WENDELL ROBINSON . COM

I’ve been sitting in my office at home for the last thirty minutes or so trying to figure out how I’m going to say this.  Maybe it’s more about trying to explain it to myself as it is about how I’m going to tell those of you who have so fatihfully supported this page over the last year or so, but well, it’s over…

I’ve got to say goodbye.

As many of you have noticed in recent months, this page has become less reliable for regular content flow.  The reasons are many and in the end, my time has become too limited to provide a product that’s worthy of daily publishing.

I’ve loved this opportunity to write and share my thoughts with all of you who have been so kind to show interest in what it is I have to say.  The feedback has for the most part been flattering (and occasionally maddening), but in all ways it remains humbling.  I’m proud of what we accomplished here.  I’m proud of the product that was created.  And I’m too proud to try to fill this page with anything less than the best I can offer. 

Professionally my life seems to have found the rails of a track that it jumped a few years back, and the time I once used to bleed my soul on to this keyboard is now filled with a never-ending list of tasks that I relish accomplishing.  The time to write that once lay in between the cracks of responsibility is just not there - or at least it’s not there on the daily basis that I think is requisite for the kind of conversation that this page fostered.

So I’m done with the blog.  Maybe not forever, but I’m done with this blog for now. 

Instead of writing here everyday, I’ll be focusing on my clients and business partners - helping them to succeed and build a new business that we started from scratch only a few months ago.  I also plan on making my family more of a priority instead of an afterthought (writers are humanity’s great narcissicists).  There’s just too much good going on in my world to ignore, and I’ve spent enough time for now with this journal.  

The end of this blog doesn’t mean I’m done with writing.  I’ve got a couple of manuscripts that are collecting dust on the shelf.  Stories that could stand a little bit of editing, burning and most certainly replacing.  I’m looking forward to getting back to writing in the long form where the daily pressures of cranking out product will take a backseat to developing an idea on paper that’s deserving of a cover on the front and back with some binding in between.  The opportunity to write when I can (and want to) will only make the process better for me (and hopefully for anyone interested in reading the result).

To all of you who have been so kind to me in the blogosphere I want to say thank you.  I’ve got friends that I’ve never seen except for your names and email addresses on a computer screen.  While our relationship may have only been bits and bytes, I feel as though it’s been more substantive than the majority of connections I’ve made in the flesh.  We may have disagreed, but I believe I’ve done my best to treat you with respect and you (for the most part - 99.9%) have returned that favor in spades.  I can’t walk out this door though without condemning the competitive touchdown dance-like taunting that some bloggers are so keen to exhibit (granted I’ve done a few end zone discos myself).  Pointing out that someone’s an idiot may make you feel better, but looking under rocks simply for the sake of massaging one’s hatred is a waste of bandwith (and the intellect of your audience).  We all could make a better use of our abilities if we focused on why we’re right instead of why the other guy is wrong. 

Beyond the global nature of the medium, the blogging connection has also been local for me.  Without the encouragement and support of my friends in the Meet the Bloggers network, I would never have conquered the code and process that makes blogging a great people-powered platform (by the way if you haven’t done it, you really should scroll down the list of podcasts over at the MTB site - it’s a monument for what a REAL oral history is all about).  I would be remiss when writing about local bloggers if I didn’t single out the blogopimp of Northeast Ohio, George Nemeth, and his place over at Brewed Fresh Daily.  George has been brewing up a fine pot over the last few years and without his incessant purcolation, this page would have been significantly less.

Again to all of you, thank you…

and good luck.