400

This is my 400^th blog.  I’ve actually already written another blog which I will publish later, but it seems that 400 is a number worth noting and celebrating.  Really, 400 is an arbitrary number, like the year 2000 that was so celebrated and feared.  To quote the character Dogbert in the Dilbert comic strip by Scott Adams, “It’s b-i-i-i-g and it’s r-o-o-und.” 

So 400 is nothing to celebrate.  Yet it is.  It represents hours of work, commitment and thought.  It represents emotional and spiritual growth.   It represents the most consistent amount of self-discipline I’ve ever demonstrated in my life.  A mark of maturity is action.  We know a child is more mature when he or she can walk or not need a diaper.  But maturity is also demonstrated by self-control, kindness, responsibility and changed behavior.  Writing 400 blogs has matured me.  When I reach 500, I hope I will be even more mature.

One of the definitions of “mature” in www.dictionary.com is “fully developed in body or mind.”

I’m neither.  My body needs work and my mind is always developing.  This is preferable.  It means I am growing and alive.  It’s wonderful and frightening and exhausting and invigorating.  Even as a writer, I’m maturing.  I’m still trying to find my own voice.  I’m still trying to find the most heartfelt and effective way to express myself.   It was once the custom for earlier writers to preface their work with an apology for their faults as a writer and a human being.  I understand this.  Despite my faults, I’m still writing.  I’m writing every day.  That’s maturity.

 Maturity is not completion, however.  Fortunately, the goal is not completion, but growth.  It’s said that the journey is more important than the destination.  They’re both important, but in writing there is no destination.  There are just markers.  Today’s marker is 400.  The next marker is 500, or more accurately, 401.  I’m never going to stop.  I’m never going to arrive.  While the journey may take effort, I’m never going to tire of this.  If I do, I will still Get Started and Keep Going.