Beyond the compelling desire to be telling my stories, and the dubious assumption that someone is reading them, this project of mine has come to include the somewhat befuddling process of creating a website, posting regular installments, and spreading the word that Tanner-Stories exists.

For a guy who sometimes struggles to open his email it’s all part of a late life education, with a new learning experience at every turn. Although I haven’t always appreciated it, I’m still learning to value what pushes me beyond my comfort zone. At my age, it’s so easy to settle back for a slow, comfortable ride home. Why should I settled for that?

Chances are your way home won't include creating fanciful tales of silly old guys looking to find that feeling one more time. But there’s no reason it can’t offer the possibility of some other way, your way, of expressing what you’ve gained over the course of a lifetime. That can happen in a woodworking shop, at a painting easel or computer terminal, or with a ball on yarn in your lap. In whatever form your inspiration arrives, why hold back? What are you saving yourself for? I happen to be a Dr. Wayne Dyer fan. I know that not everyone is. But when he says "don't die with your music still inside you" I take that to be sound advice.

Finally, if you’re as lucky as I am, you can make it a family affair. What better pay back for all those orthodontist bills? While our son’s computer schooling answers my equipment and systems questions, the daughter’s internet expertise, skills a prestigious university pays her a salary to use, provides the website design and maintenance.

And from the very beginning my Editor-in-Chief (heavy on the Chief) has served as editor and proofreader, acting like the English teacher she used to be. She’s the one who finds the typos, and reminds me that no self respecting heroine would let that rotten scoundrel off so easily, that the lady I’ve created must make him pay for his foibles and failures. That kind of knowing seems to be a female thing.

So, whatever possibility, whatever adventure, captures your imagination, take a chance. Give yourself to it. It's your own involvement that makes the effort worthwhile, not someone else’s judgment of its value,  or their appraisal of its success or failure.

GS