Looking Backward ... and "Forthward"

(With apologies to Frank Sinatra)

When I was 57, was it a very good year?

2006, as Walter Cronkite might say, was a year like any other year – filled with those events that alter and illuminate our times.

Despite my continuing status as a retired person, the year was actually punctuated by job-related events.

Early in the year, I decided to return to the Valley from southern California. I sold my house – which I suspect will be the last house I ever own – and downsized my possessions to fit into a one-bedroom apartment.

I had been promised a twice-weekly column at the Sun-Star and considered that to be my main reason for returning; but I was also eager to reconnect with friends in this lifewriting class.

I decided to be strident in the column and even before I arrived in town I started going after public officials and agencies.

I attacked the district attorney and went after the immigration service, city council, planning commission and school board.

Somewhere, along that blazing trail, I wrote, said or did something that proved to be fatal. My second stint as a Sun-Star columnist ended after only a few months.

With time on my hands, and being motivated by a newfound hatred toward a certain local publication, I tried to form a group of local writers who I hoped would improve coverage of community events.

It’s an idea that I still believe in; but the response was disappointing. I realized, after reflection, that I would probably end up working very hard and doing much more than I really wanted to in an effort that would nonetheless have a pretty small chance of success.

That brought me back to Plan G – or H (it’s hard to keep track of my bright ideas) – this was the Tales of Gold idea inspired by our class.

The project included traveling around the country and collecting stories as I went. I planned to conduct workshops and to encourage formation of classes and clubs like ours.

I intended to target retired people – particularly those living in Holiday Corporation facilities that I would be staying in while on the road.

After doing some market research at The Hampshire, I realized that my fellow students here in LifeWriting are from a narrow segment of the populat-ion and that there probably just aren’t enough similarly interested and talented people at most retirement facilities to form classes.

Even a stab at conducting oral storytelling sessions has revealed that attracting attendees is hard work.

And so, it was back to the drawing board.

One day, the idea of becoming Wandering Dave and of operating a one-man traveling communications show came to mind.

I am very interested in changes that have taken place over the past ten years or so that empower ordinary people to create messages of a quality (and quantity) that could only have been dreamed of before.

And so I’ve ended 2006 with a flurry of activity and in a state of anticipation. I’ll spend most of 2007 in dozens of unfamiliar locations, while putting out messages over at least seven media channels.

I’ll be a mobile media mogul with no boss or staff (other than my son, Jesse, back at headquarters in Southern California) and with no real expectations or commitments.

I’m pretty sure 2007 will be unique – as have all of the other years in my life.

It will be a year like 2006 -- filled with those events that alter and illuminate our times.

And, with any luck, it will be a very good year.