Cough, cough … is this thing on? Ah, yes, it seems to be.

It’s been a long time since I’ve written in this space, and there are many factors at play. To list a few:

• I’ve spent my time doing other things. (Obvious, no? I was going to say that I’ve been really busy, but isn’t that a trite thing to say? Aren’t we all busy? Don’t we all simply make choices — even when we find ourselves in times when we feel we have little choice — about what to do?)
• I focused my energy on tasks that would lead to promotion (and blogging wasn’t one of them).
• I was struggling to find my voice in this venue and determine (a) why I would post; (b) for whom I would post; (c) what I would post; and (d) how frequently I would post.

Some of the things I’ve been doing during the last few years include a lot of reviewing and editing, not quite enough writing, and plenty of teaching and mentoring. Along the way I’ve jotted down hundreds (maybe thousands?) of words on notepads, representing ideas that I’ve had. I’m starting to revisit those notes, and exploring where I want my career to go next. Why? Well, I earned that promotion to full professor (point #2 above) and the result (after a happy celebration) has been a period of exploration. I have more than 20 years left before retirement (supposing I retire “on time”), and I want to do something worthwhile during that time. My mentors suggested that now is the time to figure out how I want to make a difference in the world. I’m definitely seeking that path right now, although it’s not yet sufficiently well-formed to post a road sign on it.

I’m not entirely sure I have all of the answers for what I’m doing right now, or even what I’m doing on this here blog (see point #3 above), but I know now that I’m posting for me, and for anyone else who wants to join in and read or have a conversation. I’ll probably collect some of my thoughts-in-progress, observations, experiences, questions, artifacts, etc. and share them here. They won’t all be well formed, but that’s part of the point of a blog, right?