Turns out, I do have a blog

I was considering starting one of these tonight. So, like any other scientist (of which I am not) I decide to check out my closest friend's blogs...see what other people write about, see what other people read. As luck may have it, one of these said friends (Julia) called in the middle of my research, and thus we got on the topic of blogs right away. At which point it was revealed that Julia had read my one, and only, blog post. Using the term 'post' loosely, of course, because, IT WAS NEVER MEANT TO BE POSTED!! Seriously, it was just an experiment. Apparently, my fear that my random, pointless, self-serving thoughts would be published, in real time, as they were being written, was well founded. But, upon further scrutiny, I found that my one accidental post was not too terrible, not to self-centered, even mildly entertaining. And thus, sets the bar for any future communication...My mission statement, if you will. Let the "not too terrible, not too self-centered, even mildly entertaining" games begin!

Our conversation further evolved into what kinds of things I would one day like to discuss on said unintentional blog, and it seems, I may have many stories that might fit in the average person's attention span. So, I expect to be checking in a little more regularly, and I fully intend to one day limit my reliance on the following words: and but for yet so. But for now, I'll work with what I've got.

I feel I must explain the title of my previous post, 'Glas'. 'Glas' is the Slovenian word for 'Voice'. I know this because I once had the unique opportunity to travel to Yugoslavia (back when it was 'Yugoslavia', in 1991) to attend the Pen International Writer's Conference in Lake Bled. (Which is effing beautiful....go there, now.) We also went to Budapest, Hungary; Lucerne, Switzerland; and Venice and Verona, Italy. This is neither relevant nor important, but requires words to explain, thus making this post seem more substantial. In Budapest, we were supposed to read a poem, which our good friend Boris Novak, a Slovenian who spent a semester as a visiting professor at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga (go Mocs!) translated for us. As you may have gathered, the particular poem that I chose to share was called 'Voice', and started like this:

Here is my coat, my voice like bravery, my head
is safe and warm. And these are my worn shoes, they too
trust my feet, who have promised me all they can carry.

I can't remember the rest.