The Blogs & Me

 

This is kind of a sad story. It's about blogging.

My blog made its debut in 2006. At the time I had just begun my first writing group, and two of the writers suggested I start my own blog so we could share each other's stories and essays. It was easy.

There was no Facebook or Instagram or social media, and even email, begun in 1989 by America on Line (AOL), still felt new and intriguing. So I  called my blog OPTIONS for a Better World and  published my very first blogpost: 

Welcome!

Welcome to the "better world" blogsite. Here you will find information,
musings, advice, and my personal stories about life, career, happiness,

and living well. This may come in various forms, but the underlying 
effort and intent is to affirm and re-affirm the ability and responsibility
to live a good life. 

More to come, 
kj

About a month or two later, I stumbled upon a Blog site called Illustration Friday (IF). On it, all kinds of artists posted their original work and wrote about it, and IF followers left comments. It was a reciprocal arrangement; I'll follow you and you follow me.

The people I met from this were unbelievable: painters, writers, photographers, travelers, journalists--from all over the world. Over the next two years, I became friends with people from Europe and India and South America and Australia and Iran and Japan and Canada and Mexico and South Africa and the Philippines etc etc , and just about every state in America. 

If you've ever wondered if it's possible to truly get to know someone without ever having met them in person, I'm here to say yes 100%. It was as though we came to know one another from the inside out instead of the outside in. We were often vague about where and how we lived (unless we had a good story to tell!), but several times a week--sometimes even daily--we shared our goings-on. We shared our art, our trips, our  stories, our observations, our scenery. 

For years, I was privileged to visit and be visited by almost 50 regular bloggers. Among them, there were 30-35 or so of us who laughed and teased and shared all kinds of happenings. I should add that my partner JB was nervous and very paranoid about my sharing with 'strangers,' but over time she and I met a number of my blog friends in person, and it turned out, for me at least, that my ability to judge someone's character was as intact on the blogs as it was at my workplace or in my neighborhood. 

I should also point out that I had one difficult and painful relationship born and buried on the blogs. It ended badly, and for me, that hurt my daily and weekly joy. But looking back, it was the arrival of Facebook and social media that made the Blogs less relevant. Slowly and surely, most of 'us' stopped posting with any regularity, and even now, even a die-hard blogger like me isn't here in any reliable manner.

Those early blogging years were some of the most productive and happiest in my writing life and in my friendships.  I miss all of it! There will be a few of my visitors here who remember and who still share. I'm so glad of that. But because most of us used pen names, I've lost people I wouldn't know how to contact, even if I had a reason to. 

My memories are deep and special, and that must be the way the universe wanted it to be. If you are reading this current post, thanks so much for being here. I'm so glad. I cherish now, but I surely miss then. 

love kj