I knew this day would come. I thought about it once in a while. As a boy a big part of my life was set to the soundtrack of Beatles/Zombies music and the voice of Walter Cronkite. When 8th grade history was a bit too boring, I imagined his voice reading the text like a news story. There was something about that voice. It made sense of the insensibilities of the Vietnam war and assured us if we wanted to, we could figure this thing out.

For over 20 years he ended each newscast with, "And that's the way it is." And I believed him. Every news anchor after him has tried something similar, but I really didn't believe them, not like I did him. In 2006 Cronkite wrote in a blog about his signature sign-off, "To me, that encapsulates the newsman's highest ideal: to report the facts as he sees them, without regard for the consequences or controversy that may ensue."

Hmmm. Reminds me of Polonius' last piece of advice to his son Laertes, who was in a hurry to get on the next boat to Paris, where he'd be safe from his father's long-winded speeches:

This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Farewell, my blessing season this in thee!

I didn't know WC, but I suspect he was one who became personally comfortable with "the way it was," before he said, "that's the way it is." Rest well Uncle Walter. We who trusted you will miss you.

Ok... so I'm not much of a blogger. But, after over a half decade of life I'm thinkin' I might have learned a few things that someone else may benefit from. So, some ground rules...

1. These blogs are about my thoughts and experiences. They are not for someone who is looking for spelling errors, grammatical inconsistencies, or well word-smithed sentence structure. If that's what you're about, I will disappoint you. Sorry about that.

2. These blogs are written heart-to-heart. If you can read and listen with your heart, you will "get" them. If you're a literalist that likes to parse words for deeper meanings, I will disappoint you. Again, sorry about that.

3. I am and always will be fundamentally an artist. I paint outside the lines and I'm often seen as someone with little regard or respect for the status quo. If you understand art, you will understand I'm not disrespectful or rebelious. I'm for revealing truth that will change someone's life for the better. As with all art, my purpose is to get your attention, make you think, and hopefully "pull the string" on a light bulb you didn't even know was there. Once the light is on, I hope you will explore the new stuff you're seeing.

4. You won't offend me by getting peaved, and I won't get "a big head" if you like it. I think being aloof to keep someone from knowing what you think is just silly and imature. It's the self-serving stuff that keeps us fear-filled and insecure. We should be able to communicate through our hearts and not our logic. If you don't know what that means, email and I'll try to help, but you probably will get frustrated. Everyone can do this, most choose not to.

So I'll be back from time to time and do a blog post. If you read it, thanks for taking the time.