going public with my stuff. ouch.

Well, I don't know if any one will read this blog, and it is not really about anyone reading it as much as it is about me being public with my Writing Colleagues in ED395 about my own practice. It's unfair to make them do things, and then show them to me, if I am not going to do them myself. And it is already near the 4th week of the quarter (!) and I am no where near the goals I set for myself. Yes, yes. Lot's of things have come up: trying to formulate the ideas for the funders, giving them feedback (the funders) on their ideas, renewing our Library of Congress grant, the Margaret Jacks talk, yadda yadda yadda. Same old story Sam: I can always find "legitimate" reasons why the really tough writing nuts don't get cracked, or don't even get worked on. So, I'm outing myself in this blog: perhaps it will help me be honest with myself, and see (and work on) patterns that are less-than-productive.

So to be clear. The goal is very simple. I have been working, on and off, on the Zinn paper (a critique of Howard Zinn's People's History) for a good five months. I have an outline; I have a to-do list; I have lots of notes and lots of stuff to read. I just haven't since the time in Jerusalem (itself spotty) made the time for dailiness. I was going to write "had" in the previous line, "had the time." But Silva is right. It ain't 'had'; it's make. So, I'm going to use this blog as my touch chart--right out there for anyone to see. But mostly it is a commitment to myself. Practice what you preach, bro. Easy to dispense all this soothsaying wisdom when you find succor in doing email rather than facing ghosts. I know so well that when you visit ghosts every day they just wither and reveal their true selves as bodiless wisps. Only when you don't put the fanny in the chair on a daily basis do these ghosts take on such dastardly dimensions. It's all in the head Sam.

A word about the zinn work. And clarifying the goal. There is enough stuff for the book-- a book of my essays, but I don't want to work on this prospectus until I have this essay done, or near done. It doesn't have to be an opus. Just get down the ideas I have now.