The Global Village

           

With three years of blog posting I recently discovered some blogger tools I had not know existed. Behind the scenes the support software gathers data on users, not identities but geographical territories where readers are accessing the blog. It seems there is interest in my musings! In Germany, China, Russia, Malaysia, Canada, France, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands and more.

I hadn't thought about this really. But there is a global community ‘out there’ in which we live, work and play. Our minds encounter one another. We can hear each other in astonishing ways we once never imagined. Electronics has made the world smaller in a way that makes it very personal.

It still makes me pause while forming a thought before writing it down. Who is listening, reading this post? Who might be insulted or lifted up by whatever it is I write? Might the reader and author combine to strengthen the global village?

If so what would we say to make that happen? 

I do not speak any language other than English. I have studied Latin, German and Spanish. But then it was only to write and read material in those languages. How do readers in foreign lands read my material and understand it? The tone, the nuance and inner voices of languages? Are these readers other Americans? Or are they foreign students studying America? Or the English language?

Interesting questions for a writers to ponder. Of course I consider my audience as I write. But I don’t often think of that audience in global terms. But I should.

I think this topic today is a huge one. I will revisit it soon. But for now, let us just contemplate that the global audience and village exists and communes with itself.

Think what this could mean.

October 24, 2014