Getting Started

Getting a blog started is a scary thing.  Especially when you have the kind of job–like me: The Superintendent of one of the most prestigious American Schools in Asia–where people pay you for your opinions and your words (and scrutinize every opinion and word you’ve been paid for).  So, naturally, I’ve resisted starting a blog for a long time. And although I have resisted, and been afraid to start one,  I’ve always know I would love to blog.  Why? Well, for starters, here are three reasons:

First, the structure of a blog.  I spend so much of my professional life polishing up every piece of writing that comes out of my office (and my school): reading, re-reading, editing, cutting, censoring, etc. that writing a blog and just “being able to turn thought into text” (and using quotation marks like I just did)  in a fluid stream-of-consciousness (and using complex-made-up-words like I just did) will be therapeutic, cathartic and make me feel efficient. Just thinkinig about it gives me a rush.

Secondly, the “time-demands” (or lack thereof) of a blog are something I look forward to.  I won’t hear the  blog calling my name when I am trying to take a nap; and the blog won’t keep me up at night like most of the other forums for which I have to write or speak.  No, the blog will wait patiently for me (it won’t be offended by being ignored), like Nella our dog–a Neo Mastiff; and like Neela, my  blog will  love me when I finally have the time to give her some attention, regardless of how long or how short the interlude between caresses has been.

Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, I look forward to the “etiquette of content”  a blog allows.  In fact, my first order of business in setting up this blog was to write a disclaimer.  It is important for readers (most of whom will also know me for my day job) to know that this blog represents Craig as a man, father, husband, educator, writer, thinker and human-being. What I write here will be raw, and un-distilled; it will lack the form and structure expected of finer things. It will, to a degree, be uncensored.  The content here is not and never will be intended to speak on behalf of my school–the American School of Bombay–nor are the opinions and thoughts on this blog the voice of the Superintendent of ASB (which happens to be me). And the power that something like that–something that liberates thought like a blog does– is cool. Obviously, I’m a responsible member of society and cognizant of my role as a social voice.  I’m also savvy enough to know–regardless of how I want to look at it, and wish it were–I will always have my “Superintendent” hat on. Nevertheless,  it’s still is a nice feeling to be freed of some level of constraint. To quote Jake Barnes, from the Sun Also Rises, “…isn’t it pretty to think so?”

And so I am ready to begin.