John Y.’s Musings from the Middle: Musing #200!!!!

About 16 months ago I agreed reluctantly to write a weekly  column for the new Recovering Politician blog. I believed in the idea and wanted to support my friend Jonathan Miller’s efforts.

Personally, my hope was to write 4 or 5 obligatory columns and then start coming up with excuses for why I couldn’t continue and then just slip off his radar.

But that didn’t happen. I started making up excuses for why I couldn’t continue after my first and only column. I enjoyed writing the column but I didn’t want to be under a deadline, didn’t have the time to devote to a regular lengthy columns, and didn’t want to write about politics.

Jonathan then came up with a compromise. He said, “Don’t feel obligated to write anything. Don’t write about politics and make it informal and conversational —like when you write something on Facebook. (I had just gotten in the habit of posting random thoughts on Facebook.)

Jonathan went on, “But when you do feel the desire to write, post it on Facebook and if it is something that can work on the blog, I’ll post it.”

I was stuck. There was nothing to say “no” to. So I mumbled that it sounded like a good idea. And it was.

This my 200th post for The Recovering Politician. About 199 more than I thought I had time for under the original plan.

So, thanks Jonathan for the opportunity to write for your blog. Thanks also for the encouraging nudge.  And thanks to all of my Facebook friends for putting up with my fits of conversational prose, impulsive observations,  quirky insights and a dozen other kinds of random, mundane and fleeting thoughts.

Here’s the original piece for the RP that–in truth–I tried to come up with an excuse not to write before I finished it. But somehow got it done. And am glad I did.