"To blog or not to blog, that is the question. Or it may be a rhetorical statement. I'll have to look it up and get back to you later."
I've pulled the pin, wet my whistle, jumped the broomstick, leaped before I looked and now BEHOLD, I'm officially a blogger. Soon I will be posting my thoughts for strangers to comment on and modulate my feelings of self-worth accordingly. As a matter of fact, I'm doing it right now.
First, before I get serious, some ground rules.
1. I will not blog about religion.
That's mostly true. At the very least I will try not to be sacrilegious. I don't kid myself. This is not going to be easy. The American experience is immersed in religion. From the purity of the Pilgrims to the fantasies of Joseph Smith to the sincerity of Billy Graham and the social works of Father Divine, religion permeates our worldview. Yet, as a spiritual person and a believer in God, I have respect for people who are honestly searching for the Truth in this sorry universe.
Of course I have zero respect for blatant hypocrisy. Ordinary non-blatant hypocrisy, the kind everyone is guilty of, is an entirely different animal. But the blatant stuff is for the birds. I mean, really, was there anything more hilarious than watching Bill Clinton sheepishly lug his Bible around after the Monica Lewinsky thing hit the Drudgereport? Bill had the same facial expression Beaver Cleaver had after he got caught playing doctor with Lumpy.
2. Secondly, Bill Clinton zingers aside, I will write nothing political.
Between Colbert and Limbaugh there is little I can add to the national political conversation except for the occasional metaphoric raspberry here and there. Or maybe a Beaver Cleaver reference. Conservative, liberal, Republican, Democrat- all seem to me to be denizens in a human petting zoo: interesting, domesticated and strange but ultimately not to be taken too seriously by thinking adults.
3. When it comes to financial advice, I have nothing to offer.
However, if I did have some financial information to share it would be to invest in Florida real-estate. But some time later. Not now. But not too much later. You may miss the boat. Just late enough so you can make some money on the deal. Which would be sooner than you think.
This leaves culture a topic, I think I can reasonable add my two and a half cents worth of non professional insight. Of course I am hardly a cultural guru of international note, but I am a keen cultural observer on my particular sliver of the American experience: life in the middle of the middle.
I've pulled the pin, wet my whistle, jumped the broomstick, leaped before I looked and now BEHOLD, I'm officially a blogger. Soon I will be posting my thoughts for strangers to comment on and modulate my feelings of self-worth accordingly. As a matter of fact, I'm doing it right now.
First, before I get serious, some ground rules.
1. I will not blog about religion.
That's mostly true. At the very least I will try not to be sacrilegious. I don't kid myself. This is not going to be easy. The American experience is immersed in religion. From the purity of the Pilgrims to the fantasies of Joseph Smith to the sincerity of Billy Graham and the social works of Father Divine, religion permeates our worldview. Yet, as a spiritual person and a believer in God, I have respect for people who are honestly searching for the Truth in this sorry universe.
Of course I have zero respect for blatant hypocrisy. Ordinary non-blatant hypocrisy, the kind everyone is guilty of, is an entirely different animal. But the blatant stuff is for the birds. I mean, really, was there anything more hilarious than watching Bill Clinton sheepishly lug his Bible around after the Monica Lewinsky thing hit the Drudgereport? Bill had the same facial expression Beaver Cleaver had after he got caught playing doctor with Lumpy.
2. Secondly, Bill Clinton zingers aside, I will write nothing political.
Between Colbert and Limbaugh there is little I can add to the national political conversation except for the occasional metaphoric raspberry here and there. Or maybe a Beaver Cleaver reference. Conservative, liberal, Republican, Democrat- all seem to me to be denizens in a human petting zoo: interesting, domesticated and strange but ultimately not to be taken too seriously by thinking adults.
3. When it comes to financial advice, I have nothing to offer.
However, if I did have some financial information to share it would be to invest in Florida real-estate. But some time later. Not now. But not too much later. You may miss the boat. Just late enough so you can make some money on the deal. Which would be sooner than you think.
This leaves culture a topic, I think I can reasonable add my two and a half cents worth of non professional insight. Of course I am hardly a cultural guru of international note, but I am a keen cultural observer on my particular sliver of the American experience: life in the middle of the middle.
I was born in the Middle West in the middle of the twentieth century to middle class parents. I was the middle child. I lived in a middle class neighborhood. My friends were neither from the wrong side of the tracks nor from the high falootin' side of town. When my family went out to eat, we'd go to either The Blue Swan or The Sizzler (we loved the bread served at the Sizzler.) My parents never divorced nor did they have friends who divorced. In the evening we would sit around the television and, yes, sing along with Mitch.
I am therefore well positioned to expound, extrapolate, expropriate as well as exhaust all the nuances of the culture I know so well-"middleclassedness."
Let the blogging begin.
Next topic:
Ghoulardi and the Exuberant Chaos of Kidhood
Next topic:
Ghoulardi and the Exuberant Chaos of Kidhood
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