Proverbial blogging toe breaks the water.

So it's Superbowl Sunday, I stop watching the game, come down to the computer and, despite my Luddite nature, I sit down and figure out how to create a blog. So strange how things so often work out. (I guess it's obvious I'm not much of a pro-sports fan) Less than 2 years ago I didn't really know what a blog was. And now I sit here wondering in my head about my motivations for doing this. It feels a bit presumptuous (as if I really have something to say) a bit like grandstanding "Hey everybody, look at me, read me". But I have given it some thought and I launch this ...

1.To exercise writing, to make an effort to nail thoughts/observations using the written word.
2. To get stuff 'up and out'....to express and to see what I feel, to get to know me better, to thrash out things that only vaguely make themselves known in my head and that only occasionally.
3.To make an effort at being transparent, a quality I often hear myself saying I value and yet it remains elusive.
4. To understand myself...possibly to be understood better by others.

So, only a couple of hundred words into this and I've discovered something I believe will be important for me as a type of Ground Rule (sure don't want to end up with many of those!). I want to write as an end in itself, not with any type of audience in mind. Although I have no reason to believe anyone will even be able to find this, it feels important not to be wanting to be liked, thought clever, appreciated or any other such performance-oriented thing. This should just be for me, let the chips fall where they may, with no thought given to whether or not I might be resonating with anyone else. I think (hope) that outlook might help make this blogging escapade more presumption-proof and free of endless editing with other readers in mind.

Still, it's interesting to note...then why not just journal?.....(I do).....why a publicly available blog?
The picture that comes to mind with this question is one of those giant antennae dishes that beam messages to outer space just in case there is someone actually out there and to see what happens if they pick up the signal. So yes, it does lend a sort of background excitement to blog. Who knows, perhaps I will meet some like-minded friends, maybe experience some heckling, perhaps Thomas Nelson will call with a contract..... I like that unknown aspect of this deal.

So, I have popped the cork and I'm off, 500'Flyby is launched. Just above the treetops, moving quite fast, no time to dwell in painful detail on any one thing, just bits and pieces, soundbites really. If I need to dwell longer I'll just get a helicopter instead of a fixed-wing and hover.
So long for now....
Can't miss House!