Johnny E. Mahaffey
December 17, 2018

Holiday Blues 2018

Holidays, birthdays, anniversaries (or what-WOULD-have-been anniversary days) those are hard to experience from here. Usually I go a little silent at those times, but this year is different: I am writing and communicating more. Jamie had told me months ago that for all these years, she's been reading my posts, but during the winters I don't write as much, so she goes back and reads old posts again. I would have written more-- a LOT more-- if I'd known I had readers. That's why people should SERIOUSLY consider leaving comments.... I think it's odd how people are about comments: you can see a YouTube clip that has, say--4,000,000 plus-- views, maybe 300,000 or so likes, but only a couple thousand comments! That's odd, and says something about us as a society, in a way. In addition, Candice has expressed interest in my life, and it's inspired me to rethink my whole memoir idea. I'll now be posting excerpts from "Mustard Grits" after the first of the year. I've decided that, in addition to my normal posts, and art, chapters of the memoir, or pieces of them, might be--for some people--worth reading. So, look for that to be coming soon, and you'll have Candice to thank for it. I'm still NOT looking forward to the holidays. But, maybe friends and family will come through this year? We'll see. I'm discovering that I have a lot more readers than I'd originally suspected-- and it's nice to know--and I'm so very grateful for those over the years that have had the heart to leave comments. This platform has had a huge impact on my incarceration, and has stepped in with my rehabilitation when the state fell short. So, kudos to M.I.T and the Between the Bars volunteers for creating this site. The holidays might be blue ... but their not dark or dead.

M