The Pumpkin Blog

I gave birth to a pumpkin today.

Anyone who writes knows that occasionally there are projects that we start with enthusiasm, spend time and energy on and bring to completion, only to find that we hate the finished article. What to do with such a creation? If we have any sense at all, we file them in the waste paper basket, where they belong.

Today, in my foolishness, I wrote something that may have been growing in my head for about thirty years. But it was premature and stillborn, a truly awful thing. It was only the pressure to blog that made me attempt it in the first place and now I see that one should never give in to so mean a motivation. If I strive for quality and truth, nothing written purely to fill a space should be allowed to sully the blog.

Of course the blog varies in quality. None of us can touch the sky forever. But we can, at least, try for the heights, accepting that sometimes we will not attain them. Even those pieces that do not soar to one's personal best have value in that they complement the ones that define the peaks; they are the brow upon which the crown rests.

But fillers should have no place in the blog. They have their purpose in that they teach us not to force what is not ready, but, like the "parts that are unpresentable", they need to be hidden from public view.

I considered posting this "pumpkin" as a bad example, purely to show how badly I can write when poorly motivated, but have realized that this would serve no purpose, apart from keeping me to my aim of one post a day. Some might find value in the thing and praise it; they might even be right, for I would not be the first writer to be a terrible critic of his own work. But that is not the point. To me, this pumpkin is not good enough; it does not do justice to the thought that I have harbored for so long. It goes back into the cooking pot, perhaps for later retrieval.

So what am I saying? Essentially I'm talking to myself, laying down some ground rules for the future of this blog. By putting this out for all to see, I am creating a rod for my own back, an "encouragement" not to break my own rules in a moment of weakness. And, if you see me post an obvious filler, something just there to make up the numbers, please feel free to shove this posting in my face with cries of, "What about this then, hey?"

Who got me into this blogging business anyway? I need a scapegoat...