I Am Inspiration!

I liked "Serpentine Swimming" - thought it was well written, had an illustrative photo embedded (a first for me), a link to an instructive article. I thought it was a good piece. But I wanted my son's blessing, wanted him to tell me it was good and well written. At 23, Jon has already had two paid internships, reporting for the Scranton Times Tribune and the Wichita Eagle, unpaid positions for the Medford Transcript and Boston's Sampan, and was Managing Editor for the Tuft's Daily. So, I asked.

"Jon - is it good, is it well written?"

"Yes, it's well written..."

"But?"

"The subject is boring. Who cares about "Serpentine Swimming?"

"My teammates and anyone else who might be thinking about entering the indoor/outdoor tri next month. Besides, you don't care about sports and think everything I write about them is boring. The only piece you ever got even remotely excited about was the one about my IPod, and that's only faintly related to sports."

"My friends and I are still talking about that one. In fact, it's inspired us to create a new blog!"

"Really? Wow, I'm flattered!"

"Wait a minute, I'll show you. Here it is: 'An Alien's Guide to the Earth'"

" 'An Alien's Guide to the Earth'?"

"It's a series of detailed and instructive articles about common things that an alien visiting Earth for the first time wouldn't know about. Like a spoon or chairs."

"Or an IPod?"

"We're going to use your blog as our first article!"

Every dad wants to inspire his children, but that wasn't exactly what I had in mind. Hey, at least I have a purpose in their lives - I serve as a source of endless amusement. Everyone's got to be good a something.

See you out there.