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What my musings are all about...

Blogging might well be the 21st century's form of journaling. As a writing teacher, I have always advised my students to keep a daily journal as a way of organizing their thoughts for future writing projects, a discipline I have unfortunately never consistently practiced myself. By blogging, I might finally be able to follow my own good advice.

The difference between journaling and blogging is that the blogger opens his or her writing to the public, something journal- writers are usually reluctant to do. I am not so reticent.

The trick for me will be to avoid cluttering the internet with more blather, something none of us need more of. If I stick to subjects I know: sports and literature, I believe I can avoid that pitfall. I can't promise that I'll not stray from time to time to comment on ancillary subjects, but I will make every attempt to be interesting and perhaps even insightful.

Friday, December 3, 2010

On Aging 12/3/2010

   I have been thinking recently about growing old with all its accompanying aches and pains, something an athlete who has grown up putting so much trust in his or her body finds particularly difficult, and Sachel Page came to mind. He had lots of wonderful things to say about aging. Here are three:
     "Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you."
     "Age has a mind of its own. If you don't mind, it don't matter."
     "How old would you be, if you don't know how old you are?"
   Then I was reminded of a poem about Page I read a long time ago in a terrific anthology called Sprints and Distances.

To Satch (or American Gothic)  By Samuel Adams
 
Sometimes I feel like I will never stop
Just go on forever
Till one fine morning
I'm gonna reach up and grab me a handfulla stars
Swing out my long lean leg
And whip three hot strikes burnin down the heavens
And look over at God and say
How about that!