In the Beginning

I’m starting a blog. I’m not on facebook, I don’t have a myspace page, but even before getting DSL, I’ve had a hankering to connect in the technosphere. People blog for many reasons; since I try to be a purpose-driven person (no thanks to Rick Warren, thank you very much), I feel the need to justify bogging. Why not call someone on the phone if I’m feeling lonely? Why not journal on paper if I’m trying to sort out what I think about something, or need to remember a significant event or insight? I do those things, occasionally, and will continue to. But blogging is different.

I’ve never belonged to gym or fitness center, and though I won’t put it on the list of “never wills” (since too many never wills have come to pass and turned out to be quite enjoyable), I don’t think paying to exercise in a public setting is something that will happen in the near future. But I’m committing myself to a different kind of fitness regimen—brain fitness, if you will. I’m going to blog for my health, to exercise the muscles that have been turning to putty in recent years. I may decide after a trial period that I prefer my fitness to be sporadic, spontaneous, and solitary, as has been the case for whatever aerobic activity I engage in. And my blogging will have time limits—no marathon workouts for me, just half-hour sessions squeezed in between supper and bedtime. I may not even work all the major muscle groups in one session, so my blog entries may have weak conclusions or no conclusions at all. But I like to think that, over the course of time, some strengths will emerge, some progress, some themes that will help me remember why I love life. After all, isn’t that the point of exercise?