Preface

It begins. Every thought comes from somewhere within us, is sparked from the senses, or is jogged by a memory. Most of the time our thoughts drift into our subconscious never to be heard from again. I guess that is why I'm starting this blog. I need to have a place to publish these thoughts. I need to see these thoughts out in the open, let them breathe a bit... and germinate. I want to see where my thoughts take me and the only way to do that is to write and write often. I can't worry about their awkwardness or their ridiculousness. I have to let them show.

I reached a wonderful point in my life. In many ways I feel like I have had my rebirth. That I have emerged from a cocoon of 30+ years. I think we often think we have these points in our life... these moments when we finally achieve wisdom and we have "arrived". I mean to draw a distinction from those points and the point I am now out. I am not at an end, a high peak of wisdom, or a mighty moment of clarity. Rather, I'm finally got some clue of happiness, some clue of meaning, and some clue of where I want to go or where I want to arrive.

After a 9 year career as a computer programmer I quit my job last May to finish up my bachelor's degree and go on to teach English. I had no connection beyond money to my former job. It was a means to survive. I had become an assembly line worker who instead of pushing along widgets in a factory I pushed along code in a mainframe. I had no interest in the product my company provided and I took no joy in satisfying either the customers or the stockholders. I had no ownership...sure, I had stock options like any other member of the company but there was no sense of ownership in the vision of the company I worked for. In short, I did not believe in the product I was selling. It has been said many a time that a salesmen is only as good as the product he is selling. Like it or not, in every job, it seems to me, that you must be a bit of a salesmen. So after 9 years I decided to find a product that was worth selling... education and more specifically literature. Literature is where I have found meaning in my life and it has effected me as a husband, a father, a son, and a human being. I hope as a teacher I can somehow share that meaning with my students. I feel like I have found the road I need to take. You can never be sure you are on the right path, but you do at least have to have peace with path you are on. I now have that.

So this August I will start a career as a teacher at my alma mater. This summer I am taking upon the impossible task of keeping up with my kids while I await to approach the chalkboard with chalk in hand and this time, perhaps, the correct answer. This blog is a chance for me to share my thoughts and share the funny tales of the suburbs, of being a husband and a father of two kids. Writing provides me a means to examine my thoughts, to see how they resonate, and to give life to my memories (and in turn the subject of those memories... children, wife, friends, family, etc.) In general, my subjects and content will be determined by where ever my life and my thoughts take me.

I will stick with a writing style that was used by the Beat Poets... "first thought best thought". I always felt the Beat Poets embraced this writing style not for its intellectually honesty, but rather out of laziness. Until I am further motivated I to will adhere to this style to a fault... so if the grammar errors or incoherence of my writing offends, I suggest you not read it. If I make a poor stroke with my brush, I am not stopping to cover it up. It is true a writer needs an audience to speak to (and I freely admit my lack of editing may run that limited audience off), but he also needs to actually publish something before he can have an audience. So I'll publish here (I'm aiming for at least once a week) and worry about my audience (or lack thereof) later.

David