Column 101 · 12 September 2008
I have been planning on writing my one-hundredth column for some time now. Column 100 was going to be a special. But as I planned and pondered what I would write, nothing seemed quite right for such a special occasion. And then it became Column 101 because a more timely subject came along.
Over eighteen weeks ago when I first started composing Column 100 in my head, I knew that it would be right around football season and the opening of school. However, I knew that I could not republish Under Friday Night Lights for a third year. And I am not sure that any columnist could survive writing more than one piece about zombies. So as the weeks went by, I found myself continuing to wonder what to write.
I thought about doing what long-running TV shows do on special episodes. They show clips of past episodes. Sometimes they string these clips together under the premise that one of the characters is reminiscing. And sometimes they just do it and say congratulations on running so long. I did not feel that I could just put in a bunch of references and links to past columns that I have written. People would surely remember that I had written about NaNoWriMo, peeking at Christmas presents, and playing in boxes. And if not, they could go to the index or table of contents for my website and go to any of the 100 columns that I have posted before. I decided that I would not rehash or even reference columns that I had already done. So I continued to wonder what to write.
Another idea for this special column was that I would tell the world how wonderful I am. I could brag about having spent the last couple years writing, editing, and posting my column. I thought it would be a good idea to spell out that one-hundred columns represented almost two year’s work and how disciplined I must have been to produce such output. Then I remembered that being humble is better than bragging, and I decided not to toot my own horn. So I continued to wonder what to write.
I thought about thanking people for reading my column. Whether you have seen it in the newspaper or on the internet. Whether you have liked or disliked what I have written. Whether you are from Germany or Argentina or any of the twenty or so countries where people have read my column. Whether you are real or imaginary readers. I thank all of you for reading. I hope that I can continue to enlighten or at least entertain you with my writing. But even as I thought about thanking my readers, I knew that it would not take a full column. So I continued to wonder what to write.
The last thing that I thought about writing was to make an announcement about where this column will be going in the future. I would like to spend more time on my fiction writing and so may put out a serial story like they did in the old days. Or I may continue to put out column after column even if I ramble on and on about nothing as I did in this column and keep writing fiction too. Either way, I knew that a short announcement about what was to come would not make a wonderful column. So I continued to wonder what to write. Until I could wonder no more and had to write this column.
I really do appreciate all my readers and hope that even though I sometimes write about little or nothing, you will continue to read my Musings. Maybe I should call these columns that do not say much “diet reading” or better yet, “lite reading.” A few words with no substance whatsoever. (Now that I think about it, that may be a good topic for a future column.) So even if you totally dismissed this column, I hope that you continue to read the next 100 or more. And now that this one is done, I do not need to wonder what to write anymore.
© 2008 Michael T. Miyoshi
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