Anniversary

Today marks the year-end anniversary of this blog. It began October 4, 2011. The sub heading of “The View From Here” is: A personal journal and commentary on today’s issues. Only you, the reader, can say whether this heading is accurate. Is it a journal? Were the commentaries on the day’s issues on the mark? Were they fair or at least understandable from a perspective such as mine?

Yes. Only you can say what’s what. And from your own perspective. That’s all each of us has, isn’t it? Who we are is a mish mash of all of our individual experiences. Those are formative to our feelings, ideas, thoughts, maybe some conclusions. They don’t define us exactly, but they help capture a short term meaning of who we are. Always changing because life and its surrounds are always changing.

So where does that leave us at this point?

First, some statistics: This blog has the following data points connected with it:

·         365 posts; not all daily; some more frequent, yet three-quarters through the year I dropped Sunday postings; still the number equals one post a day for a year

·         64 comments were published by readers to the blog; they are all still there for your reading. Many more of you responded directly to me on my own web and email sites

·         13 intrepid followers have slogged through much of this material from the beginning; must be family and close friends, right? Pretty much!  Thanks to each of you.

·         The blog has had 14,839 hits as of today, roughly 1200 per month; some days hits soar to nearly 200; average is about 50

Another statistic that may have slipped past your notice: about 400,000 words have been posted on this blog during the year long journey. That’s enough for two very wordy books, or 3 well culled books. At one point I thought of doing a book, but I have changed my mind on that, at least for now. Doing a book smacks of too much hubris: why would anyone want to read my thoughts ad nauseum in book form? I think few. And that’s what helped make my decision!

No, the blog is something else to me. It is a moment of freedom each day when I allow my mind to speak to the world (who ever is out there listening and reading that day!) and get something off my chest. It has been a freedom well worth having. I think I am more mellow (only family and close friends can accurately talk to that point!). I know I am less agitated about daily concerns. I have a healthy perspective on life now; not one driven by the impossible wants and hopes.

Yes. Life is good now. Life has a balance and beauty that I had not noticed before. We can talk wisdom but it is hard to live it. When the two come together special awareness occurs. Life makes much more sense then. It is not about me, or you; it is about us and they. It is about everything that is outside of our self. It is other.

I think the blog has helped me form philosophical rootedness in my life. It is almost spiritual. It is certainly consistent and instructive as the phases of life continue to happen and challenge me. And that really talks to the journey I am on, and you, too.

Journey. Movement. From point A to point B. The way we get there, the path. Chosen yet not chosen; walked slowly or run with speed. The journey takes us places for which we were not prepared. But that is what calibrates our focus, our lens. The scene comes into imperfect focus at first, then nuances add to its clarity. The journey is exciting and unexpected; but so too are the moments of pause in which we are able to know what meaning we have encountered.

In short, the journey is not about the movement or space covered; it is where it is at any given moment. The journey itself is the point. And so too our lives within it.

How much longer will I continue to write this blog? I cannot say, anymore than I can say how much longer I will live, or prosper or find exciting new things to ponder. It is all open. Whether it is worth your while to read is another open question.

We shall see.

October 3, 2012