Number 700 (Three Years on Substack)

I Started April 3, 2021

So, here is my 700th post for Substack. I started on April 3, 2021. This is what I wrote in my personal journal on that date: A platform or website called Substack, which one can use to get paid for one’s writings/posts.  I seriously need to earn money from my writing, and I’m attracted to the Substack format.  Can I get subscribers who will pay $5 per month to read and see my work?  Three years and around two hundred thirty-three posts each year, and what do we have here? First, I must thank all my readers, those who subscribed, and those who have not subscribed but read my writings. It’s a pleasure and honor to be in your presence, and I need an audience of some sort for me to do what I do, so thank you for that.

Although I travel occasionally and see people, I’m pretty much a homebody who likes to write. I don’t know if it's an art or an addiction or both, but it does keep me sane in times that are hard to navigate through. One of my favorite songs is You’ll Never Walk Alone, and I think of this song often when writing for my Substack page. It’s a show tune in Carousel written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. The melody is sad, but most people would find it uplifting. For me, it does have a tint of a disaster approaching around the corner. I read the first recording of this song was done by Frank Sinatra in 1945, and even reading the lyrics brings a ping to my heart:

When you walk through a storm
Hold your head up high
And don't be afraid of the dark

At the end of a storm
There's a golden sky
And the sweet silver song of a lark

Walk on through the wind
Walk on through the rain
For your dreams be tossed and blown

Walk on, walk on
With hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone

You'll never walk alone

Walk on, walk on
With hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone

You'll never walk alone

The line, for your dreams be tossed and blown, is the key that opens the song for me. It is a landscape of no hope, and hopelessness is worn like a coat to keep one warm, but if you keep walking, you will eventually reach the sunlight. The only exercise I do daily is walking, and I think I do the walk for my mental state rather than the physical issues I may or may not have at the moment. But then again, does the mind rule the body, or does the body rule the…?

Only science and time will know that answer, but I need a destination for my walking. I get bored easily if it is just walking a specific path to move my legs. If I walk to the record or bookstore, I may get an award for my physical activity. It keeps the day adventuresome and unpredictable, and that is a must for an artist/writer.

I love a schedule, and I think that is one of the main reasons why I reached the number seven hundred here. Even when I have nothing to say or write about, well, here I’m at number 700. That number emotionally pulls me, especially when I reach it in something I love, such as writing this post here. But for the dear reader, is it significant? That is something I have no control over, and basically, whenever I do work, especially a creative piece of writing, I do my absolute best to get it done, and then it is up to others if it's worth it or not. I love that relationship I have with the reader. Let’s shoot for 700 more!