Getting Back to Blogging

Taking their time, not the time of others, even monks dabble in writing things down, deep things and lofty things they feel floundering and flourishing in the seemingly private parade of their passions.

Monks, even a secular monk like me, to some, might seem like private people. But there is a difference between private and non-aggressive. Americans often mistake the two. They think that if you know what you're talking about - and even if you don't - you just go on telling it your way, to your friends, to your co-workers, to everybody watching TV if you can. Give it to 'em straight. Tell 'em how it is.

Meanwhile, the monk way seems so old-fashioned, more quietly and patiently composing one's thoughts, sometimes even before blurting them out. What a concept.

Some of you who have followed my travails here (and in life) know that I let the blog ball drop back in late October. I didn't keep up what had become my usual, downright faithful five posts a week, Monday through Friday. Now, the days are getting longer. The sunlight is getting into my fingertips, and I'm feeling the urge again. And so I am going back through notes and the calendar, and I'll get to those days, piecemeal, and most of the days in the weeks to come, I have a feeling.

It is like exercise for the shut ins, the house bound, those with cabin fever, those dejected, those lazy slobs after the holidays, packing the pounds, those with serious depression, even merely the blues. Exercise that gets the heart-rate up charges the endorphins, and it's gold for just about anybody's bloodstream. No wonder exercise, simple exertion in most any form, can be such a body builder and mood booster, too.

Writing is to the mind what swimming or cycling cutting firewood or running or repairing things or even doing the laundry is to the body. The body and the mind are in this together, and they - meaning IT, the human person, body and mind - need excercise. Writing is an excellent form of exercise because, like calethenics and sports, it organizes the endeavor and lines up what needs to be done - moving about and thinking near and far.