To the Blog

It appears as though I’ve been blogging since around 2005. For most people that would equate to around 100 blogs or 500,000 words, give or take a few. However, my reality is a little bit different. In all these years I’ve only managed to post a handful of times and seldom more than a dozen words.

Will this entry signal a change? I can’t say for sure. There are so many commitments and issues to deal with; a blog hardly seems like a priority item. But the truth is that at this point blogging may be more like playing scales on the piano – a necessary evil required in order to remain sharp enough to play “What Child is This” on Christmas Eve.

For this first step back into the waters of blog I’d like to offer my opinion – and that is the problem! Who gives a damn? My opinion is just one of approximately 6 billion floating around these days. (20 billion if you’re a regular Facebook user.) I offered my unsolicited opinion recently, on a matter of great importance in some quarters. I was sorry to have done so. Not because I might be wrong, but because coming when it did my opinion was unnecessary.

So why blog? If you’re a righter – or simply a writer if a sword is not your style – it may make sense. You can tell people who to vote for, tell them which party is evil, wrong, etc. I’m sure many a vote was swayed by me hitting a like button on any number of Romney or Obama jokes.

I think my reason for venturing back into the black hole of blogging is as implied above; exercise. Like pushing a car upwards of 53 miles an hour on a quarter-mile strip, we’re talking CorVAIRS here, there is an exhilaration that comes – for some – with crafting words in a manner that drives people to feel (The Cider House Rules), laugh (Sweet Thursday), ponder (Foucault’s Pendulum) or simply throw up (At least one section in every Clive Barker book). Such is the joy of writing.

Music plays in the background as I pound out these ponderings (“Alibi” – Elvis Costello). For me the challenge is to successfully capture the emotion of the two-minute song and repackage it in 50,000 words – more or less. I’m guessing this blog will end at around 400 words. Hopefully, I’ll maintain a regular schedule and with continued practice, eventually, maybe my aim will become true too.