A Fond Farewell

Good Saturday morning!  I’d like to take a quick opportunity to explain the absence of Average Joe, Jay over the last three days.  First off, I’m not dead or sick or angry at the world – and I certainly appreciate all the notes I’ve received asking where I have been.  Don’t think that for one second, that something is the matter, quite  the contrary in fact.

I guess it’s time to come clean.  I created Average Joe, Jay when I was in a real depression.  Life wasn’t going well for me and I had visited my doctor asking how I could make it better.  When he asked me “what do you love” I told him how I loved movies, pubs and writing.  He told me to avoid the pubs for a little while and put it all down on paper – or screen.

As a man who appreciates the advice I’m given and who genuinely listens to other angles, (something not everyone can do) I decided to try it out.  I didn’t want to be put on meds and if a strict regimen of diet, exercise and writing was going to cure what ailed me, well then, I was going to try that before being put on anti-depressants.

So I fathered Average Joe, Jay – a blog I intended to show the world what wonderful things there are to find and how truly amazing and passionate our species is.  Let’s face it, we’re capable of almost anything.  And guess what – the depression faded.  I started smiling as I wrote and I reveled in your comments and engaged myself with conversations I never thought I’d have.

And so I kept writing and enjoying what I was writing – basking in the awesomeness that is this incredible adventure.  And from September 2009 – June 2010…I have only skipped 4 days.

Why were these days missed?  Mostly because I’m exhausted and when I wake up, it’s very very difficult to find anything to write about any more.

The first skip really bothered me.  But the last three were consecutive and I’m okay with that.  Here’s why.  I’m not the same person I was when I started writing this blog.  I’m not.  And I never gave up on Average Joe, Jay over the course of that time.  But I’ve run out of things to say.  I reach constantly and I don’t think that’s what I want from this blog.

I know there’s so much more I can write about, but this blog has done everything I intended it to do.  It has inspired the uninspired and it has rejuvenated it’s writer.

So I think what I’m trying to say is thank you.  Thank you for reading every morning.  Thank you for taking me in and not criticizing it’s efforts.

I’m not going to stop writing – but I feel like this particular blog has jumped the shark…and I hate that feeling.  And sometimes, when things aren’t what you want them to be, you just need to let go.  I want to remember Average Joe, Jay for the blog that is always was meant to be.  So, on this my 186th post  I’m saying thank you, and I think for now it’s farewell.

I’m sure we’ll have many other blogging adventures together.  There isn’t a goal that I haven’t reached with Average Joe, Jay.  I don’t need to hit 200, or 1000 posts, this was never that kind of blog.

I can guarantee this – the blog will remain up on the website.  In the days to come, I’m sure I’ll read it through again.  I may print it and get it bound for those days when I need a reminder that the world is not all dark and gray.  And when I’m much older, for the days I’ll need the nostalgia.

I hope I’ve inspired you to take action in your own lives as this blog has inspired me to do.  And I hope wherever my next blogging ideas take me, you’ll join me there too – wherever and whenever that may be.  Thank you for everything…and farewell for now.

“This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” Winston Churchill

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