Metamorphosis

I have employed my incredible powers of observation to detect that my blog seems to have changed (e.g., morphed, devolved, deconstructed, slid) into a sort of a memoir. That was not exactly my original intent so I began feeling a bit of angst. Fortunately, I have an on-call social relationships counselor (that would be my daughter Leah) who advised me with all due professionalism, "Hey, it's your stupid blog." Of course, she is much too nice to say it exactly that way, but that was what I heard and it was good advice. As the Marines say, "There are many like it but this one is mine!"

Surprisingly, that thought is quite similar to what I wrote as the concluding catch-phrase at the bottom of this blog when I first started it. "I hope you enjoy this blog. It's mostly for me, but knock yourself out." Arrogant pinhead.

If this thing WERE a memoir, it would need a much better opening sentence like:

"I am born." - David Copperfield
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. . ." A Tale of Two Cities
"Call me Ishmael" - Moby Dick (that's for you, Leah) But would "Call me Rich" really work?

More likely it would be something ironic like:

“The past is a foreign country. They do things differently there.” The Go-Between
"Billy Pilgrim had come unstuck in time.” Slaughterhouse Five

Probably Vonnegut's idea is the best, so I'm going to steal that. Yes, unabashedly. Also, he had great hair.

So, my methodology will not be so much to deliver some sort of history in a linear fashion. I couldn't do that anyway having no memory left. Instead, I will bounce, as inspiration strikes me, from place to place and from epoch to epoch and let the gentle reader attempt to piece it all together. Good luck with that.

Since this tool is a conveyance of emotion and social connectivity as much (or more so) as sheer documentation of fact, my feelings about your struggle are like the Tom Hanks laugh scene in The Money Pit. Ha HAAAAAAAA ha ha ha ha!

I can only imagine some poor historian in the distant future trying to turn these ravings into something approximating a life story. Double good luck with that.

So, if anyone is still there, I intend to take the sputtering start I've made with this tool and build some sort of coordinated but unstructured flow into these entries. A little current-day commentary, some memories, some history, some genealogy, perhaps even throw in some actual events to spice it up.






"I am born."