100th POST! What I've accomplished...Where we're going...And A Poem --Monday Journal

Various musings on my having posted for the 100th time....

On September 7, 2009, my life spun off in an exciting, agonizing, exhilarating and terrifying new direction with my Journal of Reinvention.  The process iteself has given me a new way of seeing myself, and the confidence to attempt new things...but I have only dented the surface...  To my friends who "like me the way I am"...that guy is still here, only newly shaped, and perhaps more useful...
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As personal journals go, it's entertaining, fairly revealing, covers diverse topics, and stretches my creative muscles.  I have enjoyed doing it, and am eternally grateful to all who have found it, read it, commented, and encouraged me.
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Sometimes, I wonder if my journal does any good,  and whether it's worth going on, continuing.  Is my writing important enough?  Then I ask, important enough for what?  I guess I want someone to come on here and say, "Tom, we think you have something to say that the world needs to hear, so write for us and reach our million-plus circulation of readers".


Then I remember my original intent, with a metaphor: I'm behind the wheel..with plenty of passenger space.  I know the direction I want to go, and a notion of one or two destinations, and no map.  I pick up passengers along the way, and hope for a fun and interesting ride for the long run.  My passengers become my friends, who give me as much as I could hope to give them. I may reach an unexpected destination, and decide to stay a while...Or, I may go beyond the boundaries of my imagination.

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From Kiddieland in Melrose Park, Illinois to the breakwater in Cape Cod's Province
town; from the howl of a dear basset hound to the warble of Mrs. Miller to the achingly beautiful "Vilja";  through the cinematic equivalents of Nashville and Berlin, the Florida Everglades and '60's London, American suburbia, Wyoming wilderness, Harlem, and Rome; From Christopher to Don to Joni;  All around New York, from Times Square to "Hair"; touching base from Afghanistan to Congress, writing about War and Health; contributing to the conversation about gay civil rights from Washington DC to Vermont to Maine to Uganda;  from the terrific contributions of all my commenter-visitors to the support I have received at home; ....This has been a whirlwind trip, and I'm not ready to settle just yet!   
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In the next 100 posts (which are like 100 miles in cyberspace!) I want to do the following: make some scenic visits to the world of my grandparents; travel to Iowa city again, after summoning the courage to read the letters I wrote home back then (all had been saved, and re-discovered); spend more afternoons at the movies; talk about learning languages, and new technical skills (maybe my readers can help me learn to post videos here); allow my heart to follow an animal or two and find out where it leads me; take some detours to new travel destinations; embrace unpredictability; make new friends; and learn about the world from old friends and new.

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I will post my creative writing, and will debut a few short stories . Here's a simple poem I once wrote, that seemed appropriate here...  Creativity is a lot like courtship...and when art and artist find that intimate space, it is more than rewarding, it is bliss....

SWEET REWARD

Climbing and striving,

A high rocky hill

Rises in challenge;

I climb harder still,

Breathing and reaching

My being renew,

My soul, my desire,

The promise of you

High on that hilltop

Your world, your domain,

You would not notice

My struggle, my pain

To reach a fulfillment

Beyond all I knew,

Humbly in search of

My sweet reward, you.

Climbing is over!

I stand face to face

With you; I rejoice

In our fervent embrace

And joy, beyond pleasure

You tell me that you

Were climbing and striving

In search of me too.

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HERE'S TO THE NEXT 200---UP NEXT: MY FAVORITE FILM SO FAR THIS YEAR, "NINE"