Milestone

BMWP hit a new milestone last week thanks to your support week in and week out. The metrics are not important, so I don't find it you useful to mention it. I've never broadcasted this newsletter and don't intend to. It has purely grown by individuals like you being moved enough to share when the message really resonates and speaks to you. I like it that way. I don't want SEO results. I don't want inorganic growth. I actually don't even want growth. I just want to keep having this medium to express myself.

I have gotten a few individuals ask to promote their newsletters on BMWP and I will continue to do that because I'm a citizen of the internet and I think that's good internet decorum. But please know this isn't what I do BMWP for.

Many people might wonder what really is the reason to make a newsletter if you're not trying to monetize or grow it into a semi media company. My answer is quite simple. It has to do with this discipline that has eluded me for many years - Reading.

The first time I discovered that I liked reading was in high school. I read The Canterbury Tales in British Literature. It shocked me that someone that lived before Nas actually could rhyme and tell stories. But it took me a while before I picked up my next book for pleasure. The next time came when I would read Henry Louis Gates, George Orwell, Malcolm X, Kurt Vonnegut and anything that satiated my curiosity enough. I took a brief hiatus from recreational reading for over 3 years after that.

My desire to read hasn't really changed since then. I marvel at the people who can read multiple books and sometimes finish them in a day or week's time.

I've tried so many tactics to consistently read that I was open to so many hacks. None of them helped. It was actually when I started writing that I began I enjoy reading more than ever. But I then started to “read” everything. I consumed everything in a different way. I observed the things others said and the way they said them. I realized “reading” isn't just for the alphanumerical world. I never looked at trees, the skies or animals the same. All my observations transformed into better writing. Writing is embodiment of the reading your conscious mind has done. I would say that it's equally important to express yourself (through any form) than it is to consume the [artistic] expressions of others.

Soon you'll realize you can't express without “reading”.

Here's to more posts, more pages and more reading.