Welcome folks!
Welcome to Rambler by me, Sean McAneny, Fulbright English Teaching Assistant and all-around aspirant. The impetus for this blog is my upcoming year of teaching abroad in the Czech Republic. It is my both a personal journal and a living correspondence with folks and friends back home in the States. With that being said, I have no idea what this blog will become and I will almost certainly drift into commentary on any number of topics that interest me including: film, English lit, endurance sports, (ir)rationality, and rock & roll.
Why Rambler?
Rambler is a name that lets me get away with never having to choose. It has a few etymologies (five, to be exact), and so it allows me to weave multiple seemingly disparate threads into one semi-coherent blog about me and the things that make me tick. Rambler, simply put, kills the most proverbial birds with one lexically compact stone.
The first two thread is strictly etymological. Taking from the literal definition, to ramble is both (1) to “move aimlessly from place to place” and (2) to “talk or write in an aimless, erratic, and often long-winded fashion.” I will be doing both of those things! As you can probably tell from reading this introduction, a big theme of this blog will be my own indecision. Because I also have to teach (not to mention figure out how to live in a new country) I cannot commit to a strict schedule of posting and so much of what winds up here might sound like rambling. Enjoy!
The second pair of threads come from good ol’ rock & roll. Thread number three (or 2a?) comes from one of my all-time favorite Led Zeppelin songs. That’s right, Ramble On is just one of the many classic tunes that reveal just how much of a walking cliché I can be at times. The next comes from another band that was and is definitional for me as an music fan, The Grateful Dead. Put on to the Dead by a dear friend my junior year of college, I would be remiss to not quote them here as they encapsulate the rambling spirit of this blog.
“I’m gonna sing you a hundred verses in ragtime, I know this song it ain’t ever going to end.”
That is a line from Ramble On Rose, an overlooked gem that, because of it’s free-wheeling nature, never made it on to an official studio album.
The final thread is from a literary hero of mine, Samuel Johnson, and the incredible Dr. Paku showed me the power behind the craft of writing by way of this genius wordsmith. From 1750 to 1752, Johnson published a series of essays in a periodical called “Rambler.” He commented on everything form literature to morality to politics and religion. While I could never hope to write with clarity and depth of someone like Johnson, he is certainly one of many writing guides I will look to as I write this blog.
