This morning I have a number of thoughts running through my mind and, as usual, there's the question, "What should I blog about?" Most days that's about as far as I get before other demands of the day take over. So I'll just start and if I don't finish, I can always pick it up another time. That's one of the benefits of blogging, but I've usually approached it the way I write articles and essays: I want a finished product when I'm done, and for this blog, I think I should make some reference to the local community.
In the past week, several things have happened which make me take a new look at this approach. First, the movie Julia and Julie, which my husband and I saw at Showtime theaters in Franklin. (There! at least I've mentioned Franklin.) If you go, don't go on an empty stomach. Midway through the movie a man in front of us got up and came back with the hugest vat of popcorn I've ever seen. And he didn't even share it with anyone!
Although the movie is about cooking and part of it is about Julia Child, who brought the art of French cooking to American housewives back in the 40s and 50s, it is also about a 30-year-old young married woman, living post 9-11 in a cramped New York apartment with her husband and cat and working in a cubicle at an unfulfilling job. Encouraged by her husband, she starts a blog and decides to complete every recipe in her Julia Child cookbook in one year; that's one recipe (and sometimes more) every day for a year.
At first she wonders, Is anyone out there reading this? But she keeps plugging away and initially her husband is thrilled because he reaps the benefits of all those gourmet meals. Eventually, Julie finds out that people are reading her -- even her mother, who initially discouraged her; and even though she doesn't get to meet Julia Child in person, she finds an editor interested in publishing her book. The book was made into a movie -- and that's what I went to see.
Though I don't have aspirations to made a book out of my blog, I will take up Julie's challenge to write something every day for a year. I'm not afraid of running out of topics, because I do a lot of non-blog writing every day and, as I said above, since I'm my own editor and publisher (thanks of course to JS Online NOW) I can end my blog in the middle and pick it up again tomorrow. Someday I'm going to try that -- ending in the middle of a sentence!
Having made that commitment to post something every day, I feel obligated to honor it. There might not be one person "out there" who reads (or cares) about that commitment, but so be it. If anyone is still reading, look for me again tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. These are some of the things on my mind that I'll take up another day:
1) A response to a reader who took the time to comment on "The Environmental Beatitudes."
2) An entire blog devoted to my friend Lu Graef who works on one of the City of Franklin commissions. (Lu always asks me, "So what did you blog about this week?)
3) A blog about "Art in the Gardens," as requested by Jennifer Schmitz. (I love it when local readers ask me to help them with publicity!)
4) "Expect the Unexpected."
5) Life's Little Lessons from the Golf Course.
If you have other ideas, please pass them along. Thanks for reading!
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