Eight Days Ago

The first thing my eyes fell on when I perused The New York Times on March 30th: David Mills, Television Writer and Producer, Dies at 48.

My gut told me that it was the David Mills that I knew of a.k.a. Undercover Black Man, a blogger that I followed. Yet, it was still hard to comprehend. Mills was someone that I never met. I never verbally spoke to him. Yet, I left comments on his blog that he sometimes responded to. In addition, there were a couple of commenters that I felt I had camaraderie with on his site.

I left a comment on UBM’s blog as did about 160 other folks upon finding out that he had died. I looked on the internet for final arrangements although I had no plans to go. I found some solace in that fact that Mills died literally doing what he loved to do – he was reviewing a scene on the set of Treme, a new HBO show that is set to debut in about a week. I also thought it was fitting that his last post was a video about the making of Treme. And, overall, Mills got a lot accomplished in his 48 years.

Imagine my surprise when I saw that Undercover Black Man’s blog had been updated with the title Blowing UBM’s Cover. Had someone else been writing for UBM all along? I certainly didn’t expect to see another update. I went to see what the update was all about and it was UBM’s nephew, Clifton Porter, giving a wonderful tribute to his uncle. Porter, in charge of his uncle’s estate, had given me what I needed – closure.

I have many journals and books (Can you say storage issue?) and I often think about burning my journals. Yet, I’m reluctant to destroy them. When I first started my fitness journey, I started by writing down what I was eating in a journal. I track what I eat online now but I still keep track of my water and exercise in a journal for some reason. Maybe I need something tangible to hold onto.

Do any of you keep offline journals? Have you thrown any journals away and is your blog password kept alongside other passwords?

And, finally, what are you dreams and are you following them?

I've always liked this quote:

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler. - Henry David Thoreau

If I were a preacher, I'd start my cadence now. How did he say go? Did he say go tiptoeing? Did he say go timidly? (Hitting hand on imaginary pulpit) Did he say go lukewarm? No, he said go confidently. He said go confidently -- in the direction of your dreams...