June 29, 2000
One year later... - THE COMMENTARY
By Joseph Planta
VANCOUVER -- Well, even I couldn’t have said it was possible one year ago, when I sent out that first edition of The Commentary. That edition was a review of one of my favourite TV shows of all time, All In The Family. One year later, I am still plunking away at my old putter, watching the thoughts run out of my fingers on my old computer screen. Sure, I’ve tried to emulate Rafe Mair, Allan Fotheringham, Pierre Berton, Peter C. Newman, Vaughn Palmer, Marjorie Nichols, Richard Gwyn and then some, but I never did or will write like them. They have only inspired me.
Like any profession, (and for me this isn’t a profession,) one who practices the trade always has to have mentors and heroes. Those stated above were and then some.
Throughout the past year, I’ve regarded writing a daily column, five times-a-week, both a chore and a hobby. Some days, it is a pure pain to appear somewhat coherent whearas some days I can write something that simply flows. Writing has allowed me to vent frustration that would otherwise result in the form of a stroke for me, somewhere down the road.
I am gratified, always, by the people who do receive the column. Whether they read it or not, doesn’t really matter. What it does do is provide me with an audience that I can pander to, cater to or simply bitch to. The greater gift is when I get a message or a reader comes up to me telling me where I screwed up or what they think of the column, good, bad or indifferent. I relish that feedback all the time and I thank all the readers that have passed on input.
The art of column writing, to me, is both sacred and sacrilegious. Columnists are so lucky to be boneheads or ambassadors of the common good. Sometimes both at the same time. What we can’t do is take advantage of the fact it’s a gift and one that comes at a price paid long before I ventured on this Earth.
It’s very easy in my position to gather from the past 232 editions and rest on my laurels of amassing a pretty big collection of text. It’s very evident, though, when you are able to look back at a year that has been, really, an exercise in self-exploration. Through the columns on politics, show business and everything in-between - I’ve been able to learn something about myself. I draw upon the topics I write about and learn something I didn’t know, previous, about me. I find out what I like and what I dislike. I figure out my interests and my fears. My hopes and dreams flow through the characters and spaces of the page.
For that, I am grateful.
To look ahead for a moment, I simply do not know what’ll happen down the road. Will I continue to write or will I pack it in? Will I loose all comprehension of the English language and spew endlessly about crap in particular, if it hasn’t already happened?
Whatever the case, I’ll stick it through for as long as I can. Many would like to try my chair and I invite them to. I’ll do my best and at the end of it all, I’ll look on my year’s experience in the trade of column writing and know it wasn’t done in vain, at all.
One year later, there are patches of blur and then there are unaccustomed and sincerely affectionate memories. I’ll keep plugging along until I decide not to, and till then all I know it’s been one hell of a ride.
Cheers.
Questions and comments may be sent to: editor@thecommentary.ca
An archive of Joseph Planta's previous columns can be found by clicking HERE .