Essay #1 - March 2007

File this one under “Hello Again, Blogs Revisited, and Quotes on Courage.”

I’ve hit on it, folks, a way I can retrace my steps from retirement without looking like an idiot. See, I still want to write stuff. Essay-type stuff. But I no longer want it in my previous format, sent via Newsletter, with solid print shoved in your face and an accompanying nuance of guilt if you don’t read it—kind of like a Christmas newsletter. So from now on, we’ll send you a New Essay link, which you can click on when you jolly well have time for a page of solid print.

So hello, again. Nice to be back.

On Blogs Revisited. My last newsletter had a nasty streak of venom in it, directed at blogs in general. To my astonishment, I am about to retract and for me, retraction is as rare as weighing my ideal weight. See, I’ve come to realize this: many blogs will not change from “Today I picked the pills off my sweater and wondered if I should go total Golden Amber Brown or just add highlights...”—and if they don’t…that’s okay. You heard me. It really is okay. I vilified blogs in general because I’d only read examples like that, just a Dear Diary thing. The word Blog, for me, came to mean Droning Drivel.

Two things changed my mind: one, I realized if people want to write stuff like that, and people want to read it, that’s okay. (Magnanimous of me, eh?) Two, I’ve discovered the great majority of blogs have mercifully evolved from the early days. Some are book reviews. (Confession: someone wrote an amazing review of Madman on his blog—this got me to thinking that blogs are not all bad.) Some are travelogues. Some are missionary reports, updates on sick loved ones, updates on a traumatic event, updates from a young person at war in another country. And some blogs are, well…essays.

I had to change my mind on blogs, because blogs are communication. And communication, even in this form, this I-can’t-see-your-eyes, we are not sitting around the campfire form, is still communication. And communication is good.

Lord, I hate it when I’m wrong.

I reckon I’d hate it worse if I’d let the wrong hang around on my Essay page without coming back to point out it was wrong. (Some of you may be astonished I haven’t done this earlier, with other rants….)

So—Blogs are covered. I’d like to keep this introductory Essay, Volume 1, brief so let’s get straight to Quotes on Courage.

Why courage? ‘Cause I need it these days. I’m writing a modern-day quasi-allegoric fantasy-esque retelling of the Reformation…who wouldn’t need courage for that? I looked up a few quotes, found good stout comfort, and I’d like to pass on what I found:

A great deal of talent is lost to the world for want of a little courage. Every day sends to their graves obscure men whose timidity prevented them from making a first effort. ~~Sydney Smith

An inferiority complex is a conviction by a jury of your fears. ~~Unknown.

Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow that talent to the dark place it leads. ~~Erica Jong

Courage is not the absence of despair; it is, rather, the capacity to move ahead in spite of despair. ~~Rollo May

A bit of advice given to a Native American at the time of his initiation: As you go the way of life, you will see a great chasm. Jump. It’s not as wide as you think. ~~Joseph Campbell

A man must consider what a rich realm he abdicates when he becomes a conformist. ~~Ralph Waldo Emerson

I will never leave you, nor will I ever forsake you. ~~Jesus Christ

Well, folks, thanks for reading because I like to write. And today I hope you look up the word courage in the dictionary: for some strange reason, just reading the definition of courage makes you want to be courageous.

God’s peace upon you and yours.

Groot—out.

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