This is my very first post on my very first, and brand new, web page which is very much a work in progress. I am hoping to use my site as an online repository for photos, essays, poems, pictures, stories, and any other random idea or creation foolhardy enough to be captured while passing by. It is a place where friends and passers-by are welcome and their contributions will be valued.

Since I was a boy, I have been inspired by the dedication in his novel East of Eden, written by John Steinbeck for his friend and editor, Pascal Covici:

Dear Pat,

You came upon me carving some kind of little figure out of wood and you said, “Why don’t you make something for me?”

I asked you what you wanted, and you said, “A box.”

“What for?”

“To put things in.”

“What kind of things?”

Whatever you have,” you said.

Well, here’s your box. Nearly everything I have is in it, and it is not full. Pain and excitement are in it, and feeling good or bad and evil thoughts and good thoughts – the pleasure of design and some despair and the indescribable joy of creation.

And on top of these are all the gratitude and love I have for you.

And still the box is not full.

JOHN

My great hope is that I may find just a twinkling of that indescribable joy of creation, so beautifully conjured up by John, in my very own box…

LeeB