February 2022: 19th Anniversary Letter

 

This month marks the 19^th Anniversary since I started this writing project. 

Back in 2004, it began as a monthly e-letter.  I was inspired to do so by the monthly legal letters sent out by the well-known Philadelphia born and Paris based attorney, Aram J. Kevorkian.  He started a monthly letter in 1978.  He sent to clients and friends for 23 years until he passed away in December of 2003 at the age of 73.  A friend had sent me copies of a few of letters and his obituary. 

I had embarked on a daily writing project that I started in June of 2002 on my birthday with the intent to documenting my 50^th Year.  I envisioned a humorous and insightful book.  But that is not the way it turned out.  It is hard to be insightful.  It is harder to be humorous.  It is hardest of all to be both.  Learning about Aram Kevorkian’s monthly letter resonated with me and was an inspiration to start my own monthly letter. 

Kevorkian’s mailing list for his letter was up to 3,000 people before his passing.  It was something special.  From his obituary in the New York Times: 

Considered by many of his readers to be a sort of modern-day Montesquieu, Mr. Kevorkian filled his newsletter with observations like these: ''Many French laws never go into effect, whether because they require implementing decrees that are never issued, or because they are repealed or amended before they take effect, or simply because they are so silly that they are not applied.''

I remember my first e-letter made its way into the hands of a friend of Aram Kevorkian's who was an avid reader his newletter.  A mutual friend of ours forwarded it saying I was embarking on a similar project.  Kevorkian’s friend responded that he was doubtful I or anyone could match the depth and wit of The Kevorkian Newsletter.  I was not upset or offended.  In fact, I was in total agreement.  I was very impressed with Kevorkian’s writing and intellect.  I simply liked the idea of a monthly e-letter.  That was the good idea I took from The Kevorkian Newsletter.

As for the subject matter and style, there is no way it could be the same.  We are two different people.  Our writing styles are our own.  His letter was began as a legal letter but expanded to related topics.  My e-letter, which became a blog in 2009, is much more varied in subject matter, some might call mine unfocused.  I like the word eclectic myself.  My dear friend, Ara, refers to it a Seinfeld Blog… a blog about nothing.  I am actually proud of that moniker as well and refer to it as a “blog about nothing” myself in these very pages.  I am not about to rename it, however.  I am happy with This Side of Fifty and the subtitle, A Monthly Letters of Musings and Meanderings, which captures the “blog about nothing” notion quite nicely.

I opened up my February 2008:  Anniversary Letter with a notion that I believe I coined and had forgotten about until today:  Opportunistic Randomness.  It is an intriguing concept, to me, that has defined of my corporate career, my musical avocation, and this writing project as well.  I have never been good at planning and completing long term projects despite the fact that I now actually teach project management to others.  Instead, random opportunity followed me or rather opened doors in front of me as my career developed.  I was astute enough to realize when those doors were open and walk through them.

I never met Aram Kevorkian.  I have appreciated his writing over the years.  I wish I had had the pleasure of meeting him.  In my February 2007:  The Year Anniversary Letter, I wrote about Aram and a lovely afternoon I spent with his daughters Corinne and Anoush at Corinne’s Connecticut home.

More to follow.