About Me

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California, United States
A regular guy studying the country and everything we have spawned to believe, no matter where it leads me. What I express is my truth-pain. What you actively think after you leave my opinion-lair, is yours.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

This Blog is not for you. It's for me ...

I write, .... a lot. Notes, scribblings, post-it's, journals, legal pads ... you name it. It's part of the makeup and muse of my everyday life. There isn't a blank piece of paper that is safe when there's a pen in my hand. They say the human body compensates for that which it is lacking. In my case, there's no finer truth.

I was born with a speech impediment that rendered me painfully devoid of full expression and shy of most social situations. I tried to never open my mouth in public. Over the decades, it has subsided for the most part and only shows its tentacles when my mind is light years in front of my body-mechanics ability to put those thoughts into words. Worst things there are in life. This "ailment", believe it or not; was possibly a blessing. I learned to read and write in voracious capacities in order to make up for my deficiency of speech. In time I learned patience, cadence and better oration. As I grew older, I found those "groves" one gets into that makes one flow in communication. Much like singers never stammer when they sing. Recently, I discovered that I enjoyed making videos and began to post little opinion-clips on social sites like facebook and twitter in the ultimate sign of daring feats. Before I realized it, these actions were a logical step in finding my comfort zone. In some unplanned poetic blast of justice, other forms of expression and physical abilities came to the aide of my one ailing sense. It has been a holistic healing process all along. I've just not realized it until just recently.

This Blog is a natural extension of this process, but not its end-purpose. It's a continuation of what I started six or seven years ago in the Blogosphere and that I now understand has to have a responsible closure. You see, I'm a dad. As a parent we are always wondering what is it that we leave behind for our kids. We question what is the legacy we place at the foot of their influences. This will be one of the things I leave for my daughter to witness, digest and reflect upon. A diary of sorts that can assist her in managing her way through a country and world that is far more complicated than the one I came to know growing up. Each video clip, note, posting or link will, in future years, assist her in navigating the core basics of just being an American Citizen. It won't be perfect, nor is it my intent to be purely objective. I am biased and pliable only to the influences to which I've been exposed. But I will try and question even my own preferences and leanings, no matter how unnatural that may come about. Hopefully she will learn from, agree with, laugh at, or simply scoff at her Dad's intentions. It does not matter what she gets from it, I will feel good just making the effort. I will have given her my reference points so that she can build hers. There is nothing else, is there?

So with this, I hope you enjoy the journey with me. Feel free to post a comment, no matter your angle. Opinions are welcomed.

Onward ...

7 comments:

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  2. Anyone can leave a comment, anonymous or otherwise. If you have a Google account (gmail, for ex) you can log in using that and your Google ID name will appear.

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  3. Eloquent and perfectly spoken. I am speechless...

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  4. So great Dardin! How brave of you to make a record of these "teachings".... There'll be no denying it later! ;P

    Since becoming a parent, I have found myself questioning more than ever my own "preferences and learnings" as I find myself imparting them to my children. And in doing so, I am only beginning to fully realize the power my own parents had in the formation of my ideas about The World, and the responsibility one can feel well into adulthood to uphold, or at least maintain the appearance of upholding, those notions, even when I no longer agree with all of them.

    It's funny how, even as a married woman and mother of three, I still alter my "life" when my parents are visiting..... Not sure yet if it's out of respect or fear; Maybe both.

    I just hope that by accepting and forgiving my own parents' "humanness", my children will have the same mercy on me when they begin to question some of the ludacris things I will unintentionally but inevitably poison them with.

    Good luck! I look forward to another parent's perspective!

    Crystal O'Dea

    (BTW, I hear we are both Pentecostal PK's which will make it exceedingly more interesting for me.)

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  5. Thanks Ginna ;-) This is just the intro, ... I hope the meat of the future content leaves you just as impressed!

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  6. Crystal,
    Thanks for the comments. I agree that being a PK gives us an unusual filter through which we see things in many a ways. I had the same experience with Dad. On the one hand, I had to cede to the image he represented as a Pastor, yet on the other hand, I longed for the times he let his hair down and was just "dad", ... without the ceremonial baggage that came with it.

    There is no proven way .... this is mine. I'm deathly afraid of leaving the planet too soon without leaving some tangible lessons that she can keep watching / reading, when her maturity allow it. I'm sure this project will osmose into something completely different that I envisioned, but no matter the end-result, ... I will feel better for knowing she has something more than the material things I leave behind ;-)

    My best to Tim ... and the 3 Muskateers ;-)

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  7. I would like to thank those that sent me private comments regarding this little venture of mine. The feedback and reaction has been enlightening, to say the very least. I am working on the first video-commentary which should be posted in a day or to dealing with the concept of "American". I hope it opens up the can of worms in you, ... that is most certainly did in me as I was filming ;-)

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