Opening Principles

I begin this blog with a sense of hope and a feeling of incredible freedom. While I'm not advertising who I am, I really haven't done a lot to hide it; anyone who really wants to "out" me could likely do it with ease. I rely on the general respect of my fellow netizens to maintain my anonymity.

I make no promises about how much I will write, no guarantees about the content or quality, and no overtures toward following through on the title of my blog. I chose the name "Speak Lightning" because I relate to the following segment of Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage:

Could I embody and unbosom now
That which is most within me, -- could I wreak
My thoughts upon expression, and thus throw
Soul, heart, mind, passions, feelings, strong or weak,
All that I would have sought, and all I seek,
Bear, know, feel, and yet breathe -- into one word,
And that one word were Lightning, I would speak;
But as it is, I live and die unheard,
With a most voiceless thought, sheathing it as a sword. (III.xcvii)

If I find that word, you'll be the first to know.