Celebrating 1,000,000 Hits!!!
What does it
take to write one million hits? I don’t quite know what flamed my desire to turn
the glorious rendition of thoughts into scripture, even though my Dad did
publish a book on African stories. It must have happened about the time I was
ten or eleven when my fifth grade English teacher, Ms. Kinuthia scored my essay
titled, “How I was made” with an A-Grade. That was an inspiring moment for a
student who had never before earned anything more than a C-Grade in an English test.
The story was about how a car (me) was transformed from iron ore mined from shafts
deep in the earth, transported to dumping sites, smelted in a fiery furnace,
cast into cold hardened blocks, assembled with many foreign parts and finally dunked
in a pool of wet paint before being put on sale in a show room window.
Ironically, that story more or less describes my journey as an author.
last century, in
my younger days, I wrote secret poems, short stories, science fiction, songs
for youth groups, drama and scripts that were just words strung together. Later,
I would record and produce audio-visual materials as well, but these never
really held the magnetism of the written word for me. The first manuscript I
dared to present to a publishing house was never accepted. The only publisher
who replied, after three years, informed me that the script needed substantive
revision before it could be considered. Publishing in those days was a huge specialized
undertaking of press works at an unimaginable cost. However, the day I received
that fateful letter, I knew I would have to find a way to be read. So I wrote
for Magazines, Newsletters, Newspapers and anyone who allowed me space for a
few words on paper. Four years after I received that rejection letter I printed
my first book.
Around the turn
of the century came Computers, WordPerfect and the Internet. In an instant the
publishers spell was broken. Now anyone with something to say could take their message
to the world by pressing the enter tab on a keyboard. Suddenly the exclusive
world of publishing was prized open to a million writers and a billion readers
who no longer had to wait for lengthy production, distribution and delivery cycles
for printed pages to be stocked on the limited shelves of a bookstore. I do
admit that I feel a deep sense of loss at the passing of the hardcopy of
scripture, but I am also happy that a billion more people now have access to
the word. As time passed I wrote blogs with messages of leadership and life to
reach as many as can access a web page. Over five decades, I have written some two
dozen books, thousands of articles, children’s stories and a lot of stuff I
just might publish someday.
As I reflect on
the journey of a million blog hits achieved this week, I realize that every
time someone opened a page of one of my books, read a post or recalled what I had
written, I made a hit that changed a mind, guided a thought or helped celebrate
life. I realize what an awesome responsibility it is to write, share hope and
enrich another person on the other side of your own perspective. I have friends
who have encouraged me to keep writing over the years. Perhaps this is the
message behind their urging- that it is a blessing to give to whom you know not
will receive! The other day I started
another journey writing academic papers. The
journey has started with just 1,000 Hits. It has many critics and much philosophy, but
it uses the same alphabet with some modifications to the length and
arrangements of words. I hope to influence some readers to become leaders and help
make the world a better place. Almost half a century has passed since I wrote
my first hit in that fifth grade class and I am not quite at the journeys end. By
God’s grace I will write some more. Maybe the best is yet to come. In any case
I thought it wise to pause and leave a note on the table to encourage as many
as would else come through this open door and wonder if this is indeed the way.
The only way you
can take a million Hits is to stay standing.
Allan.
