Monday, January 21, 2008

Prelude to a New Year/ New Blog


A few weeks have gone by since I last posted. It's a New Year. So, I need to step it up on all fronts, including this blog. I think the biggest challenge is not knowing if people actually read this blog aside from your friends and family (thank you all!) When I go crusing in cyberspace or blog-o-sphere I note how many bloggers have an audience either by publishing, doing something fantastic, or achieving minor fame in some of other way.




So, to my audience, or the audience that may come, I've decided to make my blog more personal, and hopefully interesting by including posts that are relevant to people like me: students, artists, those at the start of their careers, those needing information about publishing or getting started, or those seasoned artists who wish to connect with a younger voice, dare I say generation.




A lot has happened. The political climate is changing rapidly. It's almost impossible to keep track of anyone's campaign (except if you're like many people and have concluded that the election will go the way of status quo.)




I am not a particularly political person. However, I consider myself a conscientious individual. A person concerned about the inside life and thus the outside life: the two are intertwined. I want to not just see a change, which has become a bit cliche, but I'd like to smell it, taste it, know its there because you are actively participating in that change. But, what does change mean, to those of us who aren't running for office?


For me it means, being able to wake up proud of this country. T know that one's voice makes a difference, matters outside of those who think as you do. That the "people" are able to resist the machine and take their destiny in their own hand. I'd like to do my part to make sure that facism is not synonymous with American Democracy. I'd like to know that working class and the poor feel that they, too, are a part of America. Not like those characters in Langston Hughes' poem who not only aren't aloud to Sing America, but are relegated to the Kitchen.




How many of us are trying to break out of the cage, to sing America, but have to clock-in at McDonalds?