250 Saturdays ago I began my weekly blog (www.raelkalley.wordpress.com/50) with this sentence:
Today is my 50th.

Within a few hours of posting that blog I began receiving birthday greetings and the flow continued through the weekend and well into the following Tuesday.

In all some 50+ people wished me a happy birthday.

The second line read:
My 50th blog.

This helped me realize that my loyal and devoted army of dozens of readers read only the first line of my postings before losing interest and seeking enlightenment elsewhere.

Today I write my 300th blog and if nothing has changed within the attention span and focus of my readers I fully expect to, once again, receive a barrage of birthday greetings for I’ve decided to reproduce my fiftieth blog in its entirety.

I’ve never reproduced a previously posted blog but I felt this milestone occasion justified a trip down memory lane.

I shall make one small change in that I will change every 50 to 300.

Here it is, enjoy.

Today is my 300th.

My three hundredth blog.

Writing a blog is easy. I mean the actual writing of the blog, well, that’s the easy part.

The hard part is deciding what to write about and for three hundred weeks now I have diligently spent my Saturday mornings stressing over a topic and every week I have eventually come up with one and delivered to you my faithful readers, a blog that I’m sure you will all agree, is compelling, electrifying, enlightening, life changing, brilliant, magnificent, revolutionary, exciting, thought provoking, challenging and damn good.

Or perhaps just the rantings of a lunatic.

Until this week.

This week I couldn’t think of anything.

Nothing came to mind.

I had a mental blog.

And then it hit me.

I could write a blog about nothing.

After all if some guy named Seinfeld could do a TV show about nothing then surely I could string a few words together about nothing.

The idea was nothing short of genius.

And so I sat down to write my blog.

Nothing came to mind.

Nothing caught my attention.

Nothing grabbed me.

And then I started thinking about careers where nothing is a prerequisite for success.

For example, politicians talk for hours and say nothing.

When they’re finished talking they go to work and do nothing.

Frequently, in the course of an entire career, they accomplish nothing.

And when you call a company to complain of poor service, what happens? Nothing.

And you call the police to report a drunk driver and what do they do? Nothing.

And the courier company loses your package and what happens? Nothing.

And you take Viagra as per the directions and what happens? Nothing.

And as you get older and go to the bathroom, what happens? Nothing.

And you eat prunes and wait. Nothing.

And when I realized how much nothing there is it dawned on me how vital nothing is to our very existence.

Without nothing our lives would be, well, nothing.

And so we need to start showing nothing the respect it deserves.

We need to appreciate nothing.

We need to be grateful for nothing.

We need to include our friends in nothing.

And nothing is the most versatile option we have.

We can do nothing.

We can say nothing.

We can eat nothing.

We can drink nothing.

We can wear nothing.

And we can save a lot of money by buying and using nothing.

For example, “Nothing Runs Like A Deere” – so why waste money on a tractor.

And, “Nothing outlasts the Energizer” – so don’t waste money on batteries.

And, “Nothing comes between me and my Calvin’s” – let’s leave that one alone.

And, “Nothing sucks like an Electrolux” – so use nothing to vacuum your rugs.

And nothing stops this list from growing.

And I began to wonder how much we can do that costs nothing.

We can smile at everyone we meet. The cost? Nothing.

We can say “please” and “thank you.” The cost? Nothing.

We can pledge not to gossip. The cost? Nothing.

We can praise a co-worker for a job well done? The cost? Nothing.

We can have friendships based on sincerity and mutual liking, not expediency. The cost? Nothing.

We can stop judging others through the distorted lens of our own superiority. The cost? Nothing.

We can tell our friends how much we appreciate them. The cost? Nothing.

We can keep our word. The cost? Nothing.

We can treat everyone respectfully. The cost? Nothing.

We can put others first. The cost? Nothing.

Imagine if we all committed our lives to these practices?

Now that would be really something.

Till we read again.

By some strange twist of irony the day before publication of my 50th blog I had breakfast with two long-time friends.

Over the years the three of us have had many breakfasts together and while we get together far less frequently than we did back in those days we met yesterday for the first time in close on two years.

We did as we always do, we bantered back and forth with them pointing out that consultants are nothing more than thieves who steal your watch and then send you a bill for telling you the time and me reminding them that it is grammatically, functionally and probably legally incorrect to use the word “hard working” and “civil servants” in the same sentence.

Our friendship has long been based on mutual admiration and respect.

I told them I would mention the irony and coincidence of timing of the three of us meeting for breakfast and they both asked me not to include their names.

My guess is that because they are city workers they had some qualms about being identified for socializing when they should have been toiling away, providing value to tax payers.

Like that would ever happen.

Or perhaps their reason for requesting anonymity is simply their own humility.

They are regular “humilitarians.”

And both have much to be humble about.

A little more than two years ago I began writing a second blog on Habits. These are posted every Wednesday and this past Wednesday was my 120th and while I’m sure that the combined readership of the two blogs does not exceed three people, I’m still feel quite proud of having produced 420 postings.

I included a postscript to my 50th blog encouraging readers to visit my sister Gillian’s blog. In the almost 5 years since blog #50 my big sister has become a entertaining and talented writer and a true authority on the topics of which she writes. While I won’t include a postscript today I would encourage you to visit my sisters blog (www.reviewfromthehouse.com) and post comment saying, “Hello Gill, your brother, Rael, asked me to stop by and say hi.”

In all seriousness, I would like to a express huge, heartfelt “thank you” to those of you who take the time to read my rantings and an even bigger hug of gratitude to those who post comments.

It is indeed heartwarming to know that these blogs are read by lots of people and I owe an enormous debt of gratitude for the encouragement I have received over these past 300 weeks.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Till we read again.