Happy anniversary to runningahospital

Today is the first anniversary of this blog. Here's the link to the first post. There have been over 300 since then on every topic imaginable. My favorite posts used to be the ones where I thought I wrote something with great insight or excellent prose, but I have come to really enjoy the ones where people out there take the time to post comments. Also, there have been several that have actually led to real (i.e., not cyberspace) relationships with folks I would not have otherwise met. Some of those people are actually Yankees fans. Special thanks to Chris Rowland at the Boston Globe who really helped this site take off by publishing an article about it last fall. Until that moment, it was hard to detect this blog when I did a web search, and my friends were getting awfully tired of my reminding them to check in and spread the word so that Google would know I existed. Thanks, too, to all of you who have linked to this site on your own blogs and to the many writers with journals, magazines, and newspapers who have referenced this blog in their publications. Thanks to all of you for your readership, whether dedicated or sporadic. You are generous in sharing your precious time and your points of view with me and others. Special thanks, though, to those people who choose to post using their real names. Although I have always welcomed anonymous posts, I especially admire people who are willing to identify themselves when they put their views out there for all the world to see. America has always welcomed public and open commentary on matters of community interest. The tradition of the public soap box, upon which any person could rise and speak his or her mind, is inherent in our form of government (something we borrowed it from Great Britain). For those who like to post anonymously, please understand that your thoughts carry more import with readers when you identify yourself. Try it. It is a very freeing experience. Hey, if I can post the things I have with everybody knowing who I am, you can probably do the same most of the time. Of course, if you live in Boston and are one of those Yankees fans, it is probably wiser to retain your anonymity.