Flying Oskar: Thank You!

“On Union Street, there’s an empty lot that used to be home to a welding supply company.” It’s not exactly William Faulkner I know, but that humble little line was the first sentence of the first “Flying Oskar” column I ever wrote for the Spark. That piece was posted on Monday, February 2nd, 2009, one year ago tomorrow.

I’ve been thinking about how I was going to handle the “anniversary post” for some time now. My first instinct was to make it just like any other post, completely ignoring the significance of the date. Such a large part of what opinion writers do is so self-aggrandizing in the first place, that it seemed to me that acknowledging the date would make me seem even more egotistical than I already seem. It just didn’t seem like good form.

Still, doing this for a solid year is something to acknowledge for at least one reason: For most of my life, I’ve been an quitter.

I’ve quit so many things, that listing them all would take up a column all by itself. I’ve quit school at both the high-school and college levels. I’ve never held the same job for longer than a few years, and with the exception of the last one, all of those were jobs I’d quit on my own. I’ve quit churches and organizations, and more bands than I can even begin to count. I even quit writing for a while, several years ago. I’ve quit most everything, including myself a time or two.

A year might not mean much to most, but considering my track record, not giving up on this column means something big to me. For the last couple of weeks I’ve been trying wrap my head around why I haven’t quit and all I can come up with is, you. You, the reader, are the reason I haven’t quit. So really, this isn’t my anniversary, it’s yours.

Well, it’s yours…and Steve’s.

Steve first approached me about writing something for the Spark at a blogger meet-up at the Nu-Way. I was, as I recall, cautious about the idea at first. I took a couple of weeks to think about it, and then sent Steve an unnecessarily long email going into pretty deep philosophical detail about what I would and wouldn’t write, obviously taking myself far more seriously than I had any right to. Honestly, reading that email is a little embarrassing now. Steve responded, as is his tendency, with a few lines saying basically to “do whatever you want.”

I figure a large part of why I’m still around here posting every Monday is because of the steady encouragement and unwavering support that Steve Shanafelt has given me this past year. Not once has he ever questioned or tried to control anything I’ve ever wanted to write about, though I can imagine there are more than a few people who wish that he would. He opened up his site to me, and gave me free rein. It’s proven to be huge for me, both as a writer and as a person, and I’ll always be in his debt because of it.

In allowing me to write for the Spark, Steve gave me something I’d never had before, an audience. I’d been writing on my blog for a while, and several years back I’d written a few articles for some political websites like AlterNet, but nothing like this past year. Having regular readers is something I really never thought I’d have. There’s nothing quite like the thrill of anticipation I get each Monday morning waiting to see what sort of feedback I’ll get this week.

Along the way, I’ve managed to make friends, and I suspect, some enemies as well. I’ve received private encouragement from readers at times when it seemed like the whole town was against what I was saying, and more than a few times I’ve received hurtful personal attacks, both privately and publicly. I’ve even gotten a vague threat here and there. Truthfully, I normally take it as a good thing when people are pissed off at something I wrote. In opinion writing, if you ain’t pissing anybody off, you ain’t doing it right. For what it’s worth, I’ve meant every word you’ve ever read written in one of these columns, and given the option, I wouldn’t take back a single one. So if it made you mad, at least you know I meant it.

Whether you agreed or disagreed with what I’ve written though, what has made this experience most enjoyable for me is how much I’ve learned from all of you. When I started out at this, there was a lot I didn’t understand about the political dynamic here in Spartanburg. Without going into too many specifics, I’ve learned what, at first, seem like paradoxical lessons.

The first thing I learned is to never underestimate the power of the progressive community here in Spartanburg. If this past year has proven anything, it’s that the change in Spartanburg that so many have wanted for so long is here. A relatively small group of committed citizens have moved the conversation forward in Spartanburg in some really fundamental ways. Things that were unthinkable just a few years ago, are on the cusp of becoming reality. There’s an exciting and encouraging energy in Spartanburg that just wasn’t there before.

The flip side of that is where the other thing I learned comes into play. This past year has showed me that while some would like to embrace all of us in the progressive community as though we all want the same things, the truth is that’s not always the case. The progressive movement in Spartanburg is young, and divisions are not all that evident yet, but whether noticed or not, they’re there. I’ve told several people now that on its best days, “Flying Oskar” exists to point that fact out. We are not of one mind, and nor should we be.

In the end though, all I’m really filled with on this anniversary week is gratitude. I’m grateful to Steve for giving me the chance to prove that I could do this, and I’m grateful to all of you for showing me that I can. I appreciate every single person who has ever bothered to read any of these posts. You have no idea what it means to me to know that you’re out there. I hope this next year is twice is good as the last one, and that Mondays at the Spark will continue to have my byline in them for a long time to come.