February Is Here

(Credit: Dictionary.com)

Before we dive into the second month of 2019 (I realize it's February 2), I want to hit a few things:

- First, I'm touched by the number of responses to the two-part post on mental health (Part 1 and Part 2). I received several texts and private messages as Thursday turned to Friday. I'm actually hoping to sit down with one person and just talk. This all gives me hope, which can often be a dangerous thing. Plus I heard from a recruiter.

The bigger note is that, while the post highlighted me, it wasn't meant to be about me, and that embarrasses me. I wanted it the posts to be a conversation starter, so I opened up. That's all.

- Second, a huge shout out to John Nash, who is the primary reason that I'm cranking out one post per day. As he writes, John "...had half-jokingly challenged to join me in this Project 365 undertaking and he surprisingly accepted."

Yes. Yes he did, and here I am. I'm a Yankees fan. He's a Sox fan. We get along just fine.

As I've said before, I'd let this blog languish. I had been close so many times to either announcing the end, or just letting it go, like many others do. I got into writing a blog in 2006 with the promise that I would fully commit. Up until 2013, I mostly adhered to that.

I suppose, not coincidentally, 2013 was when I joined Hersam Acorn Newspapers, with Hersam Acorn Radio, HAN Radio (dot com) and HAN Network to follow. My writing priorities had changed, as had my confidence as a writer, to be honest.

I felt like everything I'd known -- punctuation, grammar, tense, my own inner-voice -- was shattered. There were reasons. As I writer, I became afraid.

I still suck when it comes to "affect vs. effect," but I've always sucked at that.

With this post, I'm three away from tying the amount I wrote last year. Total.

So thanks to John, as well as Susan, Shawn, Paul, Mick, Mike Hirn, Harold, Jon, AJ, and everyone else who keep me cranking this thing out.

Share it as you wish and let's get people talking with good, respectful conversations and debates.

- Last thing. A quick note of sadness for the Turk family on the passing of Patti, sister of Betty, Mary, and Harold. There are the things we always say (gone too soon, too young, etc), and those are all accurate. Yet I don't think I have words. I thought of Patti as the real deal: a free spirit (in a family of real deal people, to be sure) who loved the Penguins of Pittsburgh.

Gone too soon, indeed.

Give 'em hell, Patti, wherever you may be.