Monday, August 11, 2008

I Think, Therefore I'm Here

During my life I have experienced the excitement of starting a new job, of moving hundreds of miles to a new home, and of leaving bachelorhood for the joys of marriage. All of these changes resulted in an improvement of my life. More importantly these changes were under my control, demonstrating clearly to me that a combination of hard work and intelligent decisions will yield good results.

I consider myself quite fortunate. I enjoy my profession and am still happily married after over a quarter century. I sit here typing this in a comfortable home reassured by the knowledge that I have enough in my savings to survive the kind of economic upheavals I am most likely to confront. Would I change anything? Mostly not, but why waste time speculating on what might have been different. Life is not over yet and I still have time to both learn and to achieve something meaningful. So why am I writing all this in a blog that no one reads?

I haven’t bothered to check the statistics on how many blogs currently exist but I am sure the number exceeds the number of volumes to be found in most libraries. Given that, what is the probability that someone will stumble upon my little piece of cyberspace? I am sure the odds are against it. Observation reveals that most bloggers form little cyber-communities and read one another’s blogs. Joining a cyber-community is simply surrendering to the premise that people will read your blog if you read theirs. The odds are against me finding a cyber-community that shares my interests and values; but I might get lucky. Still, there is the hope that someone will enter the right combination of words in their search engine and stumble upon my blog.

I confess I have no idea why I continue to write here. As I have previously alluded to maybe I think I am good at writing and need an outlet for my creativity. I suppose I just want to put my two cents in even if my opinion represents only one part per billion in the vast ocean of pointless opinions polluting the internet. I fear that most of us on the internet never rise above the noise.

If you are reading this, thank you. If you can find anything positive amongst my ramblings feel free to leave a comment even if it is nothing more than a note indicating that you visited. Don’t be shy about disagreeing with me. As President Johnson once said, “If everyone in a room is in agreement, one person must be doing all the thinking.” That may not be the exact quote but it certainly reflects the spirit of what he said. If you only hang around people with whom you agree you will develop a very narrow view of the world around you.

Whether anyone reads this or not is irrelevant. I do this for me. When I write something I question it. Sometimes I spend hours thinking about what I have written only to find out that I changed my mind. Thinking can do that. Thinking can also keep you out of trouble. I think I will have more to say about this the next time.