The Caring Curmudgeon

cur·mudg·eon

/kərˈməjən/

noun

noun: curmudgeon; plural noun: curmudgeons

1.     a bad-tempered person, especially an old one.

Hello, my name is Alistair Schroff. There are perhaps as many blogs on the internet as there are internet users. Does the world need another one? Maybe not. Wait – probably not. Or so says the curmudgeonly side of me.

As I advance into the heights (or depths) of middle age I feel a dynamic tension. There is a deep sense of caring for those I love and the world I call home. But the other side of me wants to hole up, draw my cardigan tight and shake my fist at the neighborhood kids who step on the wildflowers because their noses are in their smartphones.

I started writing when my beautiful partner of over three decades made me sign up for a writing course. Okay, so she didn’t make me. But she did look me in the eyes gently but firmly and asked “If not now, when?”. Indeed. Those are four words we need to ask ourselves often. So I took the course and loved it.

When I started writing, I was a little freaked out. I have spent years writing various forms of professional and technical stuff. REAMS of plans, prescriptions and reports. While I have always taken pride in my work, it was only a narrow aspect of my life, joys and concerns. In writing creatively, tapping into other aspects of my soul, I felt lighter and happier than I had in a long time. 

Some of my pieces were well-received. Others just kind of sat there, given shorter shrift as they didn’t necessarily have the same potential appeal to the clicky thumbs of the target audience. The journal was supported in part by advertising, and one day there was a big splash advertising a proud partnership with a naturopathic guru shilling various forms of bone broth and collagen formulas. Well, one thing I care very much about is reducing the suffering of animals, and bone broth and collagen – even from grass fed and free range critters – is just part of that chain of suffering. At that point I made the curmudgeonly decision to start my own blog, where each piece is subject to an editorial committee of one.

If so inspired, it is 100% bone broth-free for you to read on, enjoy, share, and comment. 

-The Caring Curmudgeon-