Perhaps in 2010 it is shameful to admit, but I have never had a blog. It seems like most folks I know have blogged over some period of time in the last few years. In fact, most of them have worked through their blogging phase and are now onto other things. This won't be the first time I come late to the fair!

I've had this account on Blogger for several years, now; but, it has sat empty and still. What draws me toward blogging today is not entirely transparent to me. The sources of my inclination, I think, are both physical and intellectual. Intellectually, I'm thinking in mystical and romantic terms, lately. Reading Wordsworth's Prelude a few weeks ago set me on that path, so I was particularly open to Henry Adam's romantic themes in Mont St. Michel and Chartres, which I finished day before yesterday. Today, reading Allan Bloom's introduction to Rousseau's Emile and the first 25 or so chapters of the Tao Te Ching (for the first time) my mind feels like one of those buildings with retractable roofs that sit on the tops of mountains and house huge telescopes. My roof is rusty and is opening slowly and not so smoothly, but the glimpse of the star strewn night getting through is more than enough motivation to continue trying to open up.

Physically, I've had a headache for two weeks. I saw the Dr. last week and I'm fairly sure that I'm just dealing with sinusitis, but such protracted discomfort changes the way one sees the world. I'm reminded of stories of Nietzsche lying in bed for months in a syphallitic haze then jumping up at the first twinge of healthy energy to write a book. I'm no Nietzsche (let me count the ways!), but I am experiencing an odd (apparent) clarity today. Most of my body no longer needs the rest it is getting, but my headache makes activity and socializing difficult. So, I am alone, more or less inactive, not at all fatigued, and not at all inclined to do anything but sit quietly and still.

So . . . I'm blogging. It will be interesting (to me, at least!) to see where this goes.