Hi, I'm Sal, and I live here on Long Island.

The sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond is a vestige of an earlier era, with its four camera set-up, laugh track, and bumbling husband with a more attractive wife. Even if it shows its age at times though, it remains important to me beyond its status as a nostalgic comfort watch or it being a rare show the entirety of my family enjoyed watching together. 

It also goes beyond the overlap I have with the titular protagonist: we’re both Italian-Americans who grew up in Lynbrook (yes, the same village), and were both sports writers for Newsday (yes, the same publication). It’s even implied (if not explicitly mentioned) that the character attended my alma mater, Hofstra University.¹ As to whether I’m a bumbling husband, you’d have to ask my wife, who, come to think of it, is more attractive than me. So, check off that box as well.

Two lines from the show serve as bookends of sorts to a distinct period of my life.

First, there’s a scene where Ray is lazily watching sports on the couch. When his wife chastises him, he responds that he is technically working. I distinctly recall this being an eye-opener for the young version of me, and if it didn’t plant the seed of pursuing sports journalism as a career, it certainly helped it grow.

Fast forward about a decade or so, I got to realize this goal, and despite its lack of actual couch lounging, it was still an incredibly fulfilling experience. I spent about seven years writing for Newsday, primarily covering high school sports, though also branching out into the college and occasionally, professional realms.

As much as I enjoyed the job and still think fondly of it, I eventually sought a change, looking with increasing eagerness at the prospects of a Monday-through-Friday, 9-to-5 job (in contrast with the nights and weekends that were a necessary part of the gig). This led to the pivot to my current role in tech, and while I stated loudly and frequently when making that transition that I would continue to write…that simply just hasn’t happened. Aside from a stray blog post or freelance pitch during the early days of the pandemic, I haven’t written anything for public consumption since December 2019.

This brings us to the second line from the show.

In a late season episode, Ray takes his sons and their friend to a basketball game, where someone spills popcorn, and as the friend tries to clean up, Ray tells him not to worry about it because, as he says, “that’s why they pay the janitors.” Of course, it turns out the kid’s father is a custodian, and, in typical early 2000s sitcom fashion, he and his family bungle their way into making this mildly embarrassing situation way worse.

One of the ways he tries to smooth things over is by telling the friend’s father:

This line -- particularly, “and a sporting event goes by” -- never ceases to make me laugh…though it also kind of sums up where I’ve been with regards to writing for the past seven years. There have been a few times when I’ve had an idea for a freelance pitch or thought of starting a personal blog. But then a voice inside of me has more or less been saying, “No, you don't have to. That's what they pay the sportswriter for.”

I think it’s time to quiet that voice, which has doubtlessly been amplified by our current moment that seems to put so much emphasis on commoditizing our hobbies. The implicit thought process has been, “turning my writing into a profitable hustle is going to take a lot of time and effort that I don’t want to spend, so I might as well not write at all.”

This has been a rambling essay-shaped assortment of words framed around a sitcom that aired its last episode during the Bush administration, so I don’t think I can get too philosophical here. But, perhaps especially in a world where it has never been easier to passively consume, there is value in just creating something for its own sake.

And, now that this post is almost done, I can firmly say how good it feels to be writing something that isn’t an e-mail.

It feels really good to be creating again.