Reading and Writing.

A guy here on Substack posted something the other day. I should have saved it, but it was something like: “The thing I like about Substack is people on here write about things that matter.”

I felt unseen. Sometimes I do write about things that matter. But more often I write about me and other things that don’t matter.

I’m only half kidding. Ok, three quarters kidding.

If you have followed along you know I don’t always write about weighty and serious things. There are two reasons for this.

First, my son Nick and his wife Rachel, once gave me a little book about a raccoon named Rascal. It was written by Sterling North in 1963, and it’s a whimsical story about growing up and loss, through the eyes of a little boy and a raccoon that becomes his friend.

Nick and Rach know I like to read, they are both readers, and Nick said sometimes it’s good to read just for fun.

Sometimes the most obvious truths are unseen and your son has to point them out to you.

I used to read for fun when I was a boy. Hardy Boys. Nancy Drew, Tom Sawyer, and Misty of Chincoteague. I devoured them because they were fun to read.

Then I grew up and was told I had to read the Bible. In school I had to read Shakespeare. Later, when I had time to read, I mostly read business and leadership books. All of them have their place and are good and helpful, but I don’t think I can say they are always fun to read.

Fun to read, for me, means you don’t have to go back and read a lot of sentences twice to make sure you got them. There’s no real hidden messages, or bullet points or charts and graphs. You don’t feel the need to take notes. You aren’t reading to learn something, and you can relax and just enjoy the story.

That’s the way it was reading Rascal. I read it just a little after my Dad passed away, and things were a little crazy. It helped take my mind off the thousands of things I had to take care of, and helped me relax and reset, and smile.

The other reason I don’t always feel the pressure to write about things that matter on Substack is I am partially doing this to exercise my writing muscle, and to share and process the myriad of things that bounce around my head on a daily basis. I used to have an outlet for that on the radio before I retired.

This Substack allows me that creative outlet, while giving me a place to just write.

For fun.

If reading for fun is healthy and helpful, then maybe writing can be fun and helpful too?

Some days I might write about serious stuff. But most days, I just type away and we all get to think about something other than politics for a few minutes.

It’s not weighty and it won’t help you lose weight or make money, but hopefully, now and then, it matters.