The Promise of Beginnings

There’s something that Jackson Pollock said about the first brush stroke on the canvas, how liberating and easy it is, and that each one following gets harder, limited by what has gone before.

I’ve always found that intriguing. Beginnings offer such promise. I have the starts of a dozen novels—notes, ideas, research—in files in our basement here in Corydon, and I know I should throw them away already, because those are usually the promises you don’t keep.

Here are the promises I’ll try to keep while the blog is up and running:

1. Short entries. Under 250 words. So you won’t lose interest by the end.
2. Variety. A number of subjects. Not just talking shop about my enduring interests. Though I’ll talk about those, too.
3. Civility. If what I say here provokes your response, I’ll try to answer in the most civil way possible. I feel like our culture has become coarsened and unnecessarily mean over the past 20 years, and I have some guesses why that will become apparent as this blog unfolds. But recognizing the problem should keep you from adding to it, and I’ll try to be polite.

Please note I said I would try to do all these things. Sometimes I will fail. Bear with me, or call me on it. And keep reading.