beginning

“What are you doing now?” he asked.

“Do you keep a journal?”

So I make my first entry today.

So starts Henry David Thoreau’s journal, which (I hear) went on for approximately 20 volumes before that infamous quarrel with God (of which Thoreau was apparently hopelessly unaware) ended his writing career some years later. I hesitate to invoke the words of such an oft-quoted hero of writers here, being that (1) I am exactly 9 pages into my first reading of Civil Disobedience, and therefore have had insufficient time to elevate the author to heroic status, and (2) I am some 100 words into my first blog entry, and therefore have had insufficient time to establish myself as being, indeed, a writer.

When faced with such daunting tasks as this that lay before me now – the goal of writing my own 20 volumes, perhaps puncuated now and again with a particularly witty essay that might stand on its own and serve some purpose for a Good great or small, hopefully stretching my words across a great many more years that were afforded Thoreau – I often speak silently to myself the words of Confucius (another great thinker of which I am most completely ignorant):

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

So I take my first step today.