And so it begins

I have become increasingly aware of the American need to be involved in a project of some kind. In the past several months, I have read two books about people undertaking a one-year project in order to find some sort of meaning to life—to preserve for posterity some form of accomplishment unique to themselves. The first of these books was Julie and Julia by Julie Powell. In this memoir, Ms. Powell writes about her yearlong quest to cook all of the recipes contained in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. The second such book was The Know-It-All: One Man’s Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World by A.J. Jacobs. Mr. Jacobs, again in a memoir style, writes of his journey through the complete Encyclopædia Britannica over the period of one year. These books were fascinating reads, and as all fascinating reads are wont to do in me, inspired a project of my own.

While reading the above books, I became envious of these two. I do not have an all-encompassing, year-long project to toil through. I will not, at the end of this next year, have achieved meaning and be awarded a publishing contract. So, of course, in response, I am doing the next-best thing—I’m beginning a blog. I am carving out my little piece of cyberspace which will hopefully be the point at which I may pontificate further about our project-obsessed society.

I cannot decry the American need to be involved in a project without condemning myself as well. The creation of this blog serves as proof that I too often fall into this trap. In addition to the newly-created blog, I have a great many other plans. I have always desired to be well-versed in as many differing fields as possible. This translates into a long string of unfinished projects, begun in great earnest, with great dedication. As soon as I mastered the skill enough to be conversant in it, I would abandon the project, having added another experience to my supposed vast fields of knowledge.

The only problem with this pattern is that my little OCD heart shudders mightily at the thought of those loose ends. I have boxes and bags and closets full of projects I have begun, mastered, and never completed. I don't want to finish them. I have the knowledge; that's all I was in it for.

I do not want this blog to be another of my abandoned projects. I want it to be a forum through which I am able to see clearly my own thoughts and send them out in the world. I want them to resonate, entertain, encourage, and enlighten. A tall order, but I could not call myself OCD if I did not strive for more than could be reached.