Holy shit – it’s February and I totally missed marking the actual anniversary of this website, which first went live in January 2003. Even then, in what was the relatively-recent aftermath of 9/11, it still felt like such a quaint time, a time of innocence, of reasonable political discussion/differences, of basic decency and, well, sanity.
This website was a lot more frivolous then, and the content was a lot less voluminous. Pumping out thousands of words a week at about three posts a day is an incredible amount of work, and it didn’t always used to be like this. It comes naturally now, but when you think about and dive into the archives (or just keep clicking ‘Older entries’ at the bottom of this page to see how far back things truly go) I contribute a substantial load of content.
As a labor of love (I really just like to write) it’s something I would be doing with or without an audience, and that hasn’t changed in the twenty-three years I’ve been doing this. Not that you aren’t appreciated and adored dear reader (yes, you) – I’ve simply never been beholden to anyone or anything. That’s important if you want to maintain a sense of self in a world that wants us all to conform and be like everybody else. In the beginning it was mostly the result of ego and self-obsession – over the years it’s evolved into something slightly less self-serving.
While the purpose may still be one of self-exploration in the pursuit of self-improvement, my beloved cast of characters asserted themselves as proof that I do not exist in a vacuum of solitude. Comfort and concern are both present there, and I can’t do much without my friends and family. They’ve become integral characters to the narrative and plot that so evenly unfolds in these parts, and it’s been one of the happier realizations of these decades that they drive so much of what I do.
And so we slide officially into our twenty-third year of this messy, moody, magnificent morass where I’ve exposed bits and bobs of vulnerability, haughtiness, hubris, doubt, insecurity, joy, pleasure, sorrow, rage, reckoning and beautiful ruin – and I’ll keep doing this for as long as I can stand it. Happy 23rd!!
