Journaling

I went to bed last night (evening to some; it was 8:30 pm!) knowing I had not written a blog draft for the morning. And here I am at 5:55 am writing this for the blog. Most of the time I write the blog a day or two in advance, sometimes even a week ahead of schedule. I've never been at a loss for writing something! That may be a good thing or awful depending on your point of view!

I started the blog as a journal exercise. I needed to sort through a lot of ideas and important subjects. Developing a focus to daily living was the long term objective. I think I have found that over the past three and half years. Journaling has been fun to do. It has also helped me understand me. All of that has made the world a much more understandable milieu, too. Oh, there are plenty of surprises still. Crazy people make that so! Not so crazy people add their own spice to the stew as well. After all, crazy is not a requirement for happenings that surprise.

It just happened that for today I went to bed without an idea of what to say this morning. As I arose from bed, I had the single word in my head – ‘journaling’ – and so I decided to solo write this blog without any preparation. Sort of a stream of consciousness thing that creates itself moment by moment.

So. How am I doing so far? Perhaps that’s not an apt question as this is not a dialogue in real time. It is only real time for me as I pound away on the keyboard.

Journaling usually follows what is on the mind of the writer at the time he is writing it. Similar to a diary, it chronicles the doings of the person’s day, life story, developments, ups and downs, and challenges as well. Although most of us would prefer that we not admit that life is a struggle, it is very much that. We are free to make decisions, spend our time and resources any way we wish, provided we have resources in the first place. Thus, journaling reflects what we do for a living, how well we are doing that both in terms of financial and career objectives.

Journaling also reflects how we think on various subjects. Life experiences challenges our thinking from time to time. The eternal ‘why?’ is always with us. Normally the eternal ‘what?’ is not the problem. The ‘what’ is gathered from many sources quickly; the ‘why’ is the puzzle in need of solving. From this springs philosophy, ideology, historical scans and comparisons, and even theology. The ‘why’ has become, for me at least, the spice of life.

Journaling daily provides the opportunity to notice these things. Paying attention helps. Observing routines may seem boring but surprising thoughts are discovered often. And that happens in the privacy of my own head! Just imagine what might be discovered if we somehow managed to share all of this with each other all at the same time! It might be chaos to the power of infinity, but it might also help us invent sorting tools to make sense of it all.

An example might help here.

Our apartment building’s garage was being steam cleaned (a 2 or 3 day process done annually to remove the grime of winter tracked in by 40 cars daily). We all had to park in the outdoor lot and a vacant lot next door. Two handicapped parking slots are provided. Two of us in the building have handicapped parking privileges. But one resident frequently parks in one of the slots without handicapped license plates or placard.

So, I wrote a note to the offender to that effect and placed it on his windshield. I had warned him/her that this sort of parking violation carried a $250 fine in our town, plus $150 to $250 towing and impound fees should the town have to remove the car. I signed the note and indicated my apartment unit number.

Some hours later while walking the dog, Rocky noted the car had been removed but my note had been crumpled and tossed into the bushes. Whether that action was one of spite or anger at being reproved we will never know. Now that we all have returned to the garage we may never know if this person will again park illegally in handicapped slots. But if he/she does, I will call the police to ticket the offender.

I have not done this sort of thing before. Why now? I’m not sure. It just rankles me that some people live their lives merrily day to day unaware of the needs of other persons. The rules don’t apply to them. The social contract we have with one another only works if we all follow through in obeying modest rules. Doing otherwise creates a little bit of chaos. More chaos follows the more each of us ignores those same rules consistently.

No man is an island. Why is it that so many live otherwise?

Now that is a question that journaling helped me ask and seek answers to. The seeking continues. I’ll keep you informed what I discover.

April 30, 2015; 6:30 am