MediocreMan

Independence Day 2026 · 4 July 2026

Happy birthday, America! Two-hundred and fifty years and counting. Woo hoo!

It is interesting that we celebrate Independence Day on the Fourth of July when the document was adopted but not yet signed. (Apparently, it was signed in August of that year. Who knew?) Still, the date is on the document, so I guess it makes sense.

The document itself makes sense too.

Most people remember the beginning of the second paragraph:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

I do not know why, but I tend to remember the part after the first clause of the first paragraph:

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people…

And yes, both sections that I have quoted are written as they are written in the document. Capitalization, spelling, and even commas. (Apparently, Jefferson and the other authors did not like Oxford commas. Who knew?)

And, by the way, I actually do know why I know the first part of the Declaration of Independence. It was a question asked a long time ago. Like a trivia question: You know the first words of the Constitution (We the people), but do you know the first words of the Declaration of Independence? Or something like that. I did not know the words at the time, but I did after that. They just stuck. “When in the course of human events…”

But I digress.

People might think that the Declaration of Independence is just a bunch of words, but it took blood, sweat, and tears to make those words stick. It took years to back up this profound document. Years to make this country free. I know that even now it takes blood, sweat, and tears to keep it that way.

Now, I know that I have not really said much, but I would like to leave you with one last quote. George Washington said:

“The people must remain ever vigilant against tyrants masquerading as public servants.”

That saying is as true today as it was then. Which is why we must remember that freedom always has a cost.

Happy birthday, America! May we, your citizens, remember that we have a responsibility to keep this country free. To honor those who came before us and to bless those who come after us.

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Writing Gets in the Way · 4 July 2026

Believe it or not, sometimes writing gets in the way of writing. At least it does for me.

There are times when I am supposed to write my blog post, but instead of writing it, I do some other writing. Like yesterday.

Yesterday, I was going to get my blog post ready for my #ThursdayThoughts preview, but instead I wrote a piece of fiction for DailyPrompt. Which is not a bad thing, mind you. Unless, of course, the piece is bad. It might have been, but I will let other people decide whether my stuff is good or not.

At any rate.

The thing is that sometimes I am just procrastinating and sometimes I just have something else that just needs to get written. There is some project or some prompt or some idea that just must get put down on paper. Or placed on the internet. Or somehow acknowledged that it is important even if I am not going to write it quite yet. Which is itself an interesting thought.

I know that thoughts and ideas are not beings. They have no life of their own. And yet, there are times when I wonder. I wonder how I get these ideas for writing. Sometimes, I just write about what has happened in my life. Like today. But there other are times when I get an idea for a story or blog post or poem or song or whatever sort of writing that will just not leave me alone. I need to get the idea or story or whatever writing out of my brain and into some sort of storage system. I need to put pencil to paper or fingers to keyboard or the idea will not leave me alone. Which is kinda what happened yesterday.

Yesterday, I was looking at the DailyPrompt prompts and found one that needed to be written. It might have even been the one that was for that day. I do not remember. In fact, I do not even remember what I wrote. Which is something that I often do. I write it and forget it. (Which is a completely different story.)

You might think that this is just a way to procrastinate, but I do not think so. That is what chess is for. If I want to proecrastinate, I just play chess. (Again. A completely different story.)

No. I was not procrastinating yesterday when I was writing for a prompt (even though I said above that I might have been). I just had an idea that had to be written. I could not get my blog post ready because I was writing something else. Which brings me back to the beginning (without that much substance in between).

There are times when one part of my writing life must get put on the back burner for a different part of my writing life. Sometimes my book writing or my prompt writing or some other sort of writing takes precedence over my blog writing. And that is okay. At least I am not just procrastinating. At least it is just one part of my writing getting in the way of another.

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Short and Sweet · 27 June 2026

It happens more often that I would like to admit, but sometimes I leave my blog post to the last minute. So since that has happened this week, I will make it short and sweet.

Now, I could say something pithy about good things come in small packages or that you ought to be able to say something in less words what you can say in more. But I am not going to do that. (Even though I already did, technically.) Instead, I am just going to write whatever I think and call it good. And that will be that. Short and sweet. And maybe to a point.

I was actually going to write about writing being fairly easy. At least sometimes, but I decided that I needed to be shorter than a quick essay about writing. (And yes, I know that saying something about being shorter leaves me open to all sorts of comments about height. Comment on.) So what to write that is short and sweet?

Well, I suppose that I really have nothing to write about. Which is no big deal, right? I mean, I write about nothing all the time. Or at least it seems like it. I am sure I have written about nothing way more than I would like to admit. Which is surely a problem. At least if you want to keep readers. Which is not necessarily a problem for me. After all, besides those few faithful readers (both real and imaginary), I do not have much here that will either attract new readers or scare off old readers. (And by old readers, I do not mean age. Sheesh. It seems that I am having to qualify my statements a lot. Thanks, Marc.)

By the way, Marc is a real reader. He might not read my posts all that often anymore, but he used to tease me about some of my posts. Many of my posts. Which at least told me that he was reading. And he likes to trap me with my own words. Like when I say something stupid. Which is more often than I would like.

By the way (again), I noticed that I open sentences with “which” quite a bit. Which could be a problem. After all, if the grammar police were out in force, they would surely give me a citation for having phrases rather than sentences. Which is okay. I am not worried about the grammar police. I used to worry. But not anymore.

(By the way, a third time, the picture of the echidna has nothing to do with the post. It just came as a picture for short. Who knew?)

Okay. Well, I seem to have run off the rails this morning. But I guess that is what happens when you just want to put out a blog post that is short and sweet.

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