My 2023 Blog Commitment And What I’ll Write About
Starting a new writing project has never been the issue for me. I’ve got plenty of ideas. No, the issue has always been narrowing down…
Starting a new writing project has never been the issue for me. I’ve got plenty of ideas. No, the issue has always been narrowing down those ideas into something digestible. Thus, most of my intended short stories become discarded novels, and most of my 500–1,000 word blog posts end up closer to 3,000 unfinished words.
But just like in 2018 when I committed to writing one blog post per week, I’m committing to that in 2023. Here, then, is my written commitment:
Until the end of 2023, I will publish at least one blog post per week, with a publication deadline of Sunday evening at 9 p.m. (Japan Standard Time).
Today’s post, then, is a meander through many of the themes and topics this blog will be exploring.
Before I go on, I have one caveat. Originally, I was going to start this blog on Substack. However, even without publishing steadily on Medium since last spring, I’ve noticed new readers consistently finding me here. So I want to see if I can build on what I’ve already created. Here’s hoping for the best!
Unfortunately, there’s one problem. You see, I want to be able to write freely. Back in June 2021, I wrote a “rant post” about the obstructionist media and government campaign against Ivermectin and, a few weeks later, Medium took it down, saying “this story is under investigation or was found in violation of the Medium Rules.” That note remains, so I assume it was the latter and I assume the rule I violated fell under their policy of “We do not allow the use of pseudoscience, disinformation, or other content that is contrary to public health or safety.”
Now, I don’t want to spend this post re-hashing that incident. I’m only bringing it up because I am a person who writes about controversial topics and often has opinions that are contrary to mainstream ones, and I know that like every other person alive I sometimes will get things wrong. But I’d like to be able to explore issues freely and, by doing so, discover where I’m off-base and where I’ve found something useful to pursue. And last, my experiences dating back to the 1990s and especially in the past several years, is that some of the things that were called “pseudoscience, disinformation, or other content that is contrary to public health or safety,” well, some of those things have turned out to be true.
In short, I’m going to write my mind, and do it with as much integrity as I can, and hope that this is a space where I won’t have articles blocked, but if that turns out to be the case, then Substack here I come.
Okay, with that out of the way, let’s get into the topics I’ll be covering before we wrap this one up. If these sound interesting to you, please stick around and even consider letting me know in the comments what you most want to read from me. I’m hoping this blog can be, in part, inspired by the interactions I have with readers.
Topics For This Blog in 2023
I’m a generalist. I have a wide and deep variety of interests. So one thing I can promise is you never know what you’ll get from this blog. All you’ll know is it’s a topic I’m interested in and feel I have something worth sharing about. So, in no particular order, these are some things I’ll be blogging about in 2023:
My Life: Living in Japan for two decades after spending my first 30 years in America; the English language and attempts to teach and learn it; raising multi-cultural kids in a foreign culture; hobbies, such as cycling, playing park golf and reading; spending time in Nature; being an active member of on-line communities.
Politics and Current Events: Asian geopolitics; US politics; COVID-19 issues; pushing back against the technocratic globalist agenda; Deep Politics and those who cover it such as Whitney Webb and Dark Journalist; the meta-crisis and the work of systems-thinkers like Charles Eisenstein, Daniel Schmactenberger and Nate Hagens, and others who are addressing it; the failures of social institutions; using astrology to look at history, current events and the future.
Personal Growth: my various spiritual practices; my lifelong challenges with addiction and mental health; spiritual teachers and books; psychological typing systems such as MBTI and the Enneagram; Big Picture models, such as Integral Theory, Astrology and Human Design; Tarot, and other esoterica.
Culture: Music, in particular, rock music; media reviews (TV shows, movies, music, books); American sports, in particular baseball and football, mixing with cultural issues.
Creative Writing: Some of my short fiction and poetry.
Now, there are likely some things I forgot. And certainly, some things I don’t even know I’ll be interested in yet, so this list is by no means restrictive!
And don’t be fooled: While I’ll certainly have a topic for most of my posts, one of my strengths as a generalist and as an ENFP personality type is connecting many things together, so it’s more than likely that one blog post will incorporate several things from that topic list. In addition, I may occasionally do a “hodgepodge” post, where I simply throw together several topics that are on my mind in one week.
In the end, in committing to my personal growth during my 40s (I just turned 50 on January 4th), I’ve learned that I have to allow myself this breadth of possibility in my creative projects, or I’ll lose my motivation because I’ll feel hemmed in. Hopefully, that sits well with you and if it doesn’t, well, all I can say is I’ve done my best to “warn” you (scare you off? LOL) with this post.
A Preview of Upcoming Posts
Okay, I’d like to end by offering a preview of some upcoming topics I hope to cover in the next several weeks. One way I plan to hone in on particular topics is by using my understanding of the archetypes of the 12 signs of the Zodiac and covering topics that align with what Zodiacal season the sun is currently in.
For example, next week, while the Sun is finishing its run through Capricorn, I plan to write something about the crumbling of societal structures, and once the Sun moves into Aquarius, I’ll be covering themes relating to technology and may even spend a post focusing on the astrology of the next 20 years, because in March, Pluto enters Aquarius. When Pluto changes signs, it can trigger political and social events. For example, the last time it changed was its move into Capricorn in 2008 and that year had the global financial crisis and Americans elected their first black president.
I’m also going to do my best to offer variety in the genres I post in, which means I’d like to sprinkle in some creative writing, some posts on more “fun” topics such as reflecting on music I’m listening to or a movie I’ve watched, etc. However, you’ll find that within those posts — and within the posts on more “serious” topics — I tend to mix in both humor and sober reflection. In short, I’m not easy to pin down, nor do I feel the need to try.
Having said all of that, I do hope that readers feel comfortable offering me feedback. Constructive criticism is absolutely welcomed. I’m an English teacher and I believe that the best teachers are lifelong learners, so while my blog will aim to inform you, I also hope to be informed by you. What I’m ultimately looking for is a win/win for both of us!
If that all sounds like a good plan, I hope you’ll consider keeping up with my weekly content. Again, I’ll be posting around my Sunday evening here in Japan, which means Sunday morning in most of Europe and, well in the middle of the night on Saturday/Sunday in the U.S. So just keep Sunday circled on your calendar! I’m going to do my best to align with busy schedules and keep my posts a readable length — maybe a 2,000-word limit, but closer to 1,000 words. However, because I’ll be covering big topics, this might mean I’ll either need to break that rule or will just break posts up and may post more than one blog per week sometimes.
In the end, this is an experiment for me and my goal is by the end of 2023, I’ll have a better idea of what works — both for you and for me! For now, I appreciate you and look forward to our journey together. Until next Sunday…
My Version
Thanks for reading! You can support me simply by sharing my stuff, by buying me a coffee, by linking to me on Twitter or Facebook by checking out my old blog, by listening to my podcast, The B&P Realm Podcast, or by reading my 2015 novel, “The Teacher and the Tree Man.” You can also find that book in full here, or broken down into four shorter books (book 1, book 2, book 3 and book 4) or you can listen to it for free. Last, join my community on Patreon.