Return to Blogland

I titled this entry after a favorite childhood movie, Return to Oz. The film was rather disturbing and strange, a significant departure from the original 1939 classic, The Wizard of Oz. It doesn't have the dreaminess of Technicolor, or the lulling of Judy Garland's voice, but it does make the mind reel. And, according to Wikipedia (the most distinguished source I could find on the subject), it has a large cult following due to its more accurate adaptation of the L. Frank Baum books. The film follows Dorothy's return to a much different Oz, that has been destroyed by the Nome King. Some of the lovely and disturbing features in the film are the Wheelers- creatures  who have wheels instead of hands (yeah it's as scary as you're picturing it, if not worse), an evil sorceress who has 30 beautiful heads to choose from everyday, a tree that grows lunch pails with a complete meal, and a talking chicken. As a child I always hoped to have one of those trees. 

Alas, why am I writing about Return to Oz? That's right, because this is my Return to Blogland, as I have not posted, to my chagrin, in almost 2 years. *blush.* I have lacked motivation as I only know of a handful of people (mostly family) who have actually read this online publication. Still, I realized that often blogging, writing, and creating in general is not really for others, but for one's own personal growth. This seems awfully selfish, and makes me think of Woody Allen's coined term "artistic masturbation." Forgive the crudeness, but this is a concept I think about and struggle with regularly. But still, to better ourselves is to better our community, correct? True or not, I keep coming back to this idea. And so I will blog, rant, blabber, ramble, digress, diverge, and chatter verbosely if it will expand my mind, and ultimately make me more useful to the outside world. It will be challenging, as I have found that is much easier to criticize than to create, to teach than to do, to pontificate than to express. Instead of making judgements on all the empty words out there, I will take a go at writing the empty, or perhaps, in a rare moment, full words. 

Lastly, I will leave you with this excellent article from McSweeney's, which I believe I found through my friend Regina (another thing to discuss- surrounding yourself with smart, talented people).  

Click here for: The Ultimate Guide To Writing Better Than You Normally Do.