My Life in Scribbles

this is not a picture of me working diligently to craft this blog entry

I am more of a reader than a writer. When I was younger I enjoyed mystery stories. I liked the Alfred Hitchcock 'The Three Investigators' series. The 'Choose Your Own Adventure' books were also good fun.

i read this book 

 I liked who-dunnit sort of stuff. The intrigue and scheming and double crossing. Especially the double crossing. I probably should have pursued a career in espionage...

it was the 1970s and with an elvis-inspired-helmet-head haircut
i took to puzzle solving without much success or any real aptitude

I liked music more than anything else. It was through music that I sought out writers. Van Morrison sang about Jack Kerouac and James Joyce and I felt somehow obligated to check them out.

I take a lot of comfort from song lyrics. At the moment Bob Dylan is resonating for me.

When you ain't got nothing, you got nothing to lose 

You're invisible now, you've got no secrets to conceal 

When I was younger I dabbled with inventing stuff. I had a wacky sense of the world and enjoyed the whimsical. But I can also be organised . I am bit of a list maker. At different times throughout my life I have kept diaries and journals. I have found keeping a journal to be a useful way to give structure and meaning to my thoughts. In writing things down they become a tangible something to work with and reflect on, disagree with, debate, challenge, and craft into some sort of action to take. Journals can provide an opportunity to develop insights. 

I have no burning ambition to be a professional writer or to cultivate a readership. 

What I want to do with my writing is to work on a few personal projects. I have some ideas regarding my family history that I would like to develop for my own sense of accomplishment. And to perhaps leave something of my handiwork behind that somebody at some future point in time might find useful.