Tuesday, February 26, 2019

Celebrating Sixteen Years

Flickr Ben Verrall
     In February 2004, I sent out my first e-letter. I had been writing a page, about 500 words, every day since June 25, 2002. I had pages upon pages of ramblings which were supposed to have been a book that chronicled my fiftieth year. It was a great idea but the writing was to introspective with whiney undertones. I was wondering, however, what to do with all my writing. I ran across a few examples of letters written by a Philadelphia born Armenian lawyer, Aram Kevorkian. He lived in Paris and started sending out monthly letters to friends and family on legal matters. Aram had passed away in December of 2003. Almost immediately, the idea of writing a monthly letter. My friend who I commuted into the city with, Marilyn Davidow, named the letter, This Side of Fifty: A Monthly Letter of Musings and Meanderings.
     I sent out a monthly e-letter to family and friends faithfully. It was a lot of fun and a great project. I emailed it to a list that grew to around 450 people via yahoogroups. People suggested I make it a blog but for several years but resisted mainly because I did not have any more time to dedicate to writing or a writing related project like starting blog. With the Great Recession, however, I had plenty of free time and created the blog you are reading now. I continued to send a monthly e-letter which I also posted on the blog. By 2015, I had basically stopped sending monthly letters by email and was exclusively using this blog. My monthly letters averaged about 2,000 words. I blogged more often with posts being between a quarter to a half of that e-letter word count.
     When I began this project, I used to handwrite everything first. That began to change when I bought an iPad in 2010. I found myself writing more and more on my iPad that had a Bluetooth keyboard. When it came time to by another iPad, I opted for the smaller screen MacbookAir on which I am typing this piece. I do miss the handwriting but the convenience of having everything digital and stored in the cloud is just too convenient. These days I also clip articles and jot down ideas for future bloggy bits on Evernote.
     This has been a great avocation and hobby for me. I always wanted to write and be a writer. Mostly, I envisioned being a famous novelist, poet, or commentator. Basically, I thought I would make my living writing. That was not to be. Actually, even at this age, I think it a possibility. OK, I am not a professional writer, but I am a writer. I write because I want to, I enjoy it, and feel like I have something say.
     In my last post of 2018, I basically made a commitment to self-publish The Best of This Side of Fifty. If you have any favorites, let me know. Happy Sweet Sixteen from This Side of Fifty.

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