RE: A TIME TO EVERY PURPOSE UNDER HEAVEN
I'm sorry to hear you've been ill. That's not ever fun, and definitely can undo any positive attitudes we might care to have. I thought for a brief moment I may have said something wrong, but figured life was getting in the way of a reply, so no concerns there. I am glad to hear that my comments were received and appreciated. :)
As for being "one of the great ones," I'm not sure how to take that, other than maybe simply saying, that's very kind of you to say, but that's probably higher praise than I can live up to. :)
Oh, it's just human nature to have expectations. It's what motivates us to be better and improve, I'd say. However, accepting what is is needful, too. Can't be too happy without it, right?
As far as getting awards—if you're talking about Asher's leagues, I could get an award for finishing in the Top 10, just like everyone else, but as you know, there's not a metric for the content or sentiment of the content. Whatever award their may be is strictly transacted in appreciation, if any, between the reader and the commenter.
As it is, I've waived any award STEEM for the time being, so that's not even a motivation right now. I'm still participating, though, so making comments is still a part of that. The actual content is just want comes out at the time and is free of any other motivation other than reacting to the post or comment. :)
Aah, you have such a way with words. I've always said that writing is like a foreign language: at first one struggles but as one continues to write, one can become quite fluent.
It seems that as we age our ailments become a common and well addressed part of our conversations with others. I try and avoid that, but I'll share I've been dealing with this condition for about 25 years now. It seems to be a combination of insulin resistance, adrenal fatigue, and inflammation/poisoning from toxins and heavy metals from painting. I think I've shared I was a painting contractor. Had to retire last year due to illness.
Oh, yes. I remember the house painting and the heavy metal poisoning. The other things I don't remember knowing about. Anyone of that on it's own is plenty, though, so I'm sorry to hear about everything combined. The fact you've gotten this far over the last 25 years is an achievement unto self, I believe. Probably not much consolation, I guess, but there's always going to be better days and worse days.
Well, I've been writing for most of my adult life, in one form or another, and so yeah, after a while, you can learn how to craft sentences. It's funny that writing books and writing newspaper articles tend to be on different ends of the writing spectrum in many ways, but they also have a lot in common. You don't really want any wasted space in either, surprisingly, but you also want to flesh things out enough for the reader to get something out of it. So, I try to incorporate that as much as I can in anything I do here on Steemit.