"History may not repeat itself, but it does rhyme a lot.": Muffins, posts count, a closing...

The Beginning: On September 7—with the start of the school year—I began an experiment for myself: write something every week on Sunday regardless of how creative or not I was feeling. Write regardless of whether there was an audience on not. Write to try to sort out the jumble of "stuff" in my head sometimes. It turns out that writing is harder than just making time for it. It is hard to do well (I've had only a few moments in the last year that I really like). It turns out that having a small audience helps. Any more and I might feel too self conscious, any less and I might bag on the writing all together and find another outlet, assuming no one would notice. It turns out that sorting the "jumble of stuff" has helped me a lot...

Summer Break: This my 42nd post, and will be the last until next september. Summer is for beaches, hikes, sleeping in, and eating out; making home movies; watching New York tourists; reading Graphic Novels, and watching HBO television. Summer is about college baseball, and this year's Women's World Cup Futbol. Summer is a time to reinvent my focus and refine my old way of doing. Summer is a time to let the jumble settle. It is my least favorite season, but it allows for so much that is not my usual bread and butter. What a nice contrast!

Today: Today is Father's day. My daughter greeted me with a tentative grimace. She informed me that she was working on a second batch of muffins for me, as the first batch got 1.75 cups of water, not the required .75 cups. While she was working on the second batch my wife was adding Bisquick to the first batch in an experimental attempt at muffin recovery. Meanwhile I had come upstairs to work on this post and heard quiet crying a few minutes later. It seems that the second batch went into the oven without the required 2 eggs. The half cooked batch was removed, rejoined, egged, separated, and returned to the oven. Such sadness over a loving impulse to make a special breakfast for me. The care is not in the quality of the muffin, but in the desire to give...

Growing up is tough... but can also be exciting...
How can we make cakes without cracking a few eggs? How can we learn to be chefs if we cannot make mistakes? How can we learn to get up if we never fall down?

In Season 4 of The Legend of Korra, the Avatar is suffering from the anime equivalent of PTSD. She asks the healer of her village "And ... what am I going to find if ... I get through this?" Katara, the healer, answers "I don't know. But won't it be interesting to find out?"...

Taking Count: Writing this blog has felt like falling down and getting up. It has felt like experimenting with muffins. It has been... interesting... and exciting so far. With 42 posts (what an auspicious number) I have cleared 2500 views. (This is post 43. By the way, I have become interested in the number 43 recently. It seems to be occurring a lot in odd places in my life. I don't ascribe any importance to that except that I keep seeing it. I will return to 43 next fall, for certain.) If I had to pick what people stumble across if they find their way to this blog, the following is today what I choose...