The Charade

I'll own up to it. I'm back-dating posts. I haven't said anything about it for a while, but the simple truth of the matter is that I'm not writing this when I claim to be.

Why do I maintain the fiction that I'm writing one article a day? I'm weeks behind. If I had made a resolution, I would have given up by now. But I tend to rationalize, like I recommended. So I'm rationalizing that I will write something for every day, even if I don't write it on that day. If I ever get up to date (and that will happen around about the time that time ceases to run, at which point I'll be up to date because there won't be any) and I have articles to write, I'll write them and stick them on the day I wrote them, because antedating is one thing, but postdating is quite another. I could just sit down and write 365 things and publish one a day to make people think I was writing one a day, but that's not the purpose of the exercise. And I'd never be able to do it anyway; by the 300th thing I would be cackling maniacally and writing about cheese.

Am I lying to you? Not really; look down at the bottom of this and every post and tell me you don't see the message that says it probably wasn't written on such-and-such a date. Sometimes I write things away from the computer and it takes me a few days to post them, but mostly it's because I'm late. I am trying though.

Am I lying to myself? A little. Full-disclosure on my part to myself would probably be something along the lines of admitting that yes, I did in fact make a resolution to do this, so I've failed miserably and all the rationalizing in the world isn't going to make that different. But then I'd have to be honest about my reasons for writing what is essentially an Op-Ed piece filled with griping. Plus all the other little lies we tell ourselves to stay sane. It doesn't work very well, but I'm an expert compartmentalizer. Maybe I'll write about that some time.

So I'm not really sorry that I maintain the charade because it isn't one, really. Giving things I write dates is convenient for organization, so I don't have to group things by theme. And we all know it's a charade anyway, so why not let it happen? It does motivate me when I see how far behind I am, and that can't be bad.

Setting meaningless milestones can be helpful. For instance, this is the eightieth time I've posted something to this blog. Not 100, but getting closer. When we hit 300, maybe I'll still be sane enough to keep from giving you a reasoned and passionate argument against cheese in our nation's banks. Maybe.