It’s dusty around here….
This is my first post since my trip to the Philippines almost a year ago. I depart for Brussels tomorrow, so I suppose it’s time to fire up the ol’ blog again.
I’ve been told I’m a slow writer; I prefer to think of myself as methodical. (I’ve rewritten this paragraph a half-dozen times.) Blogs demand a completely different approach — casual, off-the-cuff, dare I say stream-of-consciousness. Rather than reconcile my habits with reality, I’ve found it more convenient to ignore the blogosphere. (Do they still call it that?)
Writing is hard, especially when you feel like it’s important to get it right.
When I was in the Philippines, I witnessed a rawness that ranged from beautiful to chilling: potbellied children climbing through sewage; a knot of spectators cheering for street chess; a government official and a rebel chatting about their families. I felt, and still feel, an enormous pressure to convey these experiences properly. Tarnishing them with hackneyed storytelling seems like a cosmic injustice, and it weighs on me whenever I set fingers to keyboard.
But if the alternative is letting those moments slip away, unexamined for fear imperfection, then I suppose it’s time to grow some balls. I can’t promise I’ll update this every day; I will say that I’m going to make it my sandbox for practicing, experimenting and growing as a writer. (And photographer, but that’s a different post.)
Adam Aton 