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 ...the "500+ Words About..." Blog

Welcome to the start of the "500+ Words About..." Blog. That's the official title, though for everyday purposes, I will call it simply "500 Words". 

The goal of 500 Words is to fulfill the basis writing goal to write something new every day. For most people, that's going to be focused about either one specific topic, or working toward one book, or directed toward one cause. Not this. This will be about whatever I happen to find worth writing about that day. 

There is a simple and compelling reason for this lack of focus. I have found that if I try to limit myself to one topic, I will fail. It will end in a fiery death at some point, because I get a few ideas, and strike while the iron is hot, but then something happens and I draw a blank, another project shows up, etc. 

So the idea is to make this different. How, you ask? First, the lack of focus mentioned above. Writing 500+ words about "whatever I happen to be thinking about today" is easier than 500+ words about "the thing I thought was important enough to talk about last week (or month, or year) but isn't coming to me right now". So no more trying to fit this chaotic mind into an orderly "cause".

Next, and this is the scary one for me, I will be inviting people to read this chaos. If you happen to be one such person, that means I trust you enough for me to consider what you say about this worth thinking about, if only for a second. My life, like my discussions, are not confined to one topic; I have people who know me for one thing, others who know me for something else, still others for another topic, and...you know. But now I have the urge to take these various topics and let people realize that the same person whom they know for X also does Y, and Z, and, whatever. Some of you will think less of me, others will think more of me, but in the end, everyone reading this will be exposed to something new. 

This leads into the next point: Part of what I have wanted to do behind the scenes is to take this intellectual soup and crystallize it into a coherent whole united by something other than, "That's what I think". But, after pondering this for some time now, I now realize that I am asking myself to step outside of myself and look at myself as if I were someone else. But despite my ability to do things that some people can't do, this is beyond my capacity. So if I invited you here, it's because I know there is a chance that you can give me the insight into myself that I am too entrenched to see. 

So I now have a sticky note on my computer with the number 500 on it. This is my reminder to myself to write 500 words on something. Anything. No matter what. Even if it's about how I don't want to write 500 words today. This is the next difference: having the reminder nearby will force me to actively reject it if I don't want to do something. 

Microsoft Word tells me that I have crossed today's limit. For lack of a better reason to continue, I will end here today. But stay tuned for the next "500 Words". 
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