New Year’s Resolution

As we begin 2009, I am making resolutions with the very best of intentions. I tend to make a lot of them, so when the year finally comes to a close a few may actually be intact.

The first of my resolutions is to start a blog. Obviously, blogging is a great vehicle for exchanging ideas, and I readily admit that I am undertaking this blog because I am naïve enough to think that some of my professional insight may actually help others. But, blogging also seems like an inexpensive alternative to therapy. After all, when business frustrations begin to mount and I find myself muttering to no one in particular I can simply post a blog on whatever subject is on my mind and experience the satisfying release of getting something “off my chest”. So, there it is, I’m starting a blog for those two reasons.

But, let me offer a few words of caution to anyone reading Bob’s Blog. First, writing has never come easily to me. I remember sitting next to Ralph Swanson in English class as a sophomore at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. Ralph was a good deal smarter than I was {most of the students at Andover were as well, by the way} and whenever our teacher asked us to spend the last thirty minutes of class writing an essay on a subject of our choice, Ralph would confidently open his notebook and immediately begin writing. My God, the kid didn’t even spend a few minutes thinking about an appropriate subject! He just started writing and never stopped until he’d filled half a notebook by the time the bell rang. And, he used a pen. Meanwhile, I labored for five or ten minutes just settling on a suitable topic, then wore out my pencil erasing most of what I’d written, only to fill a page or two with disjointed thoughts in a barely legible scrawl. Needless to say, Ralph got A’s and I got what I deserved.

Second, although my mother invested countless hours correcting my grammar and spelling, I get sloppy sometimes. And, since computers are human too, they aren’t likely to catch all my misspellings and syntax errors. So, please overlook this shortcoming as well.

Finally, keep in mind that I am an architect. I love the profession and am endlessly fascinated by the people who practice it. But, architects are the exact opposite of, for example, engineers. Engineers know a great deal about the rather esoteric and highly technical subject of engineering. But, when I went to architecture school {Harvard GSD, class of 1974} they taught us a little bit about an awful lot of subjects. When I began professional practice I found myself learning less and less about more and more, until after 35 years I now realize that I know practically nothing about virtually everything!

There, consider yourselves forewarned….