Ahem… February 28, 2008

*Taps Mic*

Umm… Hello? Is this thing on?

Good. Here I am. I have a half an hour before I need to leave so I am going to use this time to outline what purposes, goals, and aims (three words that mean the same thing) I have for this blog. I have had too much on mind in the last year and not enough time to verbalize it all. Usually when I start talking it is with purpose and conviction, though the former quite often gets trumped by the latter and I find myself in awkward situations where people are staring back at me or avoiding eye contact all together. Just yesterday I decided that I want to form a running club here at Queen’s University. This happened while I was walking to class and thinking about how poorly I had been paying attention to my physical well-being since graduating from high school. If you are a former runner you know exactly what I mean. As soon as you quit, you actually start to see your body physically change from a lean, low-BMI, carb burning string bean into a butternut squash. Nobody was around to here my idea so I resolved to go running that evening as a compromise.

However, telling somebody your ideas is often fruitless unless that person cares about what you have to say at that given moment in time, rather than crushing your dreams with some sort of rebuttal. When a monologue turns into a true dialog, we witness that which separates us from nature: the exchange of ideas for the betterment of the individuals. In those rare and sweet instances where a dialog turns into a discussion, you can see into the other person’s soul. Discussions usually occur unexpectedly and with the people we don’t try to hold close to our hearts, making them all the sweeter.

I was never the kind of person who did things for the sake of doing them. I don’t go to rallies, write poetry, or take my laptop into public places so people can see that I know how to type. I don’t pay money for other people to make my coffee or feel like I should be ashamed of my nationality. I have no desire to create a blog because it is hip or because it is expected of a white protestant middle-class American university student like myself. Instead I see the purpose of this as a conversation starter. I promise that I will not hide behind my LAN line. What you read here will be exactly who I am, what I believe, and what my convictions are (three phrases that mean the same thing!). The highest goal for educational institutions should be teaching people how to think, not what to think. Likewise, the purpose of a web log (a “blog” if you will) is not to be a means for discussion, because that is impossible. Rather it should provoke people to speak face to face. If I write something objectionable or noteworthy, confront me on it. This is how we make ourselves into better people. Disallowing ourselves to be numbed by the anonymity of the internet is a worthwhile goal. However, whether or not this leads to anything is up to me and you, but it’s worth my free time.

Thirty minutes are up. Time to go.

-optionaltoaster