Because of recent publicity in newspapers, along with interviews for potential television appearances in regards to my writings on my blog site, octogenariansblog.com, many people have been asking me a lot of questions like: Why are you receiving this publicity? Why do you have a blog site? What do you write about and why do you write?
Let me explain . . .
I’m neither a journalist nor a trained writer, but have always loved to write. For years, I would write frequently, banging away on an old mechanical Royal typewriter, storing my writings away in boxes. I just retired a couple of years ago and began writing articles about various subjects. I would send them to my son and he kept a file of them for his children to have this legacy of my life, my ideas and the stories I would write.
When my granddaughter was around five-years-old, I would tell her stories. One in particular was about a flying squirrel I named Nut Meg Nellie. One day when I was playing outside with my granddaughter, she saw two flying squirrels playing, chasing each other and jumping from one tree to another. I told her one was Nut Meg Nellie and she wanted to name the other. She decided to call it “Dit-da.” Later on, a young squirrel was playing on my patio and I told her that was the baby squirrel of Net Meg Nellie and Dit-da. She asked if she could name it. I said “go ahead,” and without hesitation she said, “Sagarue.” I told her we now had a little family of squirrels—a mom and dad named Nut Meg Nellie and Dit-da, and their baby squirrel Sagarue.
I then suggested we write a book about it. She was excited and began weaving stories about those three flying squirrels and I began writing down her very imaginative stories. Then I filed the manuscript away with all my other writings.
About eight months ago, my son called and suggested he would set me up a blog site if I would just write articles and tell stories. Because I make grammatical errors, misspell and am not very good at operating a computer, he would have a team to assist me. It sounded like a great idea and I agreed. He told me all I had to do was write about anything I wanted. I thought it was a great opportunity to express my ideas about the Philosophy of Freedom and tell stories about where I’ve been, things I have done, people I have met and so on.
That’s how I started. I had no schedule, no deadlines to meet and no subject matter limitations. Sometimes I write until 2 a.m. Sometimes I get up in the morning and write. I sometimes write two or three articles a day, then might go a week and not write at all. There’s nothing contrived about it.
I have written about 150 articles in the past eight months on a variety of subjects. I enjoy doing it and love having the freedom to write about anything, anytime I feel like doing it. It’s wonderful. However, because I type with two fingers, it takes me awhile to write each article.
Sometime ago, there was a TV commercial about Bates pickles. It featured an older man who said, “We make pickles because we got nothing else to do.” That’s sort of the way it is with me. I write because I have nothing else to do other than playing with my three grandchildren. And I write about them, particularly my three-year-old grandson I call Prince William.
When I first started the blog, he would come into my computer room, crawl up in my chair behind me, put his arms around my neck, giggle and say, “It’s just me.” He would say it so sweetly, that remark prompted me to sign off my articles, “Just Me.”
I started sending copies of my articles to a few friends and they loved reading them, always telling me to write more. Then my New York editor and proofreader thought they were so interesting, after about 100 articles, it was decided to expand my reader base and she contacted a couple of newspapers. They apparently thought someone my age grinding out all these writings with two fingers was newsworthy, and that’s how it all began. Other newspapers are now interested, plus television. Apparently, someone from the Jay Leno show saw the article in the local Gainesville Times and contacted them to set up an interview with me for a potential appearance on that show.
When I began, I did not know what a “blog” was. I understand there are thousands of blog sites. I have read a few of them, but haven’t read anything anyplace where anyone writes about Freedom as I do. As a matter of fact, aside from a few organizations that sometimes write about it, I rarely hear the word “Freedom” spoken anymore. I kept listening to the two presidential candidates and never heard them mention Freedom.
Because it’s so infrequently talked about now a days and because of my passion for individual freedom and the private ownership of property, I feel blessed to have this wonderful medium—the computer—that provides me the opportunity to write about it. To express my love and understanding of the Philosophy of Freedom through a medium that goes around the world 24/7 is a wonderful thing for me, and the very thing upon which this great nation was founded. Because of the degree of socialism we have slowly slipped into, if by writing about Freedom on this network site I motivate another person to stop and think more about what is happening to individual Freedom and to realize without it we are a people in bondage, then I feel I have accomplished something. This possibility motivates me to continue writing about it. I want my grandchildren to enjoy the Freedoms I have.
I’m aware for some who want more and more political government doles and controls, the subject can be controversial. But unless all of us inform ourselves as to what is actually happening right before our eyes in this generation, we could all wind up in bondage. The direction we are headed seems to me a very real and frightening possibility.
For those asking questions about how it all began and why I write on an internet blog site, this is my story. It has all evolved out of my desire to write, my love of Freedom, and a son who decided to provide this platform to express through writing.
In 1870, the political theorist and activist, Lysander Spooner, wrote, “The principle that the majority have a right to rule the minority practically resolves all government into a mere contest between two bodies of men as to which of them shall be masters and which of them slaves. A contest that, however bloody, can, in the nature of things, never be fully closed so long as man refuses to be a slave.”
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Let Freedom Ring!
JUST ME,
AC
