On Leaving Walden

I wrote this post three months ago but never published it, leaving it in draft form on my blog. After returning from a great trip to Las Vegas -- a trip that had only one real negative to it --  I believe that the time to publish is now.

I left the woods for as good a reason as I went there. Perhaps it seemed to me that I had several more lives to live, and could not spare any more time for that one. It is remarkable how easily and insensibly we fall into a particular route, and make a beaten track for ourselves. I had not lived there a week before my feet wore a path from my door to the pond-side; and though it is five or six years since I trod it, it is still quite distinct. It is true, I fear, that others may have fallen into it, and so helped to keep it open. The surface of the earth is soft and impressible by the feet of men; and so with the paths which the mind travels. How worn and dusty, then, must be the highways of the world, how deep the ruts of tradition and conformity! I did not wish to take a cabin passage, but rather to go before the mast and on the deck of the world, for there I could best see the moonlight amid the mountains. I do not wish to go below now.           Henry David Thoreau

Several things have struck me recently, especially regarding friends. In my most recent post, I wrote of my friend Carol, a former co-worker who I have know for over half my life. Spending time with Carol is always fun, as we have many memories of fun times in our early adult years.

My life outside of work and regular home duties and activities is enriched by the many friends that I have met via poker and/or the internet. I communicate with some via text messages, blog posts and comments, e mails and tweets. Sometimes the routine consists of sharing and celebrating friends' successes and commiserating with them and their struggles. Sometimes it is just fun giving and taking little jabs about favorite sports teams and the like. In almost all instances, there is a positive vibe running through these communications. These are the little things that are the spice of life.

People who know me well see me as a positive person. I do not like to dwell on the negative and like to engage in productive activities. Sometimes, though, like many people, I get stuck in ruts -- the beaten track that Thoreau speaks about in Walden. And like Thoreau, it is time for me to leave the woods.

Please consider this to be my resignation as assumed chair of the Inner Circle. It is time for another to ascend to this lofty position. Godspeed to my successor.