On the advice of cousins, apocryphal Albert stories, and Maine time to contemplate...

He looks like *he* has
something to say...

I have a confession to make:  I don't write in this blog as often as I should.  It says right there in the title bar, that "like Alfred, I only show up here when I have something to say"... but that is not the whole truth.    That line is based upon a story (which unfortunately I cannot accurately source) in which Albert Einstein was supposedly invited to give the keynote speech at a college commencement ceremony.  After he was introduced, Albert got up, headed to the podium, and stated "Ladies and Gentlemen, I have absolutely nothing to say.  I will return to speak to you when I do."   And he left!  Some time later, he contacted the college and said he had something interesting to say, and so they gathered, and the great physicist returned to share what he had.

I put that line in the title bar as a way of warning the handful of people who might actually stumble across my blog that it would not be updated on a regular basis... given that I don't really try to increase my readership or anything like that, I figured it wasn't much of a loss if I was not "pushing enough content."

And so my writing here comes in spurts.  I have been told that folks enjoy reading my updates from our summers in Maine, so some summers I decided that I am "going to blog about Maine again this year"... last summer I began to do just that, and then I felt like I ran out of ideas for fresh comments on Maine, and the writing dwindled to a stop after a few entries.

Then, just a few days ago, a very dear cousin reached out through a text, bonked me upside the head, and told me (in effect):  "You are too good of a writer.  You should write more, whether in a blog or not."

You know what?  She's right.  Thanks, cuz, for making me think.

The problem is that I'm trying to find a subject about Maine to write about.  What I should be doing is writing... if I happen to be in Maine, then the topics covered might happen to brush up on that.   I should write wherever I am.  Sometimes the writing may make it into this very public (yet dusty and unused) corner of the cortex, and sometimes it may stay hidden safely in my Evernote notebooks.

Maine gives you time to
contemplate the important
things... like your toes.

But my cousin is right... I need to write.

There is one thing about being up here at camp, nestled among the tall pine trees--the pace of life is different.  Even though I work my normal job here, my life is a lot less hectic and "go! go! go!"...  there's no regular TV to serve as a distraction, and there's more time to just think about things.

So, when my cousin prodded me, I was on fertile ground for the idea to take hold, and for a revelation of sorts.









The hurly burly of life will take care of itself, or fade away into non-significance.  Writing feeds my soul, and I shall write.

Time to use these more!

My thanks to the lovely, idyllic and pastoral State O' Maine.   And my thanks to you as well, my lovely and impertinent cousin.

Categories: Maine, writing