There’s a moment in the 1987 movie “Broadcast News” that has always resonated with me.
Holly Hunter’s producer character tells her boss that he is making a mistake and that he should do things her way. His response is blunt.
Some years back, I was having an argument with an intelligent friend of mine and he told me I needed to realize I wasn’t always the smartest person in the room. I was intelligent enough not to respond to that, but I’m not sure what I would have said.
Sometimes yes, sometimes no?
This time, yes?
I’m not sure there’s anyone but maybe Donald Trump thinks they are always the smartest person in the room. It’s not only delusional, it’s incredibly egotistical. While there are certainly times I have believed I am, the last of those was nearly 34 years ago when I married my brilliant wife Nicole. She’s retired now, but had a career as one of the two or three top scientists in the world in her field.
She knows planetary science.
I know movies, books and baseball at a lower level.
I surrender.
If you’re wondering what the point of this post is, it’s something of an explanation. It has been more than 25 years since budget cuts and shortsighted management took away. At around that same time, the Internet had developed to the point where blogging was becoming popular. I have been blogging on one site or another for all that time, and there are really just two reasons for it.
First and foremost, I am a writer. Just as birds gotta fly and bees gotta be, writers gotta write. I write for this site, I comment on Facebook and Crooks & Liars and I write novels. I’ve got two in print, two others coming later this year and one more underway.
Just over a month ago I started writing on Substack, and the effort I have been putting into that has resulted in a fairly neglectful July here.
Second, I write because I am egotistical enough to believe that sometimes I am the smartest person in the room and I am a good enough writer to believe that if people don’t exactly need to hear what I have to say, it might enrich their lives in some way.
So thanks for reading, and if you like, check me out on Substack.
Keep reading and I’ll keep writing.