In Praise of Praise
Already it's been two weeks since the last newsletter and I've been busy at work and short of inspiration. I've not blogged at all since last we spoke, I've barely scribbled any notes in my notebook.
Then, the day before yesterday, while I was sat in the queue at the barbers, reading the paper, someone leaned over and rather apologetically and politely said "are you Russell Davies?" I confessed that I was and he said he wanted to thank me for something I wrote in Campaign more than 10 years ago; this piece in praise of the traffic and production departments in agencies.
It completely made my day. If you're out there, thank you Jim.
It reminded me of the best decision I made in the years of writing that column; to never just snark about stuff. OK, I snarked for the first year or so, and it probably snuck in a lot after that, but the intention was always to find good things that I liked and write about why they were good. That's always been the stuff I've enjoyed writing most. This is a hard thing to remember; especially when blogging is such a great vehicle for ranting and raving, for service-complaining, for producing lists of Things That Are Wrong. But here I am remembering it; writing a newsletter in praise of writing in praise of things.
I will do that when I'm stuck.
You're all marvellous. Peace out.
(There are currently 192 of you. 192 is the atomic number of an element temporarily called uennbium, it's the medical emergency number in Brazil and the fire emergency number in Ghana. It is the sum of ten consecutive primes.)