Version 1.0

R. D. Ice/Version 1.0
I started writing because of HIM.

He was (and is) my source of inspiration. Everything that I am came in some form from this intellectual, and genetic, starting point.

Our styles have a mystic similarity. I attribute this to the common blood of our ancestor, Frederick Iaac. Of course, we speak from differing generational viewpoints. Dad was 21 in 1950; I was 21 in 1982. So we compose thoughts with the inflections of our own experience. But an undeniable connection remains between his world, and mine. We are wordsmiths. Curiosity makes us hungry for new vistas. Restlesness is in our bones. It drives our spirits to seek out culture and opinion beyond the realm of Midwestern America. Yet we ourselves are humble folk. Not given to extremes of thought or behavior. Like him, I have settled in the center. It is entertaining to observe the habits of distant lands. Yet I reserve unto myself a conventional, quiet existence. To state the outlook in more Cen-21 terms: "May I have a hunger for tomorrow, a reverence for life, tolerance for my neighbors, and humility for myself."

It is easy to draw a connection between the last four generations of ICE descendants. K. C. (Kromer Columbus Ice, my Great-Grandfather), M. C. (McGarvey Ice, my Grandfather), and R. D. (Dad) seem to have passed on certain traits that I find in myself. A passion for career achievement binds us together. Each gave a unique belief in self-worth through service to the next. An outlook of 'macro' scale has slipped from one to the other in succession. We are happy only in 'doing.' Without purpose, there is nothing. We must be intellectually and spiritually active to live. (I speak of 'us' as a group of four because in the sense of a bloodline, 'we' are truly one. In the sense of an educated consciousness, the same is true.)

Recently, I saw a starter disc for AOL at a thrift store in Ashtabula Harbor. It was a 'floppy' intended for Windows v 3.1. I was amused by the dated look of this relic. Though only from the 90's it seemed connected to an era long passed.

Dad's photo struck me in similar fashion. (It is on his MSN blog.) It gave evidence of something so familiar, but intangibly different. Me, but not me... part of the physical DNA that is my own, but also, part of the artistic molecule-chain that makes this bit of blogging possible. I am here, because of the version before myself. What comes afterward, I do not know.

For now, let me simply say: Thank you, Version 1.0

Rod