Monday Morning Musings

Posted on January 31, 2022 under Monday Morning Musings with 3 comments

Len writing his very last Monday Morning Musings

 

This will be my last Monday Morning Musings.

This is not an early April Fool’s joke.

After ten years and nearly 1300 posts, I am going to scale back on my writing. Coming up with fresh material twice a week, every week, is getting harder and harder. I’m sure it is mostly age related. Of course, when I started out, I had no idea that a few harmless stories would take me to where I am today. Thursday will be my final Thursday Tidbits.

However, rather than abandon you and cause withdrawal symptoms (!), my plan is to do one story a week on Wednesdays. It will be called Wednesday’s Words of Wisdom. So now, rather than MMM and TT, it will be WWW. I will continue to do the Wednesday piece until I run out of gas.

It has been a lot of fun penning these pieces. I have enjoyed meeting new people through my writing. Some of you, I have never met in person, but I feel I know you every time your name pops up. Hearing your comments and reactions has made it all worthwhile.

Of course, none of us are indispensable and once I am done, there will be lots of other options to capture your imagination.

So, look for my first Wednesday’s Words of Wisdom on Wednesday, February 9^th. at 6:00 a.m.

My experiment with podcasts is over. I wanted to try something different, but it appears that you prefer my short, easy to read written pieces. Fair ball. Pete and I had a lot of fun producing them, but the response was tepid, to say the least. A small number of you sent donations to produce more episodes and we will honor those contributions with one last podcast on Saturday, February 5^th. I am not surprised. The vast majority of my readers grew up cherishing the written word and we are creatures of habit. Some of you are regular podcast consumers but it is not everyone’s cup of tea.

Regarding last Monday’s post about online dating guidelines, I received a huge response. There appears to be a large Lonely Hearts Club out there trying to figure out a way to meet people in the “third period of life”. My original intention was to just post the guidelines but as is often the case, something struck me as funny, and I went off on a wild tangent. A dear old friend sent me a message with her vivid memories of the charade that took place every week at the Saturday dances.

“Len: You brought me right back to the Parish Centre dances with “like a crow in heat”. I literally belly laughed at that description as that is exactly how I remembered it as well except from a female perspective. As young women we would sit in rows in the bleachers waiting for the guys to walk across that huge mostly empty floor (unless it was near closing time), climb the stairs and try to persuade the lady of their dreams to dance with them. Most times if she didn’t agree they would move on to the next lady seated beside her. If still no acceptance then it was the young lady next to her and so on until either someone said yes or he reached the end of the line when he would sheepishly retrace his steps back to the crowd of friends at the front of the stage if they weren’t all lucky enough to find a dance partner and be strutting their fancy moves on the dance floor listening to the latest big hits. Oh and I can’t forget the last waltz which would often be “A Whiter Shade of Pale” by Procol Harum. Ahhh…..the good old days…..thanks for bringing me back. Love it when you talk about the teenage years as we are similar ages, and I can really relate.” Thanks, SG.

Later in the day that the story was published, I received a telephone call. It was from none other than the “lovely woman” who had first penned these guidelines. At first, I was terrified to listen to her voicemail, fearing that I had offended her by taking her serious discourse and poking fun at it. I was relieved to know that she got a chuckle out of the piece. Truthfully, everything she wrote about online dating rings true. One of my readers told me that she was going to share the story with a friend who has been encountering difficulties finding love online. Thanks, JM for being a good sport but mostly for sharing your wisdom.

When I finally hang up the pen (mouse?!), these are the exchanges I will miss the most. In many ways, my stories were your stories. I just happened to be the one to have the nerve to say them out loud. I mean, what man in his right mind would write a story about the delicate art of laundering his spouse’s bras!

I believe that being able to laugh at ourselves might be one of the most underappreciated determinants of good health.

There’s no fool like an old fool!

Have a great week.