Sentimental Journey(man)

Hang Your Heart Out There

Did you know that maudlin is a word that is often considered a synonym with sentimental? I think that’s where the trouble comes in with being thought of as sentimental.

The other day, the editor of my Transcendental Dad column in Manchester Ink Link suggested that my superhero name should be The Sentimental Journeyman. And I can’t tell you how much I love that. I might have called this newsletter that if I had thought of it.

If I knew how to play guitar and were a 1970s singer song-writer, 100% my first album would be called that.

Anyway, over the course of my career as a writer, it took me a long time to come to terms with being a Sentimentalist, in part because - I don’t know - expressing sentiment is out of favor? Being sentimental gets all bunched up with nostalgia. Or longing for a past.

Or the worst, being maudlin, which by the way roughly translates to being sentimentally extreme. Self-pitying. Tearful about the past. I’m none of those things (mostly). Don’t even get me started about mawkish!

But I like sentimental. My mother was sentimental. I want to hang my heart out there, I’m ok with that, at least in my writing I am. I want my kids to see that part, the part that feels. What’s the opposite? Cynical. Who wants that?

We’re forced to put on brave faces out there, you know where I mean. This place, though, this is a place for uncertain faces. Questioning faces. A place where I don’t have answers, though sometimes I get them from all of you. I like going into this each day not really certain where we’ll end up. Sometimes, nowhere. Sometimes, important places.

Sentimental to me means not holding back, but also drawing the line between belly button gazing and being a know-it-all. Have I done that? Beats me. You tell me. Have we done that here together? Sometimes we have!

I wish there were more of you. I wish, sometimes, I could stick to one topic. I wish I had more time.

This is our 290th post in this community, by the way, 290 in 18 months. Not bad. That’s a lot of words.

But I’ll just keep doing this because I can’t imagine life without words. And you keep reading, that would make me happy. And we’ll row on and see where the tide takes us.

Just let me know if I get too maudlin, deal?