The Tao and Te, Redux

According to Google definitions, a resolution can mean many things. Perhaps the most widely known definition applies to New Year's: "A decision to do something or behave in a certain way". I always hesitate to talk about New Year's resolutions, because I have found that the fastest way to "jinx" a statement like this is to talk about it. I also believe that the Google definition lacks an important addendum; "a drunken promise with one's self which never lasts beyond the month of January."

Too often we fall prey to "the best of intentions" and never follow through with our hopes and dreams. My partner and I watched "Up" yesterday and the speechless sequence which lets us observe the courtship and life sequence of the main character is heartbreaking in that, with the best of intentions built on love, the protagonist and his wife never achieve their life's goal together. We always wait until everything is in the right place at the right time before we begin to follow our dreams. If you wait until everything is perfect, chances are you will never begin. Case in point, this blog.

In 2006 I had the incredible opportunity to work and travel in South America for 100 days. A web designer friend of mine created a website for me that I could use as a travel blog to write and post photos, called "The Tao of John". I updated it religiously while traveling, but ultimately found I had nothing to write about upon my return and the blog quickly dissapeared. I was left with close to 200 pages of written experience which I intended to edit and attempt to publish as a book; "100 Days in South America", but this never came together.

I could give dozens of reasons why this never worked out, but try on a few of these for example:

1. I didn't know how to submit a manuscript to a publisher.
2. I needed to find an agent first.
3. I needed to figure out how to hire an agent first.
4. My writing style changed throughout the "book" and needed huge revisions.
5. I had never published anything before and therefore, likely would need to self publish if I wanted to see my book in print.
6. I needed to learn how to self publish.

You can see this list kept growing and was never ending. All my life I've dreamt of becoming a published writer, and when I was closest to having a product I was proud of that could have become a real book, my mind thought of great ways to rationalize why it wouldn't work. So here we are, nearly 4 years later, no further ahead.

At some point I decided that I needed to revisit a blog experience. If I started posting and writing about my experiences again, then maybe, just maybe I would find the creative person inside me once more.

So consider this the start of something.