I think, therefore I won't

Basically, the problem is one of philosophy—my philosophy. More precisely, my new philosophy: do only what you have to.

Many years ago, when I was in the seminary (yeah, it’s even hard for me to believe), one of our philosophy instructors, an intense and brilliant young man by the name of Jim Heisig, taught us this: Philosophy implies action. In other words, one cannot lay claim to holding a philosophical principle unless one is actually living a life that exemplifies that principle.

Ergo (for some reason, ‘ergo’ is a big-deal word in Philosophy 101, something to do with logic, as I recall), I am thrown into immediate conflict with writing this blog and the several others I have launched. Obviously, blogging is hardly a necessary activity. In fact, I undertand that, contrary to appearances, the vast majority of human beings on this planet do not blog. Go figure. And yet, over time, I set myself the standard of writing four blogs every week.

What the heck was I thinking?

Well, I’ll tell you what I was thinking: I needed to write. For purposes of clear writing and even clearer thinking, I wanted to write in a public forum, where my thoughts and beliefs could be subject to challenge and testing, whether anyone cared to or not. So far, no one has, but I reckon that’s due more to lack of readers rather than the strength of my notions and their presentation.

But why the (often missed) goal of a weekly schedule? Simply put, because of personal conceit—and enough said on that topic. That, and I didn’t want the blogs to appear neglected or abandoned to the many readers I don’t even have.

So, in an attempt to bring practice more into line with my recently articulated new philosophy—do only what you have to—as well as to meet the writing urges from which I suffer, I will make a weekly entry into this Uncle Genie blog, my Uncle Genie’s Other Blog and my Uncle Genie’s Deep Space blog, but it may often be only to say “Nothing.” The remaining blog, Uncle Genie’s Cook’s Book, is more casual in purpose and design and doesn’t seem to warrant scheduled tending.

After all, this was supposed to be fun, or at least anxiety reducing. Gotta get right back to where we started from. (Maxine Nightingale)

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