To Blog or Not to Blog? That is the query.

I'd rather blog than write a book. When I write something, I want it to be publicly available right away. This may not always be prudent; perhaps it is nobler to write and re-write, getting all the words right. Certainly, many fans of writers find a certain nobility in this pain and perseverance, at least those fans who are interested in the process of creating writing as well as its contents. And perhaps I will, but in the meantime, I'm thinking in terms of the experiment of just putting my thoughts "out there" when I find the time to type them out. I want to be part of the active dialogue of humanity, part of a flow. Whether this blog will be in and of itself a dialogue depends on whether and how others choose to participate in it. Whether comments continue to be allowed on it depends on whether anybody actually responds, and whether I find it helpful to my project -- whose nature should become clearer over time both to myself and to anybody else who may be interested. If I cease to allow comments, I don't think it will hurt democracy, since everyone can start a blog on this site. On the other hand, I would love it if my blogs -- I intend now to start several -- became a center of give and take and active dialogue.

"Putting my thoughts 'out there'" only seems to happen once every several months, if this blog is a measure. I do also post my opinions on other bulletin boards from time to time, and also write songs. But in my head, I am constantly writing, usually about politics, whenever I am not engaged in some sort of activity that ties up my thought processes in some other way. So it is my hope to become more engaged in this blogging process.

It is also my hope to take the concept of freedom of speech very seriously, and perhaps to test its boundaries a bit, because we live in times that are dangerous to what the Declaration of Independence described as "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness".

Although I'd rather blog than write a book, I do additionally hope that the blogging project leads to a book -- or at least some sort of coherent whole -- through one process or another. So far, I don't think I've written any part of a future bestseller. In fact, I think I sound like a windbag! But my blogs will be my journal and the place where my thoughts will be flung out, so if you want to read them you'll get the good with the bad. Then again, if I want to rewrite a ramble, and turn it into an essay or a chapter of the bestseller, I will... But perhaps I will be able to lift part or all of my book for my blog, or perhaps the blog will just be a warmup, a practice session open to the public.