DON'T PANIC

Most people will recognize the title of this blog (and this initial post) as coming from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams:

In many of the more relaxed civilizations on the Outer Eastern Rim of the Galaxy, the Hitchhiker's Guide has already supplanted the great Encyclopaedia Galactica as the standard repository of all knowledge and wisdom, for though it has many omissions and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least wildly inaccurate, it scores over the older, more pedestrian work in two important respects. First, it is slightly cheaper; and secondly it has the words DON'T PANIC inscribed in large friendly letters on its cover.

Thankfully, our planet has not been demolished to make way for a hyperspace bypass (yet). However, these are difficult times, and it seems to me the phrase "Don't Panic" makes an excellent mantra. I use it a lot.

Who am I? For one thing, I am an avid reader. A few of my favorite writers are: Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Kurt Vonnegut, John Irving, and, of course, Douglas Adams. You may notice that they all have something in common: they all occasionally have something serious to say about serious subjects, but they are not necessarily serious about the way they say it.

Although I would never put myself in the same category as the aforementioned gentlemen, I, too, have something serious to say about serious subjects from time to time. In other words, I sometimes "get on my soapbox," as one of my favorite aunts used to say. However, in this blog I will endeavor to "keep it light"--which also makes a good mantra, I think.

John