Yes, my guard stood hard when abstract threats
Too noble to protect
Deceived me into thinking I had something to protect
Good and bad, I define these terms
Quite clear, no doubt, somehow
Ah, but I was so much older then,
I'm younger than that now

Whether we are believers in the religions of others, most of us are spiritual souls with our own prayers and passages to get us through the game of life. The above passage was gleaned from one from one of my holiest of books -- Bob Dylan Lyrics, 1962-1985 (the old testament, if you will) -- and were penned in the year 1 BG2 (1964, the year before the stork played a joke on the world and dropped me here to suffer as a Philadelphia sports fan).

The "prayer" came to my mind when searching deep within myself on how to approach my latest mission in life, a launching into the place the kiddies like to call the Blogosphere.

Obviously, being a writer type who believes men like Bob Dylan and Paul Simon and women like Stevie Nicks and Tracy Chapman walk on water, the printed word carries much weight in my world.

My written words -- at least the ones released into the wild as sights for sore eyes -- have found a sanctuary in newspapers. Writing for a newspaper, just like writing a screenplay or a poem, is a specific discipline. You are freed from the burdens of doing years of research before putting fingers to a keyboard, but you must produce responsible and readable copy when called upon in a short time frame.

Although I have several movie scripts and novellas ruminating in my inner-attic, and I long to one day play Bernie Taupin to another's Elton John, a newspaperman has been my calling.

I was sports writer for 13 years, crime writer for 2 1/2 and -- following a promotion to managing editor of The Times Herald -- a Sunday columnist for the last four years and change.

It has been a natural progression, as I doubt my regular columns would have been as effective if I began writing them earlier in life -- even though I harbored natural resentment toward those who were granted the space and freedom to pen columns sooner than I.

I laugh now when I read my first column. It began with the line "Bruce Springsteen is God." I followed up by explaining that the odd morsel of personal information was about the most the reader was going to get out of me, in terms of my own likes and dislikes. Additionally, I described myself as being an independent when it came to politics and promised not platform to preach on how others should vote.

Anyone who has read my columns since knows what a bunch of bunk that has turned out to be. The truth is that I was venturing into a new world and I wasn't sure where the road would lead.

As it has turned out, the ongoing trip remains long and strange.

But, if given the chance, I wouldn't change a word of it (except for the typos that have gotten through my team of volunteer proofreaders). I have shared a lot of myself with the reader, not to mention my increased disgust with the current president, whose name and formal title I refuse to mention in print (the policy will continue here).

Although only about one in every five or six columns decries what is occuring in the world around us, I have been labeled a political columnist who leans heavily to the left.

I prefer to say I lean heavily toward what's right, which -- in our times -- is the left, but enough of word games.

Maybe the damage is done. I could thump a Bible like a drum while wearing an "Ann Coulter Rules" T-shirt and people wouldn't be convinced otherwise.

Maybe this forum can be a fresh start.

Whenever a regular columnist begins his/her journey with our paper, I require an introductory column -- much like my own -- explaining who and what they are. The last thing a reader wants or needs is someone they don't know telling them what they should think.

Perhaps, for blogs, the first entry should be more of a mission statement than a "hello, my name is" essay.

We are slowly enlisting staffers to write blogs for us. We have, among others, a travel blog and an eating-out blog coming at you.

Me? I already learned the dangers of making promises. Expect anything; be surprised by nothing.

Best guess? My blog entries, I suppose, will be extensions of my columns.

Perhaps I'll expand upon a thought or anecdote I didn't have the space for in print. Maybe you'll see columns that didn't make the cut, sort of like when an artist releases a disc of previously unreleased material.

Perhaps I'll become like John Cusack's Lloyd Dobler in Say Anything, who recorded his random thoughts on life as he drove through rain-swept Seattle streets.

Perhaps, like when I wrote my now-embarrassing introductory column, it'll be none of the above once I hit my groove.

It's not a mistake if you learn from it. I like to think I've learned.

The year 2003, or 38 AG2, was a long time ago.

And I was so much older then. I'm younger than that now.

I'm in the Blogosphere now.

I'm a kid again.