and down we go

Two days ago I sat at the community table in Lemonjello's coffee, sipping fresh Mind, Body and Soul from their trademark yellow mug.  My open macbook displayed the usual emails, facebook postings, and comic updates as my headphones played the tunes of Bon Iver, Bon Iver, barely out of the shrink wrap.  Eventually I found myself reading something that doesn't grace my screen often enough: a blog.  More specifically, the blog of a writer friend.  To be honest calling her work a blog leaves a funny taste in my mouth.  Her work seems more like a letter, a postcard from a fellow traveler for any and all who would read it.  She writes with sincerity and a big heart, doing so with clarity and grace that you would be hard-pressed to find among many our age.  Her prose is the sort of thing that makes your limbs feel light as a clean breeze on a day soaked with sunshine, or a cup spilling over with cool drink, waking you up to the infinite possibilities that a day brings.  After reading her latest entry I felt that draught stirring in my guts.  I found myself thinking "I really like this.  I want this.  I want this for other people.  I want to do this for people."  Whether or not I'm writing this blog simply as a response or as the awakening of a dormant desire to write for others, I don't know.  I've toyed with the idea of writing a one before, but the papers and projects and practice and concerts and all the other else that holds our attention during the school year shouted it down.  But two days ago was June, today is July, and today is as free as the sky is wide.

And so I give you the red wagon.  Why a wagon?  If you're a Calvin and Hobbes fan, you might get the reference.  More often than not, the longer philosophical discussions had between Calvin and his tiger friend take place in a little red wagon, careening down alarmingly steep hills at breakneck speeds, dodging trees and falling into the occasional gully, creek, or patch of sticker bushes.  As unlikely a place as it is, that little wagon is their platform, their forum, their vehicle for hearing and being heard.  This blog is my wagon.  Where will it take us?  Who knows?  Anything could be waiting behind the next tree, over the next hill, across the next creek.  We have only to step out and trust that whatever happens, it is for good.  So strap on your dungarees and grab your safari hats, 'cause we're going adventuring.