My father has worn a lot of hats: musician, athlete, educator, veteran, ex-aspiring lawyer, inventor, husband, father, grandfather. Last week, mostly out of his own tremendous curiosity and excitement about both the new medium and this unprecedented primary season, he added a new one: blogger.
Although he is highly creative (he's written original songs and teaching books, for example), my dad doesn't think of himself as a quote Serious Author unquote, but as a citizen with a point of view ---and now, thanks to cyberspace, a microphone.
We've been chewing on various topics pertaining to this election for months now. Due to saturation coverage on networks and blogs alike, there's precious little we haven't talked about. We're happily boggled at the collapse of the GOP's rule that began with 2006 and seems destined to be repeated this fall.
And yet...Dad has his own ideas, of course, about what blogs, telecast news, magazines, should be writing about. We love the English language in my family, and we take offense at its misuse, especially for nefarious purposes. Perhaps nowhere in human life is it more difficult to call something by its actual name ("War" instead of "Incursion"; "Torture" instead of "Waterboarding") than in politics and governance.
We've talked about this stuff for ages. Ultimately, I suggested that he might want to put his take on all this down on paper---or in blog form. Naturally, my dad asked: "What's a blog?"
Well, now he knows. Because of his lifelong love of jazz, he has decided to call his effort Swungnotes. It's located at http://inegales.blogspot.com ... and well, see for yourself. He'll be writing about how language gets distorted for political purposes, and providing some helpful translations; about John Edwards (and how disappointed he was when the senator ended his campaign); about lots of things...I also expect him to write about his love of cats, and why we still worship Marilyn Monroe. It's very nearly the last thing he ever expected to find himself doing, but...well, 2008 seems to be a year for change, for adventure, for imagination. And not just for my dad.