I flew in from Toronto last night to a lovely summer evening at SFO. My absence of two weeks feels longer than that -- which I take as a wonderful sign of some rest at least. I probably don't know what real rest means -- but at least being in three different cities that are not where I normally live (Montreal, Cambridge/Boston, Toronto) helps get me out of my rut.

I pondered and prayed a lot on the plane -- because there was much to ponder and pray about. In the months to come, I hope to share some of what I thought about. As I become more and more into blogging, one of the filters I apply in guiding my reflection is whether and how I might write about that matter. Using such a filter may seem strange (especially to non-bloggers and non-writers) -- but it's a handy filter for me. My mind is typically racing in too many different directions, leading to diffuseness of thought and action. Writing with enough clarity and background to make my thoughts and feelings comprehensible to anyone who cannot read my mind limits me in a good way.

Let me give an example of this filter in action. I was up before 6am this morning because I'm still on east coast time. A sweet way to get back into my Berkeley life is my morning breakfast ritual. Having been away for two weeks meant that my current periodicals pile now contains one issue of The New York Review of Books, two issues of The Times Literary Supplement, two issues of The New Yorker, and the latest issue of Books and Culture -- not to mention today's San Francisco Chronicle. The suspicion that I have been subscribing to too many magazines came to the forefront this morning as I wondered how taking a few hours to read all this stuff was going to help me. Undoubtedly it would be a pleasurable experience for me, lots of mind candy, lots of provocative ideas, great prose, etc. At this point, I don't want to stop reading these and other sources -- otherwise, I won't be in dialog with others. At the same time, I don't want to spend too much of my time just trying to absorb the unabsorbable mass of media (good and bad) out there. How to strike the balance?

OK -- this has been a long-winded way to say "hi, I'm back." In a few more minutes, I must be off to make calls at one of my favorite organizations, Alta Bates TeleCare, something I will write about at length "any time now".