Up The Mainstream

Here I sit hours before sunrise, the sound and smell of coffee brewing fills the room and the chilly air tells me I should put on a sweatshirt. This day will be Christmas Day 2007. I’ve given a lot of thought to what I am doing and finally resolved to try my hand at blogging. If you are reading this online then the powers that be have given me my chance to share myself with you and the rest of the www. As the saying goes, “Be careful what you ask for, because you just might get it.”

Last night my wife and I attended the healing ceremony for Ed McLaughlin at the city plaza. It looked like about three hundred people, gathered together in the cold Christmas Eve air. There were enough of Ed’s friends and well wishers to ring the plaza interior as we joined hands, hoping to combine our healing energy and spirituality on Ed’s behalf.

We were encouraged to learn that Ed had shown improvement since his accident and was able to be removed from his bed and to sit in a wheel chair. Cries of “Ed will be back!” rang through the plaza as we stood, marveling at this assembly of people who share Ed McLaughlin’s love of this community and cared enough to leave the warmth and comfort of their homes to gather together for him.

For anyone who is familiar with my public expressions about Chico, it is no secret that I am passionate and I am not shy when it comes to giving voice to my opinions and observations. The ambience of last night’s gathering in Ed McLaughlin’s behalf crystallized for me some motivations I’ve held for some time to be more demonstrative in expressing myself and to seek this forum as an outlet.

Here you read my first blog entry, the first of many I hope, because right or wrong, for better or worse, I see this as an opportunity to exercise a small part of my responsibility as an unabashedly proud member of this Chico community.