I Am Thankful (+)

I am thankful. Although I am going to rant a bit, I wanted to start out in a positive vein today. Yes, I do feel thankful to the good people and friends I've made on Gather and to Gather for offering this venue for the sharing of various types of communications. I guess I should be thankful for the gift cards, but it is my wife and mom who are thankful for the perfume and shoes they bought at Macy's with these. I am thankful for the wonderful people I have had the great pleasure to communicate with here. I hear some cynically say these are virtual people, as if they only existed when I turn on my PC, but I beg to differ. These people are real and I believe most are from this planet. They, like me, have a real life of joys, concerns, opinions, desires and sometimes sadness. Most Gather people tell us of their life and we can empathize with them. You don't empathize with something virtual unless you're a total geek, or have a very twisted view of reality. I don't know if I'll ever actually meet any Gather friend in person, but that does not mean I can't share a genuine friendship with these people.

I am also very thankful for the Gather friends who comment on my articles. I think almost everyone enjoys getting comments on their articles. I hope you realize how much a comment means in giving inspiration. I could care less about the stars. It's those comments that are like food that drives me and nourishes my want to write. I want to write good poems and good articles. It's not just for my own satisfaction. I want my writings to be meaningful to you. If something I write brings you joy, touches your spirit, or makes you laugh, then my writings have purpose. I know that many of the things you write give me enjoyment, touch my soul and help me appreciate a variety of writing styles. For that I am thankful. As a teacher I know the value of utilization of skills to grow in your learning. I am thankful for this opportunity to grow in my writing skills and I do believe the quality of my work is improving. Your comments have inspired me and I can only say I'm thankful. My last two poems are unlike anything I've previously attempted. Without you I probably never would have attempted such verse. How could I feel anything but thankfulness towards you?

It is unfortunate that not everything about Gather brings a feeling of thankfulness. Last week I got a letter in my inbox requesting I read an article. I usually don't read and delete inbox messages unless I know the person. However, I knew this person and was rather surprised by the personal note in her request. She asked me why I had stopped commenting on her articles. This made me wonder if I had overlooked her because I do my best to reciprocate comments to those commenting on my articles. I looked through my last ten articles and found she had not commented on any of them. I then went to her comments to find out the last time she had commented on one of my articles and found on page 8 that she had left a comment last November. I deleted her letter. I will not be used! The amount of inbox letters requesting I read an article has increased recently. Now, if I don't know the person, I just block them from sending me anymore of what I consider to be spam. My first priority is to reciprocate to those commenting on my articles and that takes time. Sometimes it takes me a week to reciprocate to everyone because I do take time to walk the dog, squeeze the Charmin, talk to my wife and kids, eat, play my guitar and write.

If someone wants me to read a specific article they've written, just put it in a comment to one of my articles and I will read and comment on it with two exceptions. If all you write in the comments is a link to your article and nothing about my article, then I consider that a slap in the face and I won't read your article. If you want me to read something for a contest, forget it. Unless you are a dear friend, I do not read contest entries. I made the mistake of reading one two weeks ago and then got a deluge of people sending requests to my inbox to read their contest entry. That really ticked me off. I'm a nice guy most of the time. Last Christmas a lady made a comment asking me to help another person. I agreed to do so, but told her my PC would not open the link she provided. She again made the same request with the same link and I gave her the same answer. Now she has stopped commenting on my articles. I can't do the impossible and I don't understand what is was about my message she did not understand. Please, don't ask me to go to a link that's not highlighted. I'm using a '99 Compaq PC and it simply will not accept links I manually type or paste in. I have only one more thing to say. I understand many of you like photographs, but I am quite leery of posting new photographs. My focus is on writing. I very rarely look at comments to my photographs, so if you left a comment on one of my photographs and I did not reciprocate, all I can say is sorry. My priority is writing and I reciprocate to comments on my writing before I even think about my photographs.