Trivialities:

I thought I might try something new in my eighth month as a would-be blogger. It is a “point to the passer” (see Dean Smith) moment as I acknowledge my high school English teacher Mrs. Belfiore. I give her hindsight credit for whatever modest progress I have made in letters since those days (I was much better in math and science back then). I say “in hindsight” because I absolutely hated reading in those days. Maybe it was a form of selective ADD. More likely it was just laziness and procrastination. Any book thicker than your thumb was a no-go, and even then… Anyway, she assigned us to keep a longitudinal journal for the semester. It was to be in traditional style to document your everyday thoughts and musings. It was a terrific idea! Only I blew it off, at least until the very end of term when I was up late “cramming” entries — using different pens and trying subtly different handwriting variations in order to mimic faithfulness to the original task (come to think of it, I think I did it with the same Jeff L. of S’Battle fame). She, of course, could spot the fakery in it but managed a choice few words of encouragement. As I recall, she liked the journal’s title “Generalities” and a few of the more spirited entries. Funny enough, I actually started my own journal writing in college just a few years later (I still have them!) and have done so off-and-on for decades. So her little trick worked after all! And I suspect that the writing ultimately got me to the reading for the discovery of new ideas and sources of inspiration (I’m still a slow reader who underlines a lot). These new, intermittent blog posts called “Trivialities” will therefore be made in her honor. It’s a similar open canvas approach that she endorsed, but the plan — for these austere times — is to delve into all things less than serious. Sub-serious! Because who really has time for all that, anyway…??