Three weeks have gone by.
Not in a flash or a blur, but in a spent succession of jolts and sputtering lurches back and forth--like a person trying to drive a manual transmission for the first time.
Three weeks…
Three weeks of great mental surges, intellectual, and creative rushes forward…
Three weeks…
Three weeks of wasted thoughts, ideas not acted upon, and inspirations ignored and left to wilt…
Three weeks…in which one day job gave way to another day job, in which yard work required immediate and direct attention, in which Memorial Day Weekend fishing took precedence…(btw…we caught 14 walleye…I caught a 21 incher…and 6 11-13 inch crappie).
Yet, still three weeks of shirked self-imposed responsibilities…three weeks of missed opportunities…three weeks of unrealized potential…
Fragments of ideas, thoughts, and plans hatched during those weeks linger in the memory, blowing about like pages of a morning newspaper in a high wind, carelessly left unprotected by a hurried or distracted paper boy.
Strings of words like headlines on the errant wind-strewn pages of the mental newspaper, catch in the conscious attention—dagger-like admonitions leveled at me. My personal scarlet letter in blood red, only seared into a burning mental image: P.
The big P. Procrastination, postponement of an idea, of an opportunity to express myself, putting off writing another diary or piece for Great Lakes,
The BIG f’ing P.
For three weeks, words only dribbled out on the screen…a intro here…a good line there...but each time, dropped…put off…delayed.
For three weeks, upon reading an article, ideas, rhetorical strategies, and biting takes/angles surfaced as ideas, simmered, and eventually boiled…only to cool in an Attention Deficit Disorder moment*.
For three weeks, I have neglected both my duty as a progressive political writer—however small my part—and my duty as editor and chief contributor to greatlakesprogressive.com.
I have, for the last few weeks, allowed the slothful demon of ‘write it tomorrow’ to control my actions, only to find the great ideas I had are now gone, addressed by scores of others, or simply out-dated.
---Narrator’s Interjection: Radical Voice Change Ahead.
So, with Netroots Nation ’11 fast approaching, I call on those of you that (know me, somewhat know, don’t know me from Adam, or meet me at NN11) to help me keep the fire lit under my ass…
I am very excited about NN11—this being my first NN—and I am looking forward to helping out Eclectablog by volunteering some time at the Netroots for The Troops booth on Friday between 5 and 6—you might consider signing up to help out yourself.
I am looking forward to meeting Big E and the other members of Minnesota Progressive Project as they present Managing a State Community Blog.
In general I am hoping NN11 is the trigger I need to fire me back up and shuck off the blahs I have been under lately…
Additionally, for those not familiar with the Twin Cities—I am a local, so if you have any questions or want any suggestions dinner or interesting local attractions, I am more than happy to share tidbits about my community—though I have to admit I am partial to Saint Paul over Minneapolis.
However, there is one REALLY BIG exception to that rule: Matt’s Bar. If you want a true taste of Minneapolis—gotta get a Jucy Lucy at Matt’s (which has been featured on Travel Channel’s Food Wars and on Travel Channel’s Man Versus Food where Adam gives a good run down of good Minneapolis eateries.
Looking forward the next weekend…
Chris Chasteen