MAY 2011: OUT LIKE A LAMB...

And now, a letter from the editor:

Wow. Never has this blog seen such a dry spell as the one that just (hopefully) passed during the previous month. Six whole posts, an all-time low. To paraphrase Slim Pickens’ Taggart, I am depressed. This past month has been a low point in a lot of departments for this writer, one which was highlighted by a brief visit from a dear friend that was just the sort of Deus ex machina delight the doctor ordered. (The other Deus ex machina scheduled for the month failed to occur on schedule.) But largely it’s been a struggle, the details of which I’ll spare you, the results of which have been an alarming lack of time and energy to devote to the business and pleasure of writing. The upside of the work I do for a living is that when times are slow (which they often are, given the cyclical nature of the business) they are excruciating, especially financially, but there is often time to do a lot of writing, which offsets the psychological burdens of the other situations being slow at work creates. But when business is doing well, as it is now, the downside is that there’s so much work that the things I do to sustain myself creatively and intellectually get shoved into the ditch rather brusquely, and it’s a hell of a job dragging them back up onto the road. To those who expect more from this blog and this writer than I was able to give last month (and really, since the year began), I offer my apologies and my promise to get back on track. It’s not an obligation (though one obligation, near finished, remains outstanding), but a love, and in those times when I’d rather slump in a chair it’d be good to remember that. Getting paid for writing wouldn’t make me any more energetic; it’s only the desire to write something that can’t wait to get out which does that.

So thank you all for your patience and not abandoning the ship in the way I seem to have over the past month. These times have not been good, for me or for others under my roof, but I feel I have no choice but to now sincerely operate under the blind optimistic assumption that by this time next year, if not sooner, some of the most trying obstacles life has to offer will have either fallen away or become less distinct and foreboding on the landscape. And if they don’t, well, at least maybe I’ll have the motivation to write about them. It’ll be nice if you’re there to read those posts too. Last but not least, thanks to all my friends, virtual as well as in 3D, all of whom have been sources of inspiration, pleasure and downright amusement for me since the going has been rough. I am grateful for each and every one of you and hope I can be as good a friend to you all as you have been to me.

Onward...

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