It is what it is

Bumper Stickers

I've been noticing more bumper stickers lately. Election years seem to bring out a lot of creativity in the bumper sticker market. Stickers I've appreciated lately include: '2004 - the end of an error' and 'Jed Bartlett for President' (I guess you can figure out my politics from those two). A few nights ago while we drove to the city we passed a Honda Insight with a Kerry bumper sticker on it. That seemed fairly redundant. Is there really anyone out there driving a Honda Insight who is going to vote for Bush?

I've never been a bumper sticker person. I'm not really sure why. I think of myself as being as passionate as the next person about what I believe in, and not afraid to share my opinions (in fact, one of my brother's ex-girlfriends referred to me as a loose cannon for how freely I shared my opinion.) And yet, no bumper stickers. I guess I just don't know what the point is. I really doubt that anyone's opinion was ever changed by reading a bumper sticker. What is someone going to say - 'Hmm, i've never thought about it that way, but gee, that's a cool car so they must know what they're talking about?' And do I really need to either a) preach to the choir or b) point out to people driving multi-ton vehicles that I think their beliefs/values are full of shit? Then again, perhaps I'm just saddled with my father's view that they just lower the car's resale value.

Why blog?

My husband Ryan has finally convinced me to start a blog. I love writing and he claims I'm good at it (just one of the reasons I married him), but i have a huge Voice of Judgment (a topic discussed in Michael Ray's book)  that tends to stop me from committing my thoughts to paper and an even bigger Voice of Judgment that stops me from sharing those thoughts that do make it onto paper. He's convinced me that blogging will be a good jumpstart for me to start writing more regularly so that I'll stop just wanting to write and actually write.

I'm hoping that the free-form, seat-of-the-pants nature of blogging doesn't end up feeling like those emails you send in an emotional state but then regret after you've hit the send button. At least with blogging, I can edit, or delete. But right now, my goal is actually a little less editing, a little more free form sharing, less judging. Guess that's my way of saying that some of these early entries might really be crap.