Let's start with a bit of honesty, I despise blogs. For the most part the bulk imaginings, pedestrian narratives and axiomatic insights the web vomits forth from desks, laptops and hand held devices across the world have left me cold. I much prefer open discussion with the trade of ideas and the riposte of criticism and response. If I’m going to read the writings of an individual I need to know their expertise has some bedrock below it, their logic is sound, the insight they present is new to me and they aren’t simply complaining about the assembly instructions for their new grill being in Chinese.

Everyone likes to think of themselves as being insightful, clever, somewhat above the herd, but in reality we're usually just stumbling around in the dark barking at the disturbances of our own flailing. Real insight is like gold, only more rare, the glint strikes you deep when you see it peeking from the bottom of your intellectual pan and you slosh faster hoping to strike it rich only to find there's just enough to keep you prospecting. Unlike the stereotypical mad prospector most of us have a primal urge to share the revelation bestowed us. So with stumbling words and misplaced metaphors we try to spread the gospel of our new sagacity only to find no one understands or even worse the epiphany is given a sour reception as being either flawed or banal. It's staggering to me to think of what might be lost out there among all the noise. Somewhere out there in the cosmic sea of complaints, reports, rumors, doubts, shouts, dreams, tirades and reviews may well be the perfect codex of human reason, a philosophy capable of carrying all mankind to a Utopian realm of unity and understanding, but who could distill it from the maelstrom of words and thoughts? Who would be crazy enough to try?

Not I. I’m no philosopher, no sage laboring in the urban wilderness set to unleash his manifesto on the unsuspecting public. I have an ancient high school diploma, a year of collage (which spiraled into failure) and some fairly broad interests I’ve pursued in reading over the years. Hardly the resume of a grand intellectual. So why bother? Why throw my words into the wind of the internet? Maybe I’m hoping it will be cathartic. Some ideas and thought processes gnaw at your brain like rats in the walls. Throwing them against the wall to see what really stains the wallpaper is the best way to exercise them and file them in neat order for future reference. If nothing else I can look back and think “what a fool I was”. Why keep all the intellectual gear grinding to myself when I can drop it like the load of a renaissance chamber pot onto the heads of unwary net pedestrians?

Next time I hope to explore some of the mechanics behind my musings, but until then, be well.
-Q.