The First of Many

I had a lot of trouble thinking what to call this little external cupboard of my brain. When confronted with something which, I suppose, is intended to sum a person up or at least give an idea of who You Are, I found myself scrabbling for all kinds of grandiose literature-licking words (‘ephemeral’, ‘dreaming’) and wracking my brains for some kind of interesting hobby or character trait that would hopefully impress and ingratiate me to you, the unseen reader. I settled eventually on ‘Place to Be’ -a shamelessly stolen title of the wonderful song by Nick Drake on his 1972 album, Pink Moon.  Nick Drake is one of those musicians who I think will always be in my life, if that's not too pretentious a statement. There are those musicians and albums that come and go, cherished  for maybe a few months or years but sink back into the ether after a while, welcomely exhumed every now and then but largely laid to rest. Nick Drake, though, is someone to listen to any time. A keeper. The fragility of his songwriting has a melodious benevolence that, I think, is similar to the continual generosity of a favourite book...one that Just Keeps Giving, no matter how many times you read it. You know the ones: a gentle, kind constant. Very sentimental, I know. But I do like to allow myself these moments, despite their danger. 

This place of being (whatever that pertains to...linguistic, representational, personal, cyber-spatial) I hope will be a place to exercise nerve pathways that seem to have dissolved significantly over the summer. I want to it be a place where I can put down and make coherent thoughts that would otherwise pass through my brain neglected. A space for a few passing thoughts that, given a little attention, could be of some value in extricating. I want what I write here to be honest and considered: not just throw-away comment that I'll look back on within the week and regret. Although that's fine too -maybe it'll be a place of rage sometime. A friend of a friend once said that he tried not to do anything his Grandfather wouldn't do, and although I wouldn't adopt this maxim for all areas of life, I reckon what's behind it is pretty sound. (This friend is also the one who after graduating did away with his mobile phone so I may be enamoured with this statement rather than the one above, I'm not sure.) Although there'll no doubt be things that I do write that I'll not stand by when I look back on, that's the way it should be otherwise I wouldn't have changed or grown in that time. I'm not attempting  to carve out a monument or structure of What I Think: I realise what I write and my thoughts are contained only to these moments and are informed only by what I know now. Who knows what I'll know in a few months? But that is being and what it is to exist and be a person. It's also why I think 'Place to Be', albeit a little bit sanctimonious, will do nicely.