"I would that my tongue could utter the thoughts that arise in me." (Tennyson)

.....I just got hold of a copy of Mark Twain's autobiography from our library. It has been on the best seller list for awhile. But I was stunned to see that this volume had over 700 pages, which I suppose is OK, for Twain had a long life--but the text is in Times Roman font of about 9 pts.--which is very, very small and just about unreadable for me. And this is only the first volume! There are three volumes altogether. When did this guy have time to write "Huckleberry Finn" and "Tom Sawyer"? But I found that Mark Twain wrote his autobiography in about the same way I am writing my blog; that is, in no particular order and only when some subject or idea popped into his head. As he put it in June 1906 he had finally found the "right way to do an Autobiography" was to "start at no particular time of your life; wander at your free will all over your life; talk about the thing which interests you for the moment; drop it the moment its interest threatens to pale, and turn your talk upon the new and more interesting thing that has intruded into your mind at the meantime."  Now, if this isn't a pretty good image of a blog, I wouldn't know what is. I call mine a "journal", but it is really a kind of autobiography.

.....So, now that I have found something that I have in common with Mr. Clemens, there is something that we do not have in common. He opted not to publish his autobiography until 100 years after his death--which is now. And his reason is quite logical; "...A book which is not published for a century gives the writer a freedom which he could secure in no other way." This made him free to express unconventional and controversial thoughts about religion, politics, and "the damned human race" without fear of hurting anyones feelings or of ostracism. "None of us likes to be hated, none of us likes to be shunned," he wrote. I, of course, have expressed my opinions and thoughts as has he, but I have ruffled some feathers and bent others out of shape, no doubt. Perhaps I should have waited 100 years before publishing my blog?  Well, I can't wait that long. I feel free enough at the moment to say what I feel. I don't have too many years left, so I need not carry the burden of hurting someone's feelings. That includes Sarah Palin and John Boehner, Becker and Huffington...and who knows; perhaps a reader or two--but hopefully not a friend.


.....But I cannot write too freely with this blog open for anyone to read at any time.  I would have to create an entirely new web address for a new blog and not advertise it. But then, if I do that I would draw the ire of my current readers who would be deprived about not having a blog of mine to read at breakfast in the morning. However, if I publish the new hidden blog 100 years after my death, they could read it then. Thanks, Mark.