Like Augustus McCrae, I'm partial to the evenings. I love to sit, relax, and watch as the sun trails its way to the horizon. Sometimes, I imagine my dad and grandpa in the chairs around me, talking about the weather as we wait for the beer-can chicken to finally be done. To these evenings, I am quite partial. These evenings are my safe space, my refuge from the world around me – the world around us. Yet, as I sit in the escape of these simple evenings, I know that I must soon return to the world, like my father and his father before him. I've come to realize these evenings don't last forever. The sun sets every night.
Reflecting on these evenings, I have realized what an escape they truly are. Though they let me escape the rat race and exist without consequence, they are only a temporary release from the chaotic reality of the world. My evenings are only a speck of peace in the universe's conflict. My escape seems to be nothing more than a willful ignorance of the world around me.
So, I have decided to reclaim my evenings. I have been inspired to use them for something new: a journal, this very journal that you are reading. This article is the first in what I hope will be an insightful collection of ideas, reflections, and explorations. Each article will address a different topic of relevance in the world today, and it is my hope that these articles will lead to a positive change in the world – the world that exists around all of us.
So, I invite you to open my journal. Read its articles, and consider my words. Ponder my ideas, and push back when necessary. I invite you to join my project – by reading, reflecting, engaging, and taking action to help bring positive change to the world. This won't be an easy task, but I ask that you join me as I endeavor in reclaiming my evenings and, hopefully, revitalizing something more for and within our collective humanity.
I may miss my evenings, but I believe in the journey to come.
With anticipation,
Luke T. Bitzkie