As I announced on June 7, it was my intention to end this blog when it passed 200,000 page views. This is a purely arbitrary line in the ink, but there is a certain logic to it. The time has now come to go. I thank those who have passed this way over the past decade.
Things in my own life have developed in such a way that I have decided to turn my time and energies to other things. Other responsibilities beckon, other adventures await. It has been a pleasure to keep this blog. No doubt it will be a pleasure to move on, although I will miss this and you.
Some kind souls have asked me, via comments and personal emails, to continue the blog in some occasional form. I am flattered and moved by the things they said. And I am tempted to respond positively to such requests. On the other hand, I have been blogging for a dozen years now. At one point, I was keeping four blogs going at the same time, each from a different perspective. In Dodd We Trust is in its tenth year. On this blog alone, I have posted almost 4,000 entries. Altogether I estimate I have written well over 5,000 entries as a blogger, while also publishing six books, a number of articles and doing free-lance editing and translation work. Oh, yeah, most of that time I had a full time job, too.
As my Spanish-speaking friends would say, "¡Basta ya!" Enough already!
I will not take the blog down for some time, if ever. (I regret removing my earliest blog, Damien's Spot, in particular. I know that the internet is supposed to be forever, but I don't know where in the internet to find it.) Perhaps this iteration of my blogging efforts will remain for someone to stumble upon someday, and it will flash briefly again into life, to perplex or to amuse for a moment. So be it.
In a week or so, I will disable comments. Those already posted will remain.
It is not winter here in the northern hemisphere, just turning summer in fact. I intend to draw no comparison to the classic Calvin and Hobbes. But I like the way that strip ended:
Click on image to enlarge for easier reading.
May all be well with you. May you be happy and at peace. May your friends be many, your joys lasting and your sufferings fleeting. May you be light in darkness. And may you continue exploring your world which is new every day.
Verily.
And goodbye.