I’m not sure who started it but my family’s stock exclamation to one of my questionable or “crazy” comments, decisions, or ideas has always been “Oh Dave!”
My father was the master of “Oh Dave.” With a disapproving look, he spoke it in a low tone of disappointment. My mother would uncomfortably add the word “now” to “Oh Dave,” as in “now behave.”
And in another sense, the boy and young man who was showered with “Oh Dave’s” throughout his life has grown up, and this is where he is Now.
“Oh Dave Now.” What better title for this weekly chronicle of my crazy ideas, observations, and day-to-day experiences. And self-exploration, self-loathing, and hopefully, self-improvement. Think self-indulgent twittering on steroids.
I’m deliberately being secretive about my adult identity, for now. I want readers to get to know me by my writing. Rest assured, I’m not a celebrity or Dave Letterman in cognito. Just an irregular “Dave” here. Everything I write on “Oh Dave Now” is a true story, even if sometimes I write in the third person.
The purpose and experiment of “Oh Dave Now” is to give me a place to practice writing as well as to get to know and cultivate my unique point of view. Early in my writing career, my short fiction and articles were published and awarded. I haven’t been writing a lot over the last several years but early this year my gifted acupuncturist Michael Shpak (when are you going to start that blog you’ve been promising, Michael?) encouraged me to start my day with journal writing. Several months of that has unlocked and reawakened my writer’s mind, leading to this project. Inspired by actor Brent Rose’s use of blogging technology for his 50in50 creative project, I thought “Oh Dave Now” would be a good forum for my creative writing.
Over time, as “Oh Dave Now” progresses and ages, so will my profile photo, until in a year or so, it will reach present time. Will my writing also mature and be less about potty humor, sex, and what a writing classmate once termed my “anal obsession”? Will it grow towards beauty, love, and spirit? Hmm, probably not entirely while I’m on this planet in human form. I am a guy after all.
Welcome to my world and yours too. Most blogs give practical information and offer advice based on knowledge and experience. My memoirs will sometimes offer practical tips too but the benefits of “Oh Dave Now” are less concrete. I hope you will laugh, maybe be moved. Mostly, I hope my journey of self-exploration will lead you to learn more about yourself too, to discover your unique perspective, to honor it, to laugh about it, to embrace it.
And if you don’t think or say “Oh Dave Now” after reading an entry, then I’m not doing my job!!
