STARTING OUT…

I begin this blog with a confession... I’ve never been much good at keeping a journal or diary. 

Should I ever need a reminder of this fact, an hour's worth of digging through desk drawers and file boxes would easily unearth a fair stack of partially-filled notebooks constituting ample proof of my many past failures. Some date back decades. 

While the spirit has always been willing, in practice the flesh has proven lazy and easily distracted. Time after time, when the gap between entries seemed too great to justify, the project was quietly abandoned. 

Still, I love the idea of such endeavors and love reading the regular chronicles of others who do manage what I—so far—haven’t. 

So I'm going to try again, this time as a blogger. Of course, whether I'll be any more successful with this latest attempt remains to be seen. Hope may spring eternal…but I know who I'm dealing with. As a wise Pogo once said, “We have met the enemy, and they is us.” 

As to motive—well it's certainly not because I labor under the fantasy that I possess great insight or personal wisdom worth sharing, or think I lead a life of entertaining adventure. Nope, I’m regularly as bored, bewildered, and bummed-out as anyone.  

I’m doing this simply because I suspect I would, at some future point, like having at least a cursory account of the seasons and times here along the river. A few lines to jog what’s already proving to be a fickle memory, recording dates and thoughts of various events. And probably just as often, to write about whatever interests me at the moment—though more from the wellspring of sharing a passion than a repressed need to rant. 

Anyway, that's the deal. By keeping this record as a blog, out there for others to read, I’m hoping the responsibility will naggle me to stay with it when I might otherwise succumb to distraction or procrastination. Perhaps this time, thanks to the blog format, I can trick myself into sticking with the task of regular journal keeping long enough that some psychological divide is crossed and it evolves into a comfortable habit. 

If you enjoy this blog, let me know. I can always use the encouragement.