The Arena

Here goes nothing.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. 

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, 

because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; 

who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

― Theodore Roosevelt

I’ve been peering into the Arena for too long.  

This newsletter/blog/whatever-it-is will be my attempt to step off the sidelines and get in the game, stretch a part of my brain that has laid dormant over the years, and discuss some of the thoughts and ideas that I often ponder.  

What will it be about?

Common advice for aspiring writers is to write about what you find interesting.  I’m interested in a lot of stuff.  A lot of stuff.  

I suppose what occupies my mind the most these days is life itself–from the little moral and ethical dilemmas that we encounter each day to broader philosophy on how to go about our business.  So, I’ll probably write a lot about that.  There’s a lot that goes into life.  

There are plenty of people who have thought longer and know more about this than I do.  Brene Brown introduced me to Teddy’s quote in her book Daring Greatly.  She knows quite a bit about life and how people operate–I’m sure she’ll come up quite a bit.  Heck, we have wisdom from thousands of years ago that is still relevant today.  I’m looking at you, Lao Tzu.  

So, I don’t pretend to be an expert in any of this.  Should you heed anything in K-wal’s Corner?  Probably not.  Maybe, one day, I will conceive a truly original thought, but that’s certainly no guarantee.

Then why start a blog/newsletter/whatever-this-is about life?  

I suppose I’m just looking to talk about this stuff on the regular.  Perhaps, once a week for now and see where it goes.  

As for writing, it’s something I’ve thought about getting into over the years but never took the initiative to sit down and put pen to paper (or is it “fingers to keyboard”?).  The late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, known for his colorful opinions, once described writing as “sweating blood.”  That sounds fun.  

I’m no Bill Shakespeare, but I’ll try to express my thoughts on a variety of subjects in a way that’s easy to understand and perhaps even with a touch of humor.  Because, if I’m being honest, I have to simplify a lot of issues to understand them myself, even in the law . . . and I’ve been a lawyer for 12 years.  

The other impetus for this project is to spell out a lot of the life lessons I’d like to pass on to my kids.  Not to be macabre, but we can go at any minute.  I’d hate to hold out for the “right time” to share some gems of wisdom–not that kids always listen to their parents anyway.  

I could record my parental lessons in a journal and achieve this goal, but I’ve also come to accept that I’m a pretty social creature.  I like to connect with others and have conversations.  I can’t do that in a journal.  So, I hope this newsletter/blog/whatever-it-is can be an avenue to have fun, interesting conversations with all of you.

Thanks for joining me on this journey.

Thanks to Stephanie P. for the nudge.

And thanks to my loving and supportive wife, Katie.