Who are you? Who, who, who who? (Pete Townshend)

Who am I to have a blog? What on earth could I possibly have to say to you or to anyone else? Honest answer... probably not very much. I don't really understand blogging, or how it fits into our culture, at least not yet. Having become somewhat obsessed with Facebook (did I really just confess that?), I realized it has many limitations. One being although you have your own individual account, you are limited in how much individual expression it really can have. This has caused me to develop an itch which I badly need to scratch. I want to write, and so I am testing my desire to do so via a blog. So, how does this pertain to you? Well... it doesn't. So then you might ask, "Well, then why are you putting it out there for all to read?" My reply... "I'm not a hundred percent sure!" It's kind of like asking the mountain climber why he wants to climb the mountain (you know the answer.)

Yet, I know that one of the biggest reasons I want to do this is because it scares me half to death. Let's face it, we have found as a culture a portal for a meanness within us that prior to the internet laid dormant for most. Suddenly with the rise of "commenting" on anything out there in cyberspace, even a Mother Theresa can be tempted to unleash her demons behind the safety of a keyboard. On the other hand, if Mother Theresa had a blog (yes, I know she cannot because she has passed,) there most definitely would be people out there who would forego any morsel of respect owed her and spew their vitriolic venom attacking her beliefs, or simply her personhood. Let's face it, it's out there. So, as a bit of a mind expanding exercise, I figured I'd step way out of my comfort zone and put words on page (or screen) and let the chips fall where they may.

What will I share? That'll depend on the day. But probably a wide range of things (hence my calling this blog "With Wide Brush Strokes")... like...

- Why can't I can't get past how much my dogs ears stink and just love the ol' mutt anyway?
- Why do I pretend not to like Lady Gaga, when all I really want to do is be out there in all my glorious Gaganess?
- Are sneakers and jeans (with white sweat socks) fashionable on a man in his 50's and 60's?
- If I have faith and you don't (or vice-a-versa,) does that cancel out any possibility of our having a meaningful friendship?
- If I'm a registered Democrat, and you are a registered Republican (or vice-a-versa) does that cancel out any possibility of our having a meaningful friendship?
- Are we fooling ourselves when we choose to believe in any political parties promises?
- What are the pros and cons of teeth whitening?
- Why am I addicted to HGTV's "Love It or List It?"
- Am I crazy to be pursing the life of an actor later in life (especially as a husband and father?)
- Is it wrong for a man my age to be attracted to Anna Kendrick? And if I am, does that make me a dirty ol' geezer?

I'll put these things out there and much more. I'll be as honest as I can about my life, but I will not seek to have this be a blog that screams, "I HAVE THE ANSWERS," but more "I have questions, what about you?" My life has been one of the young poet to which Rainer Maria Rilke wrote to...


…I would like to beg you dear Sir, as well as I can, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.
Rainer Maria Rilke, 1903 in Letters to a Young Poet

If you're interested in trying to love (and live within) the questions themselves, not search for the answers, and gradually, without even noticing, live our way into the answers... then you are enthusiastically invited to read, and/or subscribe to my blog and share your thoughts. If not, I respect that, and hope we can find another avenue in which to come together.

So as for the title of this post "Who are you?" Well... I'll let that question ring out without giving an answer. It's a good place to start.