The water's warm...

My first official blog posting. How intimidating, having come after so many other clever, wonderful and brilliant bloggers and thinkers... and the countless insipid non-thinkers who must somehow be taking up internet bandwith that has to run out sometime, somewhere. Doesn't it?

And now I'm one of them... or at least a little bit.

In the wrong context, there's much about blogging and bloggers that makes my skin crawl - the rampant navel gazing, the endless myopia, the lousy grammar. That's why I never wanted a blog - associations with them can be discomforting. At the same time, I've read a tremendous number of blogs that have made me laugh (god bless you, Tyler Durden), and many that have made me think and consider things (thanks, links from Salon). I read blogs as much as the next guy or gal, so I've never wanted to throw my hat into the ring because I don't want to waste people's time with pointless blather.

So why now? It's hard to say.

It's worth stating upfront that I don't plan to be pumping out strained witticisms on a daily basis, or blathering commentaries about gas prices or celebrity gossip. Not that those aren't worthy topics, and I certainly read my fair share of them, but there are enough commentators out there that I'm not looking to add my voice to the din.

At the same time, I'm drawn to the idea of just having a place to put down my thoughts these days. Some of that has to do with my personal life, which is going through some upheaval right now. I don't necessarily plan to be talking about that, but it informs how I'm thinking, feeling, and what feels important or relevant to me. And some of those things have made me to treasure my relationship with my son all the more, even though he's been the center of my universe since the day he was born. Kudos to some great friends who do a fantastic job of this and implicitly showed the value of just having a place to catalogue the moments that may otherwise be lost.

So we'll see what happens.