I don’t set out to write long posts. It just happens.

I get an idea and start writing, and often think it will take only a couple of moments to wrap up a few succinct thoughts, and then…and then…it grows.

Most issues that draw me are not simple, and I seem to like to explore their complexities. That, of course, would take a book for each topic, not a blog post. So in a way I am being very concise—relatively speaking.

Each day I have a choice: to post or not to post. Life with all its joys, sorrows, petty annoyances, and chores calls and competes with writing, but ideas for posts have a very loud voice as well. I find I’ve grown accustomed to this daily discipline/exercise of writing down my thoughts, just as I’ve grown accustomed to physical exercise every day and try to make time for that. And so I write. And write. And plan to keep on writing.

Sometimes it’s about politics. Not usually. More often I’m interested in the larger issues behind the issues: war and peace, pacifism, historical parallels. And then there’s the category of “everything else”—especially poetry, dance, and the arts. Those are the fun posts to write, the ones that sometimes almost seem to write themselves. But they’re dessert rather than the main meal.

All this is my characteristically longwinded (reframe: reflective) way of saying I’ve got an idea for a post on one of those more involved topics but I’m busy today and may or may not get around to writing it before tomorrow.