Just Me, Talking About Stuff

Written by Tom Being Tom

I don’t have a theme. There is no central notion to Tom Being Tom. I don’t fill a niche. I’ve talked about passions in the past, and values and priorities. I’ve talked about football though, too, and about dogs and politics and books. In the old blog I talked about marriage and comic books and whatever else was on my mind that day. That’s what TBT is all about, to be honest. Whatever is on my mind today.

But I don’t write everyday. I consciously avoid doing that. A few times in the past I answered a challenge or two that required a succession of daily entries. A few years ago I blogged every day for the entire month of June. Somehow I came up with a topic; I really don’t know how. And except for a couple of cheat days (one notably stolen from “The Shining“) I wrote what I’d consider lengthy and substantive posts. It took a lot of my time in the mornings and I just about quit blogging after that. Even I had heard enough from Tom.

Still, I persevered. Well, I continued. Persevered indicates struggle and then accomplishment. I wasn’t really struggling with anything and I’ve certainly accomplished nothing substantial with my writing since. I’m not one of the great ones. I’m not the funniest one. I blog. I enjoy it.

A few times I’ve considered going pro. By “pro” I don’t mean making something of myself in the literary world or whatnot, but instead focusing my musings on some niche or passion and taking advantage of SEOs and social media platforms. I could promote that one big thing to the world. I could go get myself dozens (or hundreds or thousands) of more “followers.”

But that sounds like a lot of work.

When I was 31 years old I owned a landscape maintenance business, one I’d inherited from my step-dad. I had fooled around with it for a few years for income and decided to see what could really become of it. I studied marketing, asked other highly successful lawn guys around the country how they got so big, and even got some great templates for ads. I put 10,000 flyers in the local paper. My phone rang off the hook.

I hated it.

I didn’t want to do that much landscaping. I didn’t want my life to be that.

My big marketing push taught me that gardening is fun as an aside but terrible as an occupation. I quit. I literally quit. Tom called Mrs C and said, “Do I really have to do this anymore?” and Mrs C said, “Dear god, no.”

Writing, to me, is like gardening. I like to do it in my spare time but I really don’t want to get stuck doing it every day for the rest of my life. I’ll leave that to the professionals. You know who you are. You’re the best, and I like to tell you that.

But for me, this is enough. Tom, being Tom. So expect that you’ll hear more about football and politics and puppies and Mrs C and pub crawls and superheroes and beer and your challenges and whatever else I happen to have on my mind today.

Just don’t expect me to be all great and stuff. I don’t want to be great.

I just want to be Tom. 😎

 

21 thoughts on “Just Me, Talking About Stuff”

    1. Exactly! “Life can’t wait.” It seems like you learned a long time ago the things I seek to figure out every day. I think you are the reincarnation of one of those ancient stoic philosophers. Which one?

      The next time I wonder “what path” can I just message you instead of writing 21 journal pages about it? 😊

      Or is it one of those “padawan, you must choose and walk and learn” king of things. 😉

      Liked by 2 people

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      2. That is one smart oracle!

        Can I test it?

        Oracle, today is Thursday, and my day off. It is blustery outside, so much so that the California power company is rolling blackouts in fear of more fires. I have a big lawn, and it is semi-long. I hate working in the wind. Shall I (a) mow the lawn, (b) do inside chores all day instead, or (c) drink beer?

        Liked by 1 person

  4. A long time ago in a galaxy not so far away–this one, to be specific–I read something by George Lucas about how much he hates writing. Yes, the George Lucas, the guy who wrote Star Wars. Also American Graffiti. The saying about blind pigs and acorns isn’t entirely apt here, but I can’t think of a metaphor for someone who succeeds spectacularly at something that really isn’t their true passion.
    Or maybe I could call it “pulling a Tom”.
    Writing may not be your true passion, although, unlike Lucas, you enjoy it, and you’re not under any pressure to do it, which is good because all work and no play makes George create Jar Jar Binks.
    Like Lucas you’re able to share your writing with a large audience, and people enjoy what you write.
    Congratulations on finding success here. And I wish you the best of luck in your true passions: books, beer, football, life in general, and dogs that are golden in more ways than one.

    Liked by 2 people

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    1. I did not know that about George; fascinating! I suppose if I did have to do it every day, like George, I would grow to hate it, too. There are those out there, however (like yourself; Asimov for sure; possibly Stephen King?) that do it for the love of it and can’t get enough of it and produce quality work (or did) all the time. In Stephen’s case, as I recall, it had to do a lot with cocaine. 😉

      Hey, maybe that’s the secret of my success. Drink beer all day and write adventures about football-playing dogs. 🤔

      Work in ^ progress.

      Thank you, Christopher, for the kind words. I do enjoy it, immensely, and I do the best that I can do. I’ll never produce a masterpiece vis a vis “Empire,” “Awakens,” or “Graffiti,” but I still write some pretty good self-reflections and Trump bashes, in my opinion. And, at this point in time, it seems like dozens do agree. 😉

      Liked by 1 person

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  5. It sure sounds like you and I have simultaneously arrived at the same conclusion that the most important thing in blogging is to enjoy oneself. With that in mind, I’m not sure I agree with your assessment that you’re “not one of the great ones”. What is the arbiter of greatness? If it’s a consistent, years-long fandom of what somebody writes and a desire to keep coming back to read more, then personally, I’d have to name “Tom Being Tom” as one of the great ones.

    Liked by 2 people

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    1. Thank you, Paul, for those kind words! We definitely got here at the same time, eh?

      Say, before you deleted Spooky Action over the weekend I had commented on your initial post. Did you see that? Did you see where I mentioned, casually, how you “saved TBT from oblivion”* in the Summer of ’17?

      *may not have been my exact wording. 😉

      Liked by 1 person

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