I am touched and honored and now it's your turn

First, may I say I am sincerely humbled by this and only want to thank all the ‘little’ people who played such a big part in allowing me to get where I am today.

Frivolity aside, I am flattered and delighted to have been ‘tagged’ by both csl and Dr. Michelle Tempest for a Thinking Blogger award. Now, according to the protocols of the business, I have to choose 5 (and only 5) blogs that give me pause for thought. Not an easy task. Virtually everybody on my blogroll (and plenty of others who are not) gives me pause for thought. Of course, csl and Dr. Michelle would have been among the first I’d have chosen, but I guess I cannot return the compliment since they have already been tagged.

This reminds me of the time years ago when I won a national newspaper columnist award. Aside from the ego-boost, and the sense of validation, it also offered a cash prize as frosting on that metaphorical cake. However, another aspect of the win was that the next year I had to join the ranks of the judges for the ensuing award. That was a strange task. Aside from the fact it meant I had to ignore all sorts of deserving writers among the 2.7 billion (or so it seemed) candidates, it also meant I had to put a stamp of approval on somebody. Kind of a power-trip, but I somehow didn’t want to be in the position to ‘make’ or ‘break’ somebody’s day.

Anyway, here goes. If I don’t choose you it doesn’t mean I don’t love you, it just means I had to make a choice in accordance with my whim of today. Tomorrow I might feel differently.

If you are chosen, by the way, you then have the obligation to pick 5 others. That way, eventually, the entire blog universe will be included.

Here are the criteria:

1. Post with links to 5 blogs that make you think.
2. Link to original source blog
3. If you don’t choose to do either then please display your thinking blogger logo as shown on this posting.
OK now, as follows are my chosen 5:

Dr. Deborah Serani. I linked up with Dr. Deb very early on in my blogging, and I find her insights into the human condition realistic, sensible and extremely compassionate. There can be little doubt that she would be a highly effective therapist.

The Life and Times of Alie Malie. This blog by a cosmopolitan and perceptive Texas graduate student offers perceptions that reveal a well-read, thoughtful, sometimes irritated by the perversities of life that I have always found readable and intellectually ‘tweakable.’

Haphazard Life by Jazz is frank, sometimes outspoken, almost invariably funny in a very human sense and her perceptions and thoughts so often mirror my own that I can find her musings uncanny.

Leesa’s Stories: Leesa who lives in Savannah (lucky her) is a highly intelligent, insightful and eclectic writer who explores the gamut of the human condition with honesty and huge candor. We are all perverse souls and sometimes utter bozos on this bus, victims to our biases, our sexuality and all the other elements that go to make up the human condition. Leesa visits them all. If you haven’t gone there, you should.

Hello? Is This Thing On, by Tai. Tai is a fellow Vancouver Islander who truly captures what a blog should be all about, which is the vicissitudes of life here on the too often wet west coast of Canada. Rarely do I read a Tai blog that I am not prompted to thoughts in various realms, so I am happy to tag her even if she didn’t want to be tagged.

Now that I have done this, and I look down my roll I realize I could easily muster up a further five, and then five more after that, and five again. But, there you have it as it is. If you choose to respond, I would be delighted.