Abbey Road

The choice to start a personal blog wasn’t tough. I’ve been writing one at Jetwhine.com for over a year so I didn’t even give the technological leap a second thought. Writing personally is almost a relief.

No constraints here. Jetwhine is about the aviation industry.

But Abbey Road … that’s a bit of a soundtrack.

Seemed like a good name since a variety of things Abbey have affected my life … a Hyde Park concert in the 60s where I saw the four mop tops play Paperback Writer - live. Remember them? Original music, lyrics and awesome harmonies with Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr?

I also have a daughter named Abigail although I’m the only person apparently who does NOT call this evolving writer Abbey. Now stretching the Rhodesian Ridgeback to the Abbey link could be tough, unless you consider that at one time Rhodesia was tied to English Empire.

C’mon Ridgebacks … you’ve seen them … big goofy red dogs, strong as oxen, stubborn as mules, able to hoist all four feet in the air at the same time and turn sideways before they hit the ground. Make great couch potatoes.

But I’m straying … I needed a place to start conversations with people about life, politics, books, politics, religion, flying, politics, parenting and the rest of the dozens of things that find their way inside my head in a given day.

In Europe the past few years, it wasn’t tough to realize many people think Americans are complete idiots for having re-elected George W. Bush to a second term. "The first was luck, but the second," this Irishman in Dublin hammers me"… "The second time you guys were stupid." Probably all too true.

All I can say is I had nothing to do with it, unless of course voting for the other guy relates to the problem somehow.

In Europe most people like Americans … even the French. And heck, sometimes I don’t even think the French like the French. But that little edge of theirs gives them … well character in my book … enough that I tried rather unsuccessfully to learn their language. But at least I’ve tried. Must be because I have a friend in Paris.

So how about you?

Maybe when you read this one of these days you’ll realize there are other people around the world … China, India, Nigeria, Brazil … where we have much more in common than we think at times.

We all love our kids to death, spoil them rotten sometimes, work too much, play too little … or perhaps too much … sometimes skirt the issue of what’s moral and what is not, wonder whether any religion can actually serve us well when it demands such damning obedience. We politic hard to vote while some run from the polling place like a scared dog.

What if we were able to sit down for a coffee - actually I like tea (old habit from living in England) - and talk about what’s on our minds.

What would we say?

BTW, did I mention how much I hate writing a blog in Wordpress? The platform is nice to support a blog, but as an editor it’s a nightmare.

How would I learn about you, your country, your culture and the things you value. What are the threats to all of this? How does your country train leaders even young ones.

There’s more I’m sure. So let’s talk about you.