Retirement-Online as a Forum

TYPICAL MORNING ON OGELTHORPE BOULEVARD

It's 10:30 in the AM, in sub-tropical Albany Georgia, on the ninth day of February; I have just walked over to the ice machine outside Mike Patel's office, wearing only a T-shirt on my torso, to fetch a cupful of frozen H2O for my OJ; I've already been up about 3 hours now, as Robin Meade goes on and on at HLN studio(in Atlanta?), while I concentrate on promoting myself at this Retirement-Online Community website(Wendy Fisher's incredible creation), and hopefully promoting the site(& writing for it) as well, by cranking out textual & visual(sometimes aural as well) content to post where-ever I deem appropriate; consuming 2 strong cups of instant coffee and several Fortuna filtered-cigarettes has 'fueled' my mentally strenuous one-fingered qwerty-based communicative activity; I'll need the vitamin C from those Florida oranges to better sustain my physical presence on the planet, but also need the caffeine & nicotine to focus tightly my 65-year-old brain, while I create a steadily-growing 'footprint' that is my more ethereal presence in cyberspace(have you googled your own name lately?).

Writing is something all of us semi-literate creatures must be capable of, and some here @Retirement-Online struggle to produce their text/image posts everyday, while they improve their skills & proficiency. With this process, I intend to be helpful; my experience is vast & my teachings are indeed useful. INTENTION is an under-explored aspect of the writing process(and all your other 'activities' as well). I suffer from a physiological nervous condition alternatively called 'intentional tremors.' My hands shake a bit, like my Father's did & like his Mother's did as well. It is a progressive genetically-inherited disease my family shares with many of those European Royal lines; maybe I gots me some royal blood. Progressive means that, the older I get, the more pronounced this debilitating disease's symptoms will get. Back to 'intentional;' the reflected/repeated electrical impulses that activate the muscle tissue in my arms and hands, become mysteriously amplified whenever I try to use them to do something... like type; the INTENTION to strike that next key, causes minor tremors to become barely controllable quavering that can make me strike an adjacent key instead, or two keys at once or depress the key multiple times doubling that letter in my digital file. It has already taken 45 minutes to type this much text, as I am constantly having to go back an edit out so many UNINTENTIONAL keystrokes. Yet, I plod deliberately ahead, and eventually produce what I hope is error-free text for your enjoyment.

Most writers know that words have power; most strive to increase the power in their own words; few have discovered the connection between that power, and their intentions when they write. Journalists are trained in their schools & classes to throttle this power, and the few who excel are the names that we all know. POWER=FAME. Fiction writers often intend to entertain as large an audience of readers as possible, and the ones who excel are on a best-seller's list. Non-fiction writers often struggle, just to get published; can you name any that have excelled? insert McPhee photo here

Technical writers, letter-writers & the mysterious writers who carefully craft our LEGISLATION,

are three large groups that mostly benefit from the intentional amplification of their talents, without even becoming aware of it. Think of the incredibly succinct Gettysburg Address, or TJ's Declaration of Independence. Think of some of your favorite Old Testament stories. Now for my, hopefully valuable(for some of my readers), opinion on the matter of empowering your own wordsmith capabilities; fear not... all of you can produce these incredibly powerful 'utterances' with only the writing skills that you already possess. All you need are new INTENTIONS that are in a more perfect ALIGNMENT with other powerful intentions(like the vector-like intention that makes evolution(Darwinian) always progress from less- to more-complex physical forms(like a human brain, for instance) that created, organized and continues to maintain, from instant to instant, this incredible 'place' that we insist that we exist within(our Space/Time Continuum).

OPINION:The highest purpose that any writer can/should/must attain to, is to constantly remain intimately involved with those other individuals, immediately surrounding his/her current geographical location(both a definition for COMMUNITY & a restatement of that old saw:"Don't forget where you came from."), while intending only their improvement, with regard to their welfare, as it concerns their day-to-day existence in the COMMUNITY you have chosen(hopefully) to live in. It's all pretty simple really, but I'll expand on what I mean.

On a site, not dissimilar to Wendy's site here, in 2012, just before I left Roanoke, VA(forever?), I posted a cleverly-crafted BLOG, that lead with a full-color(& obviously photo-shopped) photo of the old hotel across the street from the public library where I was working on it, that had captured several UFO's in the sky above it.

That old hotel had just undergone a monstrously-expensive renovation & was quickly filling all the, now very expensive, apartments within with new permanent residents. In the street-level storefronts that had been virtually unoccupied for quite some time, there was suddenly alive and kicking, several newly-opened business enterprises. My blog attempted(somewhat successfully) to draw attention to/increase the foot-traffic in a Coffee House/Cafe, that featured both 'fair trade' coffee beans & bio-degradable cups(for to-go orders).

I met with the young & very progressive businessman/cafe proprietor, and outlined for him my proposal for an online send-up, that could help improve his business and help recoup some of the cash-outlay required to get opened up and fully operational, in time to coincide with the old hotel's Grand Opening. This interview was where I obtained most of the factual information that informed my article about both HIM & the CAFE. When he saw it, he loved it, and began immediately distributing, via e-mails sent to all his CONTACTS, the necessary URL/link to my ARTICLE to bring them to me, while they told two persons... that also told two persons... I think you see where I'm going here.

Simply involving myself with what was going on in my COMMUNITY, I had been able to publish 'meager words,' that were having a real effect on my COMMUNITY & perhaps even improving my COMMUNITY, as well as helping impoverished coffee producers all over the world, while expanding the business of a cup producer/seller that intends to improve the environment by reducing what ends up in our landfills, and that will not be adequately degraded/decayed for sometimes centuries.

I recently 'published' at another spot here @Retirement-Online, the first paragraph of a letter(as yet unfinished) that I am writing to the Reverend Loud, that preached(and danced a bit) at services on Sunday, under a curious title(Nineteen Palmettoes). This is a good example of power-writing. Rev. Loud does not know me(yet), as Sunday was the first time that I was in his Church; does not know that what drew me to the tiny congregation was the ongoing renovation of an old wooden-framed house just around the corner(when finished, the building will house their second State-licensed Day Care Facility). The instant that I laid-eyes on the workmen at that old house(empty for so long); laid-eyes on what they had already accomplished with their 'fanciful' exterior trim-work that was transforming the formerly derelict property, I 'wanted in!' This rapidly-growing church-run organization is pumping some badly-needed vitality into this depressed neighborhood in old downtown Albany; just past the new day-care on the same street, is one of those Historic Register homes; sign out front indicates that it was the first brick home in Albany(built way back in 1860). Of course, I want my 'meager words' to promote, not just renovation projects on under-utilized urban properties in Albany, but in other COMMUNITIES throughout the U.S.(& Canada?).

My plan is to organize the volunteer labor(Church youth?) needed to clean up the premises & begin the re-utilization of that tiny structure in the back yard; also to let my efforts & those of many volunteers, to serve as a 'pattern' for other projects in other communities. I might even be able to live in my Nineteen Palmettoes Cabin for a short while, while devoting all my savings(approx. $580/mo.) to the immediate procurement of materials badly-needed to make the space habitable again(procure the necessary municipal occupancy certification). There really is no limit to the possibilities that can present themselves & eventually come to fruition, if the POWER of the written word is effectively harnessed & if the INTENTIONS behind them remain properly ALIGNED with efforts already achieving their own success in my COMMUNITY, ALIGNED with the fervent desires of all those individuals currently responsible for that success & also ALIGNED with Albany's efforts at some much-needed urban renewal.