So, what’s this all about?
More important than who I am—a retired ESL teacher in Canada whose first love has always been writing—is why I'm writing on Substack.
From following Caitlin Johnstone, Chris Hedges, Aaron Mate and Matt Taibbi, I've discovered Substack to be a far better platform to share thoughts about what's going on in the world than Facebook where cute puppies and kittens and banal questions (Do you like picked beets?) get more attention than pressing social and political issues or Twitter/X where people tend to spew, spout off and argue. Also, as far as I can see, the world has devolved rapidly from stupid during the COVID-19 pandemic to crazy with the war between Ukraine and Russia, and now totally insane with Israel's homicidal assault on Gaza, climate change notwithstanding. Humanity is being severely put to the test, and we need desperately, urgently to figure out how on earth we human beings will get out of the messes we have created.
What we desperately, urgently need is open, lively, vigorous, and thought-provoking dialogue. What we do not need, and must vehemently resist, is censorship, cancellation, condemnation, vilification and marginalization of those thoughts, ideas and opinions that do not reflect or regurgitate our own (although it is gratifying to find people who share the same worldview). From various angles and perspectives, we must search diligently and relentlessly for the truth together.
So, where do I come into all of this? And what do I think I have to say?
Writing, for me, is how I make sense of the world and explore my feelings about what I witness and experience. I named my “newsletter” For Cryin' Out Loud because, for one thing, it's a colloquial phrase that expresses the exasperation, frustration and anger I feel toward much of what is happening in the world. For another, it captures my one little voice in the crowd. I do not, however, intend only to rage and rant on these pages; it's just at the moment the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine are uppermost on my mind, and writing is how I hope to do my part. The worst thing one can do, it seems to me, is remain silent and look the other way.
Though writing may be my personal therapy (I also happen to enjoy the hard work) or a better way to use my retirement than shopping, cleaning windows and watching tv, there is as little value in writing an article, an essay, a poem or a story, if no one ever reads it, as there is in composing a song that's never sung or a painting a picture no one ever sees. The real value of what I publish is for you, the reader, to judge. And if my thoughts, my poems and stories resonate, stimulate, even incite, then I won't have wasted my time, or yours. If what I publish on these pages means something to you, that will mean much more to me.
For Cryin' Out Loud is, of course, a work in progress, and the free content will change, no doubt, as I go along. I have added four sections: Stories, Essays, Poems and Making Fun. New work will be published to my home page, then moved later to the appropriate section to avoid clutter and backlog. I’ll see how it goes.
I welcome your feedback and look forward to your company.
If anyone wishes to republish any of my writing, I ask that you request my permission first. Many thanks!
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