Taking Leave

In 1959, "Saxophone Collosus" Sonny Rollins felt so frustrated with his musical limitations that he stopped playing in public and recording for three years while he labored in private to become a better musician. He spent part of that period practicing on New York City's Williamsburg Bridge in order not to disturb a pregnant neighbor. At that time, he was widely acknowledged to be the best jazz saxophonist in America, yet he was still dissatisfied.

This story has always resonated with me in a deep and powerful way, and never more so than now. I empathize with how Rollins must have felt. Of course, I am nowhere near the writer that he was a saxophonist when he disappeared from the public eye and ear. But I feel the same nagging frustration with my limitations as a writer that he must have felt as a saxophonist. In fact, I now feel those frustrations so acutely that I have decided to suspend posting to my blogs indefinitely. Not only do I feel the need to work in private at becoming a better writer, but I also believe that I need to engage in extensive reading and reflection in order to have anything in mind worth writing about.

I have tried to take leave of blogging before but was unable to resist the siren song to return for more than a day or two. It will be different this time. I may never return, and if I do, it will not happen until I feel in the depths of my being that the time is right. I hope that some of you have enjoyed one or more of my blogs since they have been online. I hope that people will enjoy them even more if and when I return.

Goodbye, and all the best.