Three Thousand Pages

Wednesday June 12^th, 2013 – Fox Lake, IL

   I’ve been cyber scribbling my daily ramblings now since March 14^th, 2006. I can’t believe I’ve stayed at it this long, but I haven’t missed even a single day’s entry. Sometimes I do fall behind a couple of days, but I always catch up. It has now become a part of my life, like taking a shower.

   I try not to fall behind a couple of days on showering, but I think the point is clear. This is now a part of my life, and I don’t even think about it. I originally started by wondering if I could write a page a day about what it’s like to be a comedian for thirty straight days. I aced that and more.

  The reason it crossed my mind at all is this is my 1,500^th post on wordpress.com. That’s one of the places I’ve been posting for years, and it keeps a daily count. I went back and counted to day one, and all totaled with leap years added in it’s my 2650^th post of all time. That’s a lot of work.

   Most days the entries are a single page, but many times they have been two depending on how much I had to say on a given day. I won’t go back and count those, but it’s safe to say I’ve gotten to 3000 pages. They might not be good, but that’s not in the equation. I’m focusing on numbers.

   If anybody was asked to write 3000 pages about their life, it would seem like an overwhelming task. Looking back, it was no big deal at all. I invested a small amount of time almost every day, and now I’ve got tangible product up the wazoo. What to do with it, who knows? But I have it.

   A lot has happened in my life since this started. I traveled the country performing comedy, and I appeared on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on CBS. I got to meet one of my all time entertainment heroes George Clinton in Houston and I survived a nasty surgery on my genitals of all places. There have been ups and downs just like in any life - but mine is recorded for the ages.

   I have no idea who will ever read it, but there’s still something that feels good about doing it as long as I have. I look at my daily writing time as an exercise – and an enjoyable one at that. I like anything that stretches my brain from crossword puzzles to trivia games. This fits that category.

   I sit down when I do, and let my mind open up and do its thing. What can I write about today? Some days are harder than others, but I’ve never drawn a blank and not had anything. Not once. I’m not claiming to be a great writer or even good, but I sure have gotten better over the years.

   One thing I’m just now coming to admit to myself is that I’m a writer at all. I never considered myself one. I am a comedian who writes a daily diary, but when I saw that big ‘1500’ staring me in the puss it slapped me into reality. I guess I am after all. That and a dollar will get me a greasy cheeseburger at a drive thru window, but nobody can take away those 3000 pages. I worked at it.

   The good thing about it is I still have everything I wrote. Standup comedy isn’t like that. Most if not all my hard work is gone immediately after I get off stage. I’ve left little pieces of my soul all over North America since I’ve been doing standup comedy, and had some spectacular shows.

   But once the show is over, I’ve got nothing to show for it. The special moment is gone forever. In writing, I can go back to any page and look at it indefinitely as a piece of my personal history. I have no idea what to do with any of this, but at least I have something to do it with. Most of the best comedy shows I’ve ever done only live on in my head. To succeed in business, one needs to find a way to duplicate one’s self. I’ll never get those shows back, but I have what I wrote about.