A Funny Thing Happened Along the Way
Personal Journal Entry
Photo credit: Author | Deep in Thought
Writing is very therapeutic, like in driving with a wide-open sunroof and wearing sunglasses to shade the blazing sun. But, I also realized that trying to dress nice to present a professional image at work and writing in a clean, professional manner to the point of editing your work to not appear clumsy or amateurish has potential drawbacks. When I was in the military, shiny boots were an unspoken code for “cake-eater” or a person of a certain rank who didn’t get up from behind their desk and got their hands dirty. What’s the point? I fear using a word processor with auto-correct and grammar editor software makes me feel a bit like a “cake eater,” almost as if I’m not getting my hands dirty. Should I be using a typewriter and then scan a document to submit for review?
I need to offer full disclosure of my experience. I was part of my junior high school newspaper. Also, growing up, I loved writing stories and completing book reports. A personal achievement was receiving a perfect score on an essay about dreams from my sociology professor as an undergraduate and an outstanding grade on my Montgomery Bus Boycott research paper from my African-American history professor. I have been writing for over 30 years, and I am not including post-it notes and daily affirmation reminders to “take out garbage” or “empty dishwater.” Yet, I find that sometimes, when you strive to put out an excellent product and perform cursory and obligatory proofreads and edits, you can feel as if you are either trying too hard or not enough, which is not what is kosher.
Along the way of writing letters, reports, essays, articles, poetry, and grocery lists, I discovered that I like to write, not just for myself, like journaling, which is a fantastic activity. Enjoy writing as an extended lunch break conversation over coffee about relevant issues. I know — who wants to spend their lunch break discussing their annoying post-traumatic stress disorder or how a governor’s implicit bias has directly led to policies resulting in over-policing and incarceration of the family member for being in the wrong place at the wrong time and color? But, the heavily written topics leave you alone at the lunch table and often chase away readers who need a different type of story to distract them and not weigh them down with politics, mass shootings, or mental health crises.
I’ve been published outside of Medium, but nothing major or award-winning, and I don’t have any celebrity endorsements. I don’t have 60k followers or any book deals and probably never will. My writing is too artificial, ordinary, and seemingly mundane, like an artificial intelligence prompt devoid of context. As an aside, My uncle had a beautiful brown hardtop Oldsmobile kept in a garage. The interior was pristine, and the bucket seats were clean and smooth. He loved that car. His love for his car and his car toward keeping it looking good and driving significantly impressed me. The car was unique to him, and he treated it as such with an almost reverent admiration. I like to write and take care to try and do my best to have a conversation that is sometimes boring, but, like that Oldsmobile, my writing is comfortable, reliable, and makes me feel like I’m sitting on a leather bucket seat staring out a crystal clean windshield at a wide open road ahead. By all means, challenge my writing, criticize, and judge because I can handle it. The most important lesson I’ve learned (along the way) is to never stop caring and never stop growing.
