Manure Occureth

They say a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. I have found that an archive of 500 postings began with a single sentence: It Occurred To Me. I don't know that I actually set a goal when I first sat at this keyboard and siphoned from my brain enough thoughts to fill a screen. In seven days, it will be the first anniversary of my blog. In the interim between today and January the 20th, I have started to plan the blog for that date. I could take the easy way out I suppose, deferring to rerun one my favorite posts from the previous 499, but it is not what I wish. I want something original and of course, funny. If I haven't done that to date, what makes me think I can post such a piece then?

It has been both fun and challenging to come up with something to post everyday. Indeed, since I started blogging I have managed to average 1.1 posts per day. There were very few days that I did not post at least once, but there are several times that I put up 2 or 3 postsings in the same day. I have probably on many occasion sacrificed quality for quantity.

I can guess that like a lot of you, I have had a desire to write ever since I was the proverbial knee-high to a grasshopper. I reveled in writing assignments in my school days, while my fellow students would moan and groan when the teachers' gave them to us.

It didn't take me long to realize that I preferred to interject humor into my writings whenever I could. One of the first things I can remember writing was for a sixth-grade History class. The assignment was to make up some ficticious character or event in Colonial America that had an affect on the outcome of the Revolutionary War. My offering featured the young George Washington hurling the dollar across the Potomac River. The coin struck one Benedict Arnold, who was standing on the other side, in the head. While not diagnosed as a serious injury at the time, it ultimately caused a blood clot. Complications from that clot in the end, caused the older Arnold to have mean and misguided thoughts. Those thoughts, of course, led to the man becoming a traitor. I received the treasured Gold Star for my effort and my paper was displayed on the hallway bulletin board.

Because of that paper, I have tended to lean to hyperbole, satire, and parodies ever since. Having been raised in rural West Virginia, I often tap into those colloquial roots. Someday I want to explore the possibilty of delving into the allegory. I have grazed the surface with allegorical sentences and paragraphs, and hope to someday write something Orwellian or Swift-like. Ah, but that will be someday.

Thus it is, that this my 500th post will be less than a memorable one, but will serve as a statement of goals that I never established when I first started blogging nearly one year ago. As always one goal will remain constant, and that is to bring a smile to the face of anyone who chances to read anything I post.

Thank you, those of you who have read my blog and left the kind comments that have given me in turn the confidence and the drive to continue. Without out you, these posts would only be empty and lifeless ramblings of a wannabe writer. I hope I can return the favor and continue to offer another 500 posts and at least 500 grins.

No.500