It has been a while since I have posted - not since sitting down to write, though. I have been writing a lot, nearly every morning. I just have not been writing on this blog, for a change.
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| Sailing in the Long Island Sound |
I was lying in bed at 5:00am this morning, thinking about what I would write today. Momentum has been building for me to put something up on the blog recently and it seemed now was the time. I suppose before talking about why I am back I should mention why I took some time off.
- UFO Therapy
- The Unidentified Climax
- Where is this blog going
- Summer break from writing
UFO Therapy
When I started the blog nearly a year ago it was on the heels of multiple discussions with the folks at TTSA and A&E for possible inclusion in what would eventually become the show Unidentified. It was a short series on UFO sightings by military personnel, while on duty, which aired on the History Channel. I was not chosen to be on the first season, I think because they had video evidence from the Nimitz Incident and wanted to follow a narrative associated with it.
Rather than being disappointed about this, I became emboldened to finally start talking about my UFO encounter, while on duty 27 years ago. I opened up to friends whom I had previously not trusted with the knowledge of this part of me. I (re)told my family members who had conveniently forgotten about it via dismissal. And I went Public with this blog about Alien Philosophy and UFO Culture.
It was liberating and it was cathartic. I am no psychologist but I am pretty sure I had PTSD from the incident. It was so terrifying, sitting on a bench alone in the woods, holding an unloaded automatic rifle by a large stack of ammunition and explosives, wondering if the enormous alien spaceship hovering by me was going to beam me up or zap me with a death ray or even send some "people" down to check me out. The few times I would retell this story to my closest inner circle, tears would well up in my eyes. No matter where I was, I felt transported back there in the woods on the little bench in Gagetown, New Brunswick in August of 1992, filled with more terror than words will ever deliver justice.
Writing about this for the better part of a year has cured me. Now, it is just another wild story I tell, like the time I got in a motorcycle accident in East L.A. or the first time I skied Tuckerman Ravine. They are great stories (word) about life-threatening situations but telling these stories never filled me with terror. They never brought uncontrollable tears to my eyes. They were just cool stories about a young guy with more courage than common sense, and post-scripted plot twists.
Tuckerman Ravine
Once this albatross had been lifted from my shoulders, the fire to write for therapeutic purposes was doused. I still write nearly every day. It is one of my most enjoyable diversions. I just do not write about aliens and UFOs. Instead, I have written a lot about being a part-time college professor teaching city kids and more recently I started writing about a series of events that happened in my senior year of high school. This has been fun but I have begun to miss the subject which initially rekindled or jump-started my writing hobby - this.
The Unidentified Climax
Around the same time I was coming to terms with the fact that I am no longer traumatized by my experience in Gagetown, the series Unidentified finally aired. This was exhilarating for me because I felt like I had been a part of something groundbreaking. Even though I was not featured, I had tangential involvement, I was an insider, and this was huge. The world was finally going to get educated on something I had known for decades; we are being visited.
This was not a show about people in tin-foil hats who chase Yetis and run from demons. These were what has been described as "sober witnesses." People with solid reputations and more to lose than gain from coming forward - people like me. There would be no cheesy re-enactments à la Dateline. They were going to give the subject the respect it deserves. I think they hit their mark. I could pick the show apart if I wanted to but for what purpose? TTSA had a goal to bring some important stories to the public, they signed on with some excellent producers and they delivered a solid product. Bravo, TTSA.
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| Keith Morrison from Dateline |
Being a self-proclaimed insider, I wrote about my experience with Unidentified and what I thought of the show. I then wrote an insider's review of Unidentified. This brought me the 15 minutes of fame I anticipated it would. Thankfully, it was not widespread fame and it really was literally only about 15 minutes. Fame without fortune is a terrible thing. But within certain pockets of the UFO Community, my name soon became recognizable, for better or for worse. I was even interviewed on a UFO podcast out of the UK - more fame without fortune. This was not the route I wanted to go down. This was part of the reason I pulled back the reins. I did not know where this was all going but it did not feel right. I needed a break to reassess the situation and get my arms around this thing.
Where is this blog going?
The airing of Unidentified was like the climax to everything I had done over the prior year. Once it was out, there was nothing to build up to again. On top of that, this blog had evolved into something I was not sure I could sustain. It started out with me just writing about my thoughts and daily events. It evolved into philosophic musings on what people on other planets might be like, along with a scientific approach to current events in astrophysics. From there, I felt like I had to continue to top myself with hard-edged reporting which would garner thousands of page views and hundreds of new Twitter followers.
It did. But for what?
I run a business. I have a family. Both are important to me. Both deserved more of my attention. And with the summer break from school, the whole family was home with me. That was a distraction which took time away from work and from the numerous writing projects I was working on. Something had to give. Sorry aliens.
Summer Break from Writing
While I was away from the blog I worked on a lot of things business-wise. I have been paring down the business, over the past year, because the market has changed significantly and it is not the same environment as when I first started it. I no longer have full-time employees and I am doing pretty much everything myself except for some of the more advanced bookkeeping. This back-to-basics approach has yielded nice results and I am happy with the progress I have made.
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| Roughing it with the kids |
I have also spent a lot of time with the family. I helped out the coach of my boys' flag football team and took my daughter to her travel softball practices and games, which was often 3-4 days a week. We went to amusement parks. We went camping. We went to the beach. We had a yard sale - that was a pain in the butt. Some days, we sat inside and played video games together.
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| Site of our first date in NYC |
There was no big trip this year but we had some cool day trips including a fun evening out in The City with the kids, to show them where Mrs. M. and I had our first date. I also took Mrs. M. to Boston, for her first Phish concert. That was a lot of fun, despite a bit of rain.
There was not a lot of "Me Time" but I did manage to get out on my motorcycle a few times, did a little sailing, and met up with friends for drinks a few times. I saw a couple free concerts in a nearby park. All in all, I cannot complain. It was a pretty good summer.
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| Me & The Missus at Fenway |
School is back in session now, here in Connecticut, and I suddenly have slightly more time on my hands. My next article will detail some subjects I plan to write about over the course of the rest of this calendar year.
Thank you for reading and do indeed keep an eye on the sky.
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Thank you for reading and keep an eye on the sky.
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