Feeling guilty -- but not too guilty

Back when I was a college freshman, I would sometimes find myself sitting up late at night writing an English theme "to be no less than four pages long."  Perhaps comparing a poem by Yeats with one by Longfellow.  Yikes!  How to wring four pages out of an attempt at such a ridiculous comparison?  Finally, I would find myself hitting a wall at three and a half pages.

I learned that a small adjustment of the margins on my typewriter (yes, typewriter) would convert my 3½ pages into four full pages with little change in their appearance.  (Fudging is even easier now, with a slight increase in font size on your computer.)

Earlier, as a much younger child, I faced an even more exhausting task than literary analysis when told to clean up/straighten up my room.  "Have you cleaned it up, yet?"  Well, yes, I had.  By cramming items into any available drawer, even if that meant stuffing a number of toy tanks, a half-eaten Hershey bar, and some empty pop bottles into my sweater drawer.

Back as a young piano player, I was required to practice a given piece each day a prescribed number of times.  I was far too honest a kid to claim I had done the required practice if I hadn't.  But when a piece became tedious enough, I might rationalize that playing a piece did not require me to honor all the "repeat" signs included in the score.

What's my point?

My point is that all of the above were, at least arguably, small transgressions.  But they ranked far below the list of the seven deadly sins.  They were behaviors I can look back on now with humor, rather than with embarrassed horror.

And now to the real point.  Today, I discover that if I publish just one more post for this blog, I will have published a total of 110 posts for the year 2018.  Which will rank as a new personal best.  But I have to publish it within the next 4½ hours.  And I'm already tired and cranky, and unable to think of anything at all to write about..

But -- suppose I write about having nothing to write about?  Admittedly, this violates my own vow that every post I publish will be in some way significant, even if only humorously or satirically significant.  But it's a small violation.  And maybe not even a violation.  Maybe the acknowledgment that even I -- Mr. Un-hip Nerd -- can occasionally fudge a self-imposed rule is in itself significant?

So, voilá.  Here it is.  And hooray for 2018 Post No. 110!  And double hooray for me!

And Happy New Year!