Thinking Aloud

Gosh, first blog!

What to write?

The problem is not so much "what can I think of to write?" as "which topic shall I choose first?".

The issue is that I tend to have my fingers in many 'pies' as it were. Even where I live or have lived causes problems. I could write equally about Parbatipur, Dhaka, Paris, Dordogne, Whitehaven, Cambridge, Egypt, Coalville or Wigan. Each of these places I have known and loved (and sometimes hated too) and can easily write about them. But why would you read them?

Why, for that matter, should I write about them? To 'get it off my back'? Well, that's not a bad idea actually! This is, after all, my blog. My first. My baby. Time to 'wax lyrical' about whatever I like.

Maybe I should not choose a place but a subject. My opinions about music perhaps? Or the state of teaching? Tips and hints for teaching or for studying? A trick or two? Hmm... no that will be no easier than choosing a place to write about.

Should I choose myself as a subject. No. Not yet - way too complicated and it is already late. Anything I was to write now would give you a very odd perception of who I am if you don't already know me. Still, in the future I will probably go there.

Could I write about others then? Yes, definitely. I spend hours thinking about others - who they are, what makes them tick, why they are who they are. This I can do. And I have met some amazing and interesting people in my time. Only, you know, most of them are children or very poor, lowly people. Do you really want to read about them? Well, I do and this is my blog after all. But it would be nice if someone other than just me actually read this thing...

Maybe, I should just write about all of it. Yes, lets throw it all in! And lets add politics and religion and music and books and language and, well, tons more. I'll write about it all. Eventually.

But not today.

Today, I just say hi. Welcome to my blog. Please come again and leave a comment or two. See what I have to say. Disagree with it, agree with it. Ask questions. Make me write more about something you liked. Inspire me, hopefully I'll inspire you. There is a lot I want to share with you but I want you to share back. That way we transcend mere 'blogger' and reader (bloggette?) and enter into some level of relationship.

And that, I think, is why I want to write. To connect. With you, with others, with...out there. Because it is only by forming relationships with others, however fleeting and superficial some may be, that we know we are alive. I don't mean existing. I mean really alive. If I do not touch my fellow human being and he or she does not touch me then I am all but dead.

So, here I am, thinking aloud, hoping to touch you in some way and hoping that you will touch me back even with just a simple 'hi' and, in this way, change each other for good. Let's think aloud together.

Here we go then. Good luck.