New Beginnings

2009, I am fairly certain, has already witnessed a fair number of new blogs created, and few of these will amount to anything much. But one, I am absolutely certain, will do so: Mike Barnes has started a blog, a graphomaniac miscellany, which can be found at www.graphomanic.blogspot.com His first post can be found here and is certainly worth a read. It is, like the best of his writing, moving, thoughtful, beautiful, and unexpected. I expect much of what follows will be the same.

Though I urge you all to go read the post in its entirety, here's a sample:

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There was more, yesterday. I drove to Hamilton, where I grew up, and spent the afternoon with an old friend whom I had not seen in a dozen years. We had tea with her elderly parents. When we left, her father, who is shrunken but still fierce, shook my hand for a long time, his grip still strong. We had more tea at a Tim Hortons--I hadn't drunk so much tea in years--and talked and laughed at length. She, too, worries about her children--especially her son--and as we talked, her cell phone rang: her parents, anxious since they had expected her home sooner. She bought two of my books, for herself and for her brother.

For much of the day--for most of it--I knew myself to be a part of the human web of worry and laughter. I knew myself to be a person of gifts. Artistic and intellectual gifts, yes, but before and beyond these, gifts of connectedness, of linking myself closely to others.

I returned home to Heather and the life we have built together here. And I knew, again, that I loved and was loved in return. And that I belonged. Not just here, or there, but anywhere I am.

I am who you will become. As you have many times before, as you will again. (You will not remember this or believe it. But if you read this you may doubt--for half a second--the nullity you perceive in all directions. And that half second of doubt is what I want to purchase. It is what I am banking on.)

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