Why Blog? (Part 1)

I have no pedigree for writing a blog. I’ve never really written anything.  I’ve been told I write a good letter, and good reports.  But that was mostly in a business or a political setting, where people are apt to tell you anything if it serves their purpose. 

In retirement I’ve subconsciously looked for “something” to do – something that stimulated and challenged me.  There are lots of things that will do that of course, golf being a prime example. But I guess I was looking for something less tangible, and less common, and certainly something I’ve never attempted before.  Something “new.”

Writing!  By some accounts, we humans have been perfecting this for about 5,000 years, give or take. It is practiced by billions, and is the one thing I (and you) can do anywhere, anytime. (Sometimes it seems I can do it anytime I want to, except when I do want to. The bane of writing!)

To set my ideas, my thoughts, my opinions, and who knows what else, down on paper as they say, now that suddenly seemed like the ultimate challenge. 

There are currently, by one estimate, over 450,000,000 active English language “blogs” floating on the internet for the rest of us to find.  What an absolutely astounding statistic. I have no doubt that very few persons will find mine, or once found, read it with any regularity.  I doubt even fewer will make a  “comment” on something I write.

And that will be fine with me. I’m not really doing this for a mass audience.  If that happens (highly doubtful) that would be ok, and if it doesn’t (very, very likely), that will be just peachy. Ultimately, I am doing this….for me.

I enter this experiment with no grand expectations of my one little star lost in the cosmos, with one exception.  I hope that one day my kids and grandkids will want to read these odd musings, and get a better sense of my more inner thoughts, and hence learn a little more about who I am. 

Mark Twain quote:  “The time to begin writing an article is when you have finished it to your satisfaction.  By that time you begin to clearly and logically perceive what it is that you really want to say.”