Finally, A Real Beginning

OK. Alright. I've thought about all this blogging strategy (read from how to's)...all this 'I want to blog'...and 'I just need to do it' but it never amounts to anything. How, just how can I get myself to start blogging? And not just blogging to rant, or complain when I'm depressed, but to create something regularly that others can relate to?

So I asked my friend Rashi, 'If you needed advice, info, or just needed to talk, what would you come to me about?' She smiled like she knew just what to say. 'People,' she said. 'I would ask you about what people were like in different parts of the world that you've seen.'

Thinking over what she said, I finally settled that she was right. In my travels, in my urban explorations of New York, in my unemployment, I was out discovering everyday stories of people and how they came to be. I--think it's my constant quest towards humanity, to find struggle, tension, triumph, agony, happiness, defeat, and exhilaration in all its different forms in all our lives.

Afterall, Subwayland, a collection of stories of people who meander through the NYC subway system, is one of my favorite books. And today, I did wonder about the homeless woman sitting across from me in the subway. She was lying across two seats, with a big black jacket wrapping wher baby tight to her bosom, huddling her face and baby behind the depths of her fur lined hood. What was her story? Where did she come from?

I have a lot of questions unanswered. And I would like your help. Maybe you could tell me whether most of the homeless guys on the subway grew up autistic, or with mental disabilities, or just had neglectful parents. Or whether my perceptions about our world and it's environmental problems are wrong. Or how it's possible that people in third world countries don't need to brush their teeth.

My hope is that you might put in your two cents, provide your insight and knowledge. Educate me. Spare me from being the most clueless person ever.