(w)Rite of Spring
Today is another New Year, this time for many Iranians, called Nowruz. It’s a new one for me–I enjoy the absurdity of marking each new year as it arises, so it’s nice to have another one under my belt. Gregorian new year, Chinese new year (zhēng yuè), Nowruz, summer solstice, Rosh Hashanah, Ras al-Sana, winter solstice…Wikipedia has a fairly detailed article, and I note that there are so many different New Years that I’ll probably not mark them all after all. I could just delve completely into the bizarre and recognize each day as the beginning of a new year, as my dear friend Daniel Pearson suggested, but I think my interest in it stems more from anthropological curiosity than sheer calendrical whimsy.
(Rest assured, I possess no dearth of whimsy, calendrical or otherwise.)
The point of this blog is to fan the flames of inspiration. I participated in (and won!) NaNoWriMo last year, and in the process of that chaos realized, or perhaps remembered anew, that I possess an intense passion for writing, expression, poetic arrangement of words. I have used other sites as outlets for this in the past (LiveJournal being the primary one), but when I turned thirty, I made a commitment to make my own mark rather than suborn my creativity to someone else’s domain. Moreover, the only way to improve one’s writing is, well, to write. So here we are.
Many subjects will be on display here. Some are personal, such as my struggles with how my brain works in comparison to the rest of the world, or philosophical meanderings that I wrestle with. Some are experimental, meant to allow me to play in new sandboxes, to get a feel for different ways of expression. Others are more subject-specific, be they articles on gaming mechanics, topics of a political bent, or hacking around in my operating system of choice. But all are open for criticism, discussion, and friendly advice–I offer these things in the spirit of open communication that I may foster its growth around me.
To that end, I am committing to writing here at least one public post a day for a year, starting today. I may write more, but I will hold myself to this minimum. I invite you to participate with me–to call me out if I slip, to share insights, to praise or condemn, or to dig deeper where there is more to be discovered. No topic is verboten, nor tone off-putting. I demand only honesty. Indeed, I favor that over tact. After all, if you’re not going to leave it all out on the field, what’s the fucking point?