Onward

Tap. tap. Is this thing on? ha. So …  a funny thing happened on my way to world domination via creative endeavour. If you look at the date of my last blog entry and this one, you’ll probably figure it out. Yeah, that’s right. The Pandemic.  I’m not sure if it’s formally capitalized or not but it should be. It was a seismic event which shifted everything sideways and turned all my grand plans as useless as socks. No, that’s not right. Socks are infinitely useful, particularly at this moment in the midst of a coold rainy May day. I think they first leapt to mind because without toes stuffed in them, socks are generally balled up, tossed aside, awaiting laundry day and the grand adventure of the dryer. Or, you know, all droopy and uninspired which pretty much describes the state of my grand plans at the time.

I did document some of those inctial days as the death counts ticked upwards and the my sense of peril mounted, but I felt no need to publicly share those thoughts. Someday, maybe, but at the moment, it seems ill advised and mistimed.  The world is hard and uncomfortable enough right now. In fact, if I’m being honest, resuming this blog might be ill advised and mistaken in just the same way. I’m a little superstitious about it. We’re living in a time where life seems imperilled in another way, where it all seems to be slipping sideways (or maybe backwards?) once again. But I don’t mean to talk politics just now, Let’s attribute it to Pluto in Aquarius and other upcoming astrological transits of the rare and concerning sort and move on quickly to what brings me back here, back to blogging. In part, I think it’s nostalgia for a time when the internet was simple, when I didn’t spend any brainpower thinking about what tech bro was profiting off my creative output and future. I think there’s a distinct appetite for that. I see “creators” casting about for a return to that arena, many people asking where do we go now? What’s next? What’s safe and unsullied (or at least as safe and unsullied as the internet can be). I have no answer to that except that this space here? Is mine. Well, mostly. I pay for it. I created it (with Wix tools and templates).I’m not aware of any crushing ethical issues with it atm. It seems a reasonable place to withdraw.

And perhaps more importantly to me, it feels like time. Time to pick up those balled up socks and plans and get moving again. In spite of everything.Because of everything. I didn’t stop being creative in the span that elapsed between when I first started this space and now. I mean, there have been many steep challenges even beyond The Pandemic and all. But when the energy was right, I kept writing. I kept drawing. I kept taking photographs. I kept dreaming. And now I’m ready to document that again here, to share some of that process in a meaningful (to me anyway) manner. That seems hopeful. That seems brave and valiant and worthwhile. That’s probably overstating it by a mile (or some measurement less cliched) but still it is a tiny wee bit rebellious, yeah? In an environment where doom casting is the default? I’m thinking of a specific Carson Ellis (https://www.carsonellis.com ) illustration of a banner bearing a knight astride a horse emblazoned with the word Onward. It’s lovely and heroic and perfectly put. Onward. Ever onward. And also, welcome.