Hello, I'm Johnny Cash...

Well, obviously I'm not Johnny Cash and that was a cheap way to get your attention. Growing up in a home where his songs were played regularly, I learned to appreciate the smooth, detached way he would turn around, pause, and throw those words out there with reckless abandon, as if the whole world were waiting to hear him say them, and acting as if he didn't care if they heard them or not. Yep, Johnny was cool back in the day. The way he introduced himself is the way I want to introduce myself, as a writer. "Hello, I'm a writer." There, I said it. Somehow Johnny's is better. Maybe it's the baritone voice. Sorry, even in my head I can't do baritone. I guess I gave up the cigarettes and scotch too early. I've always written; one-act plays, short stories, poems...but I never considered myself to be a writer. I hid the desire to be known as a writer in my heart, pushed way in the back on a forgotten shelf in a locked cabinet. I don't know why I locked the cabinet and refused to air the idea I could be a writer; perhaps I felt if it was said out loud it the dream would evaporate into thin air much like my breath does on a cold day. Perhaps I felt if I shared that dream with others, it would no longer be mine alone, to ponder and play with and ....put back on shelf, where it's safe. I suppose it's the same with others who have dreams of being something they desire, but maybe not. In either case, the cat is out of the bag, so to speak...and here I am, with things to say and thoughts to put out there and opinions for others to disagree with.
I suppose I'll write about the little things, like hating to wait in line at Wal-Mart, and losing patience with my grown children who are smarter than me, and trying to find time to pray, and exercise, and read my Bible, and keep the boss off my back, and how I hate water cooler gossip and drama queens at work. I hope I'll write about the bigger things, like societal ills, and politics, and religion, and love.
I think I'll write about all these things, because all these things are in my world, as they are in yours, dear reader.
I hope you'll join me, and read what I write. I hope I make you laugh, cry, scream with frustration, call me an idiot, call me a smart person, get ticked off, agree with me. I hope I make you feel something, and make you think.
After all, isn't that a writer's job?