is that I’m less afraid to lose readers as long as what I'm saying is the truth. Even if it's what’s on the edge, or calling the kettle not just black, but perhaps a green fuzzy, or simply just to be me. But I'm always pretty much what I am.

It’s a conundrum. For me at least.

I believe in calling them out, putting them down, showing them up for who they are, the bad, the cruel, the insane, the lost or misdirected. This political stuff from this past election, is a prime example of what I'm talking about. I'm kind of glad it's over now.

Anyway as Popeye says, "I yam what I yam and I ain't no more". More correctly:

"I yam what I yam and I yam what I yam that I yam / And I got a lotta muscle and I only gots one eye / And I'll never hurt nobodys and I'll never tell a lie / Top to me bottom and me bottom to me top / That's the way it is 'til the day that I drop, what am I? / I yam what I yam."

But I jest.

All we can ask is that people try to be informed and make good decisions, then share them openly and listen to reactions. Then to act appropriately, in an inspired fashion. Life can only get better from that small effort.

There is so much ignorance being shared as intelligence, seek to separate the one from the other. It can only serve you well. Seek not to be selfish and try to consider that the greater good can be good for you and not just something to be put down as a bad thing because you do not benefit directly from it.

Here's an inspiring video online that someone did. In thought of the year we are about to make use of, either for the best or the worst, whether we plan our actions or fall into reaction.
Words of Wisdom ☮ Peaceful Hearts, Enlightened Minds

To the past: I hope you have had a happy holiday season!
To the future: All the best to you in this near year.
To us all: Cheers! That is, be of good cheer and blaze a trail forward with accurate and good intent.