Don't Do That

Let the wild rumpus start.

From Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak

Don't Do That

It was bring-your-own if you wanted anything

hard, so I brought Johnnie Walker Red

along with some resentment I’d held in

for a few weeks, which was not helped

by the sight of little nameless things

pierced with toothpicks on the tables,

or by talk that promised to be nothing

if not small. But I’d consented to come,

and I knew what part of the house

their animals would be sequestered,

whose company I loved. What else can I say,

except that old retainer of slights and wrongs,

that bad boy I hadn’t quite outgrown—

I’d brought him along, too. I was out

to cultivate a mood. My hosts greeted me,

but did not ask about my soul, which was when

I was invited by Johnnie Walker Red

to find the right kind of glass, and pour.

I toasted the air. I said hello to the wall,

then walked past a group of women

dressed to be seen, undressing them

one by one, and went up the stairs to where

the Rottweilers were, Rosie and Tom,

and got down with them on all fours.

They licked the face I offered them,

and I proceeded to slick back my hair

with their saliva, and before long

I felt like a wild thing, ready to mess up

the party, scarf the hors d’oeuvres.

But the dogs said, No, don’t do that,

calm down, after a while they open the door

and let you out, they pet your head, and everything

you might have held against them is gone,

and you’re good friends again. Stay, they said.

This poem by Stephen Dunn was found in The New Yorker, June 8, 2009.

So... how ya' doin'?

"Falling Man" (Gold Butte, Nevada), by Kenneth Johnson

As Robert Plant once said, "It's been a long time since I wrote in my blog."

Fatherhood, jobs and whatnot have kept me frantically busy and away from the online project I envisioned at the end of 2008. I have interpreted 13 months of inactivity as a definitive sign that the project will not get underway soon. It is time to shelve hope (a common practice these days), and do what one can do.

Let me 'splain 2009. No... there is too much, let me sum up:

I spent the first nine months of this year being run ragged by employment and fatherhood. Thankfully, I was able to sneak in some joyful, notable events: I kept up with my running, including the ING Half-Marathon and The Peachtree Road Race (10k). We traveled to New Orleans for a Liberty Fund conference. I escaped to Baltimore to see the Chelsea / AC Milan soccer match. We visited Sewanee twice. I traversed the country by train, from Atlanta to Tucson.

In October, I turned 40 - thank you, thank you - and celebrated by writing two articles that were published. The first was on the subject of the 17th Amendment and was printed in Roll Call. The second addressed specific questions of morality in the health care debate and was printed in The American Thinker.

Then, at the end of October, I learned that I would have to leave GSU at the end of the year as a result of the university's accreditation process (too many non-Ph.D.s) and everything stopped - again. A full-court job hunt began. It was like having a third (or if you count parenthood, a fourth) job.

The year ended well, with a family (Truslow / Ferguson) Christmas trip to Jekyll Island, Georgia.

2010 will be filled with all sorts of exciting changes, fo' shizzle. I expect so many changes that I doubt I can keep everyone informed... unless I blog it. Watch for right-side updates this week.

So, here we are again.