My partner does it.
My friends do it.
Why not me?
A former boss of mine was once asked why he didn't write a regular column while he was publisher of the daily newspaper I was editing. He answered that he was "pretty vain about his writing and wanted to have something to say."
That answer stuck with me. I've had a column before and I was the same way. I wrote when I felt I had something to say. Since I was the editor, there were some weeks I could cancel myself. Sometimes opinions are scarce. Inventing one for the sake of 18 inches of copy didn't move me.
The process of tucking away ideas or pulling research together gave me a deep appreciation for the people who actually write daily for a living. To actually have 800 words worth of something to say every day is bloody hard. To have that much to say just once a week is plenty. A good daily columnist is worth his/her weight in gold and I can see why the good ones make a good living at it. This is a very special skill, one I do not possess.
Opinion is cheap these days. Broadcast, especially cable TV, is full of it. Same for talk radio. This medium at least has the advantage of being unabashed in its opinionated pretensions, and for that reason alone it is worthy of embracing.
As another former boss used to say...onward!
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