About

The idea of doing a blog never before occurred to me, but having been given the opportunity, I find it a welcome challenge at the start of my ninth decade on the planet. I hope it will allow me to find at long last unity in diversity, exploring several distinct concerns that constitute my private and professional life, my academic identity and my engagement as a citizen, and fulfill an ambition to write more poems than in the recent past.  I hope, also, that it will stimulate enough of a response to frame dialogues over time on a variety of themes, and that I will not feel either overwhelmed or completely on my own while navigating through cyberspace.

I am not sure, of course, that the interest in this venture will extend much beyond those who are family or unconditionally loyal friends, or even in such close quarters. Because I have had strong involvement with a number of activist struggles over the years, my awareness has to some extent been shaped by happenings in public space. My scholarly life, which has always been in tandem with this activism, is not likely to be of much interest except possibly to others working on similar problems from congenial perspectives. Only time will tell.

I hope that this blog will over time become interactive, a way of engaging in digital communication about shared concerns and common interests.

For me, also, it will be a continuing experiment with lots of questions to answer. Will anyone take note? Can I sustain my own effort to communicate regularly? Will the blog assume a predominantly political character? Or will it serve primarily as an outlet for mostly suppressed literary and philosophic interests? Will it come to please or embarrass relatives and friends?

All I know is that for me at this moment I am about to dive into an unknown sea from a dizzying height!

With the experience of a year and a half, I have become aware that there are many diverse comments that have responded to my posts. I welcome free and open discussion, provided there seems to be a constructive intent and the views submitted are expressed in a civil manner, but I do not necessarily endorse the views of or agree with every comment that is published and do not have the time to respond to all comments. I also lean toward inclusiveness, and have allowed comments on the blog that others may find objectionable, but have excluded some that are personally vindictive or encourage ethnic or religious hatred.