Hello harvey225,
Thank you for visiting Apple Support Communities. It sounds like you're having trouble beginning a new document in Pages on your Mac. I'd love to share information that may help you resolve this.
If you're new to Pages, take a look at the information here: Create your first document in Pages on Mac.
To begin troubleshooting this, start up in safe mode to see if the issue persists in safe mode: Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac.
Next, test the issue in another user account: How to test an issue in another user account on your Mac.
I hope that helps. Take care!