Introducing a new blog

And you're on! Cameras rolling! Take one!

You get the picture. This is the first post of my new blog, and quite frankly, I'm not sure what it's all about or where it's going. Which is probably not the best way to start. I've read that the best bloggers write a bunch of posts before going live. And that consistency is everything. The more frequent you blog, the more readers you attract. The more serious you will appear.

I've been talking about blogging for several months now, but the truth is, I just haven’t done anything about it. Except to gree that I need to blog. Then last Monday, while out in the Bay Area visiting my dad, I went and talked to another writer. We were talking about writing and my trajectory. And she said, “You should be blogging.” I told her I agreed and plan to, and then she challenged me.

“It’s so easy to start a blog.” Takes only minutes if that. And somehow in talking, I agreed to commit to having my first post up by today, end of the week, Friday. But like I say, I have no idea what I’m doing or where this is headed. That’s not entirely true. I was going to write about a conference held at Clark University the other day on the future of small cities in New England, but the conference was full, even though I probably could have gotten in as Media, but I hadn’t thought about that until it was too late. I still may blog about that one of these days, as soon as I track down someone who attended or find a report about it. But for now, that’s not a topic I can write much about.

So the question hovered over the last few days: what am I going to write about? And now here it is Friday morning. I hate saying I didn’t do it when I commit to something. So I’m just going to Do It! as Nike says. To that end, I’m comforted by something Jeff Jarvis, a blogger at buzzmachine.com, says. He’s also the author of the 2009 book, “What Would Google Do?” He says the thing about blogging and the Internet and even news, for that matter, is that it can all be updated, corrected, changed based on comments from readers or your virtual community. I like that idea. That tells me it doesn’t have to be perfect out of the gate. And so in some sense this is what the techies call beta. Off Broadway. In rehearsals. Not for prime time.

My idea is to write about the stuff that interests me, professionally and personally, because so often what I find curious or cool or fascinating in life ends up in articles that I write. That’s why, for one, I thought of going up to the conference on small New England cities. Thirty years ago, I moved from California to Hartford, and I remain fascinated how a city that 100 years ago was one of the wealthiest, most innovative cities in America now ranks as one of the poorest. Which is not to say people aren’t trying to make it more livable, something I wrote about in the July issue of Connecticut Magazine.

I’m also interested in the Jewish world, being a member of that tribe, and an active member of my neighborhood shul. I’m also a student of Mussar, an ancient Jewish spiritual practice that’s seeing a modern-day revival, another trend which I’ve written about for a variety of magazines including The Jerusalem Report and Reform Judaism.

I believe, as Dan Millman once wrote in Way of the Peaceful Warrior” that “there are no ordinary moments.” That’s why I love writing narrative nonfiction and working on what Walt Harrington calls “Intimate Journalism: The Art and Craft of Reporting Everyday Life.” Besides big topics, or beats as we called them when I was a daily newspaper reporter, I love writing stories, which by definition have a beginning, middle and end. But more to the point, present an obstacle or conflict to the protagonist. The story is usually about an epiphany or insight in which the subject’s life is forever changed. Those kind of stories inspire me because I too face obstacles or conflicts in everyday life. And when I read or hear about someone who has overcome an obstacle, it gives me hope.

One Chanukah several years ago, our daughter Rachel asked everyone in our family for their favorite quote. She took each person’s quote and made little artsy wooden plaques for all of us and gave them to each of us one of the eight nights. I still have mine hanging on my closet door handle. It’s from Reb Nachman of Breslov, a mystical Hasidic rabbi (1772-1810). It says: “Always remember, you are never given an obstacle you cannot overcome.” And here he’s proving it. I committed to writing about 750 words in my first blog, an obstacle I was convinced I’d get to eventually. But here I’ve just overcome that challenge with one post wrapped and ready to send out into the web that makes up my world. Feel free to comment. And thanks for reading this far!