Five years ago tomorrow . . .

. . . I took a break from folding laundry and decided, more or less on a whim, that it might be fun to start a blog. Despite my extended absence from here, which will continue for a while yet, it seems like a good idea to keep it going.

While walking Scruffy this evening, I thought about what I might post on by way of looking back over the past five years--Things Accomplished, Lessons Learned, etc. Whatever work this blog represents for me has been in me. It has made me think harder about things that matter to me and has, in some cases, led me to a strengthening of my convictions--I still might be wrong about them, but I like to think I'm more skilled now in expressing my wrongheadedness--and has led to a reassessment of some others. It's also made me more attentive as I go about my business or read or listen to music or watch films or look at pictures: I'm no longer thinking solely about what I think about these things but about how best to talk about what I think about them. That's because keeping this blog compels me to think about audience in ways the usual diary or journal would not.

Whatever merits this blog has, therefore, is due in large measure to the fact that people visit it. But more to the point, those of you who visit regularly and make your presence known via comments keep me honest: you are smart, thoughtful people. I don't want to look dumb or foolish in front of you on too regular a basis if I can help it.

Thanks for helping keep this blog going for as long as it has.
_______________

Many thanks to those of you who have wished me and the Mrs. well. You may like to know that she is doing better, which means that I am, too. I hope to have the chance to be a bit less cryptic about all this a little later; in the meantime, though, I still have work to catch up on. I'll be back in, most likely, a couple of weeks.