This post was originally published on January 22nd, 2014
Maybe someday I can figure out what it is about Vermont winters that stimulates the mind and makes you want to put pen to paper (metaphorically). It could be the constant darkness, the frigid temperatures, or the forced confinement combined with time to ruminate on ideas that gives me a kick in the ass every December. While I won’t claim to be on the same level as Mayer, Frost or Kipling I still feel like I can put down some thoughts in a cohesive manner. In the past I think that I tried to reach too far out of my comfort zone too fast and fell on my face, either that or an early spring has sprung and next thing I know my motivation wanes like the snow melt.Earlier this week I spent 16 hours in a car driving from Gatlinburg and put some thoughts into motion. I have some of these saved in reserve and can whip them out in the future, but I will draw off of current events, suggestions from you my loyal fans, and of course the random thoughts that continuously run though my head. As for frequency I don’t know how often I will update, but I will shoot for at least once a week.
Writing has always been very cathartic for me, a way to get everything down and out of my head, a way to get something off my chest so that I can move on. The problem is that it has always been freaking hard for me to write. As much as I love analog ideals and think that a paper and pen are the classic way to get it done, I am plagued by terrible penmanship and the need to fill something more than old notebooks. Blogs are appealing, and I was able to pull one off during my road trip in 2009, but once I left the confines of roadside hotels I wasn’t able to keep the motivation. I tried twitter, but except for tracking shipments of Heady Topper and trying to interpret the rambling of 21 year old girls it is just another waste of my time. If I have 600+ facebook friends why would I waste thoughts on a medium where I have 32 followers? I may be the only person in the world who likes the Facebook Note feature, but it feels like the best way to combine the ease of a blog with a form of social media which I check multiple times each day. Please give me feedback, I have enough things in my life that need internal motivation that getting responses and getting pushed by others will only drive me to write better and more often.
I read a lot, generally 3 or 4 books at a time, and normally finishing a book every week to 10 days. I also read a bunch of blogs on everything from lifestyle design, to finance, to cooking, to beer, to boxing and football. These are great ways to fill the time and cram extra knowledge into my head, but they at a base level are a passive way to interact with the world. Im at the point in my life where passive is overrated, I want to go out and make an impact on the world, no matter how insignificant it may be in the grand scheme of things. We are always told to expect greatness out of our lives and are sometimes let down by the fact that we aren’t always able to make grand gestures, but its really the little things that we can do to influence the lives of people around us that make the best case for greatness. Maybe this is my chance to make a bigger impact.
So there it is, the beginning of an adventure (maybe the resumption of adventure?) in writing. Please let me know what you think and get on my case if I slack off. You might want to save this just in case, it is a first edition after all.
Owen Foley 