Okay, so the first question that must be addressed is whether or not an old dog can learn new tricks.  It's an old question because it remains relevant.  Every old dog has asked it of himself, I imagine ... probably at about the time he turned 50, if he lived that long. (Please excuse the exclusive gender here. I'm not foolish enough to speak to the experience of women in this regard, so I'll keep the reference male.)  Anyway, in answer to your question (my question), I am writing these first lines of the first blog I've ever written in my life.  Whether I'll learn anything from it is still a question unanswered, I suppose, but I can say I'm making the attempt.  To learn what, exactly?  I'm not sure.  For one, I suppose, I do want to become more familiar and comfortable with the increasingly--almost utterly, it seems--digital and online social means of human interaction today.  To be completely honest, I've been feeling a bit like I'm being left out of the conversation lately.  I'm not certain that I have any particular need to be heard at the moment, though a little acknowledgement now and then would be nice, of course.  I am human after all.  What I do know is that I'm not ready to be absent from the conversation of life.  I at least want to be listening.  For another, I miss the opportunity or occasion for writing, not having any deadlines to meet in that regard, and the need to keep up with a blog now and then could be a means through which I might find, or rediscover, my voice.  And reading what I've written before and after publication will likely make me a better writer, as it always has before--another learning opportunity.  The direction of this blog?  Who knows?  I guess we'll see.