The Overlord Returns

 "Most of American life  consists of driving somewhere and then returning home, wondering why the hell you went." --- John Updike

The Journey is now over.

I have abandoned the bucolic splendor of the South for a return to Sodom-on-Hudson. I had once believed that the sojourn to the Confederacy was necessary, a sort of voyage of personal discovery, but it turned out that I had had all my answers all along, and just didn't wish to examine them.

In the future I will discuss my experiences and why I did what I did -- leaving home and family, all that was familiar, all that felt right -- but not this moment.

Now, I'm here to tell you that I have truly returned. I will begin blogging again. The hiatus was not of my making and the explanation (for anyone who cares) will come in due course.

Like the Phoenix, I have arisen from the ashes, so to speak, and begin a new, and perhaps the final, chapter of life. My absence these last seven or so months came about because of a combination of factors that will each require their own set of explanations, but that's old stuff and I'm here to present NEW garbage.

The first item on the agenda is that I feel more liberated than I ever have in my entire life. Two and half years in Dante's Eighth Circle Raleigh was, in many ways, something like a prison sentence, perhaps something of a penance I needed to undertake in order to cleanse what passes for my soul.

That sense of despair disappeared last night with the rain, fog and sea smell of Staten Island, the forgotten borough of New York City, and the Overlord's point of origin. What once felt oppressive about this place now seems instead to be ripe with opportunity. I feel something like enthusiasm again.

So much so, that my tried and failed entry into the world of podcasting is getting a second life. 

Very soon, The Idiot's Perspective will return, only now in video format, where I shall rejoin my co-host Joe Rice in discussing the vital issues of the day over the (literal) kitchen table once again. It will be soon...very soon...Hide the women, children and livestock.

The second item is that I intend to get more-involved with local politics here in what remains of New York City. Just what form that takes is still to be worked out, but I believe I've done a very good job of pointing out what's wrong around here, but have taken no action of consequence to correct any of it. This is about to come to an end. I'm not certain what contribution I can make in this regard, but I'm going to make the attempt if it kills me.

Finally, after seven months of mental inertia, it has become time to start thinking again. To start CARING again.

I've just recently celebrated my 58th birthday and reflecting upon my accomplishment, achievements, disappointments, joys and failures, I have discovered that in the course of living a life of service to others, it is time to start opening a can of good old Randian whoopass and finding out just what it is that makes me happy and that motivates me to improve before I shuffle off this mortal coil.

(No, the Overlord has not taken up Libertarianism. He's not a fucktard, after all).

So, to anyone still listening, still reading, still waiting to see what sort of word vomit falls out of my head, be assured, the supply of wit, wisdom, pure invective mixed with an occasional point, has been restored.

Tell your friends.

Also, stay tuned for what is coming. It will either be a stupendous success or a spectacular failure, but then again, everyone loves both a fireworks display and a train wreck, don't they?