What I've Learned

I'm always amazed that people read this column. Someone in a shop or at the post office or on the street will hear my name and say, "You're John Governale? I read your column every week." I'll thank them, thinking, "Wow, there's one of my dozen readers. I wonder who the other 11 are."

Because we the people have become a less tolerant people, I worry when What I've Learned strays into controversy—-such as slapping Al Gore around (though that's not so controversial as it once was) or voicing dismay at the idea of having a casino in the neighborhood. I think, aaahhhhh, splash: three of my 12 readers just jumped ship.

"Hey, you're John Governale? I used to read your column, but stopped because . . ."

When I try to be funny but am not, three readers, at least, turn the page and don't come back.

When I expound on some astronomical oddity or mathematical perplexity, the eyes of three of my readers glaze over.

And when I base a column on an incident from my Oklahoma childhood, phllttt, there goes the patience and goodwill of the remaining three.

It is my ambition to write several columns ahead, and sometimes this happens. Most of the time, though, my folder is empty, and I struggle, almost in a panic, to come up with a topic. There are fits and starts. There are forays of on-line trolling, trying to snag an idea. There are long stretches leaning back in my chair, hoping some childhood memory will surface, some memory worth building a column on.

Often as my deadline looms, I think, what does it matter what I write? No one reads this.

Then someone will say, "Hey, I read your column every week. It's the first thing I turn to in the paper," and my spirits pick up. I'm motivated to not just write, but to try to produce something interesting and to polish the words so they sparkle.

Insecure writers are not the only ones who wonder if there is value in what they do. Insecure writers are not the only ones who can be inspired by a kindly word. I know a woman who, told that her apple crisp was delicious, baked another one a few days later, even though it took an hour to peel and slice the apples.