I was reading a book about blogging recently.  (I gave it back to the library and I don’t remember the title, which shows how much of an impression it made on me.)  One of the points it made was that in order to develop a readership one needs to have a subject matter and consistent point of view to one’s blog.

I can sort of manage the point of view, but single subject matter? Ha.

I write this blog to write about things I would want to talk about with my friends.  I use it to express my feelings on a whole host of subjects, from all the various streams than run through my particular consciousness. I use it to exercise my brain, and to remind myself that I am more than the very small narrow boxes I tend to put myself into.  As I struggle with self-definition in the wake of my primary role in the world — caregiver for three growing boys — becoming rapidly obsolete, this blog becomes a place of exploration.

I also think, like many people, that I am just as susceptible as others to the illusion that somehow what I say or think is interesting to people who know nothing about me. I keep wondering if this is my own special variant of the national psychosis known as the cult of celebrity; not only that everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes, but that everyone can and should want to be famous for fifteen minutes.

Mostly, though, it is a place for me to write because I have to write.  I become another person when I write.  My harmless and anxious personality becomes more emphatic. I feel stronger, and freer, and more dangerous on these pages.  I feel more… me.

So, as solipsistic as it might be, this is about me.  This means you may be subject to a mad variety of subjects with no warning, from politics and law to what my kids or family say to rather boring navel-gazing like this.  Please pick what you like, and leave the rest.

And if there is something that speaks to you?  Please comment.  It is nice to talk to people.