I suffer from clinical stage fright. Since I work in a profession where I am frequently called upon to give speeches and presentations on arcane topics related to economics and taxation, this can be a major occupational hazard. I’ll be standing in front of a room filled with maybe a hundred people, driving home the importance of recognizing the implications of an exceptional exception in the tax code when my throat suddenly goes dry, and I begin gasping for air. I try to pause for a moment to catch my breath while fumbling at the buttons that manipulate the power point slides. In horror, I begin to lose track of which slide I’m actually discussing, which clever little aside I have forgotten to interject and the original point I was trying to make. Then I begin to wonder why I chose the low cut blouse instead of going with my “dress for success” white “power bow". Once the episode passes, and if I do manage to get back on track, I try to avoid noticing my audience glancing at their wristwatches as they try to calculate how much time is left between the Third Caveat to the Exceptional Exception and the cocktail hour.
I think that I am person who prefers dialog to monologue. I prefer to react to what other people say rather than feeling obliged to go out on a limb all alone and make coherent self supporting declarations. As such, I am not too sure that I will do very well here in the blogosphere. I am not sure that I will stay for long but I decided that I would give it a try.
I thought I might blog because I do indeed have much to say. It is no secret that I am rather opinionated and I am willing to express a strong point of view on widely divergent topics. On the other hand, I don’t think that I am smug. To the contrary, I welcome views that differ from my own and I am exceptionally open minded. If a different line of reasoning strikes me as superior to my own, I will change my mind without physical coercion of any kind. Thus, I have chosen as the title of this blog a quote from the great transcendentalist, Ralph Waldo Emerson. Knowledge is always provisional.
So here I am out on my own hoping I don’t pass out before I manage to deliver the jokes. I will try to remember my bearings and say that which I mean to say. If you disagree, I welcome your insight and I allow for the possibility that you may have greater wisdom than me. Or you may not.
The only rule is that there is an Exception to every rule.
