This Blog

A few years before I retired from teaching, I had students that insisted I should be on Facebook so they could keep track of me.  I thought it was a sweet idea, so, with my daughter's help, I registered on FB.  Along about that same time, or shortly before, I also established this blog (short for web log).

In the beginning, I used the blog almost as a diary, not expecting anyone to read it.  It chronicled my daily activities and foibles in the same way a journal would, but, over time, it has changed.  Now, I write on topics more than just stream of consciousness things.   I am proud of some of my posts.  Some, not so much.  I am also much more aware of the fact that people DO read it and can find it on Internet searches, so I am a bit more careful about what I write, even though I want it to be a factual representation of how I think and feel.

But here is the question:  who cares how I think or feel??  Why do I write on this blog at all?
My zillion years of teaching taught me that people just long to be heard.  They want to know that they count, that they are needed and accepted.  They have opinions that have worth.  They have passions that need to be expressed.  They have feelings to mean something to others--that someone, somewhere, will understand.

I live alone.  There are days--in the winter, MANY days--that I don't come in contact with another human being.  Sometimes, the only way to express what I think or feel is to write in this blog.  It keeps my brain active at a time when I could easily just hibernate and disappear.  Although much of it is just my mind blatherings, there are a few jewels in the mud.  Maybe someone can take away something of value to him/her.  Maybe a light bulb will come on over someone's head.  Maybe my humble little life will encourage someone else to keep going.

Blogs are somewhat self-serving, but they really aren't narcissistic things.  Yes, I express myself without debate on here, but I also accept that I'm not the Queen of the Universe.  When I die, my child and grandchildren will have a testament to how I tried to live.  And that means all the world to me.