A Few Random Thoughts

Just a few wandering thoughts to post, with no visible means of organization.

The barometer in my head tells me (via a wicked headache) that a major change in the weather is underway. Just took my generic headache formula analgesic. Hope it works fast!

Two weeks of vacation (what a luxury!) are coming to an end. We didn't travel this year, but I still had a wonderful time. I'll probably be in a funk tomorrow, since I have to get ready to go back to work the next day. Guess I should try to push the funk off onto Monday. Why wreck the last day of vacation? OK, OK, I should try to avoid the funk altogether. But that would be superhuman, wouldn't it?

This must have been a bad year to be an oak tree. The oaks in the woods around our house are dropping very few acorns this year. Those which have fallen are tiny, miserly little things, about 1/4 the size of last year's examples. Could be a rough winter to be a squirrel. The pine trees seem to be offering an abundance of cones, but they are quite small, as well. Guess the long, hot, dry summer did some damage.

We saw the movie, "In Her Shoes," this week. Happily, it was true to the book by Jennifer Weiner. Just finished Weiner's latest book, "Goodnight Nobody." This story was a bit of a departure for her. Her previous books were set in the Philly area, but this one was set mostly in Connecticut, with side trips into NYC. It was a murder mystery, which was a surprise. She left the door open at the end for a possible series. "In Her Shoes," is still my favorite of Weiner's novels to date.

Had a very nice day in Lewes, DE (pronounced more or less like, "Lewis," NOT, "looz") on Thursday, and even managed a bit of time at the outlets. Picked up some comfy clogs at the Bass outlet. If you click on the photo in the post below, it will take you to the website for the Cape May - Lewes Ferry. At least I had a few brief moments of cruising (70 minutes each way) on this vacation!

October 20, 2005

Gettysburg

April 2004

Pumpkins in the Rain

Politics and Politesse

What to blog about? Out of a surfeit of politesse, and a hearty fund of insecurity about accuracy, I tend to avoid politically oriented posts. I've committed some editorials to paper (or, rather, disc), but they remain unpublished. I've concluded that this is OK. Composing such documents helps me to clarify my own thoughts about current issues. Re-reading them helps me to see my inconsistencies, and sends me on fact-checking missions in an attempt to resolve them.

I'm a little bit uncomfortable with the school of thought that treats blogging like reporting. That's a little bit like treating the Fox network as an unbiased news source. Most political or current events blogging is editorializing, sometimes at its best and sometimes at its worst. Passionate invective has its place, but as the sole method of communication it only highlights the all-consuming anger of the writer. It creates a place where one may encounter the power of the written word not so much as a vehicle for convincing an audience, but rather as drug that intoxicates the writer.

The blogosphere is full of writers whose talent is inspiring (Pax and Joe Tornatore, to name two). Their blogs are well worth reading. They relate the day in and day out events of their lives with poignancy and an inherent understanding of their audience. They take delightful side trips into the absurd,the arcane,and pop culture. Forays into political commentary are properly identified as opinion by these gentlemen, and source links are offered. Controversy is not the daily fodder of their sites.

I'm struggling a bit with blogging right now, and I think I'll take a break. My life is good, and I am contented. Day-to-day living is fairly mundane for me and, perforce, dull in written form. Like everyone, I have experienced my share of sadness and horror, but writing about it seems too much like whinging and whining to be worthwhile. Besides, I don't like to revisit those places too often. When I have written about these things in the past, I have experienced real discomfort upon re-reading them.

Writing is therapeutic for many people, and I am no exception, but I'm too private a person to expose very much information about myself, my friends and my family in a public forum. Since I find myself unwilling to discuss my life, politics, and current events in any depth here, and since I have no talent for creative writing, I'm left with nothing to blog about.

I wish you a happy good-bye. See you on the blogs!