Well, being dragged kicking and screaming into the cybernetic age is taking another turn. Now I’m a blogger. Yikes! Some who go to the bother to view this page used to receive manuscripts every week of sermons I preached in their e-mail inboxes, and now that I am retired, they no longer have to be bothered by such unsolicited spam. So if they find themselves viewing this page, they have only themselves to blame. One advantage of this method is that it adapts more readily to feedback, dialog, two-way communication, should the reader wish to reciprocate. Another advantage is that such conversation promises to keep the brain’s synaptic functions stimulated, perhaps promoting mental health in the “mature” years.
Drawbacks to this method of communicating, it seems, are the possibility that it is more impersonal, a distasteful prospect from my perspective, and the impossibility posed by information overload. If everyone blogged, no one could possibly keep up with all the quadrillions of tidbits of chatter available in pages like this.
So, it seems a statement of purpose is in order: one discovery in retirement has to do with how memories, both good and bad, continuously return. Often seemingly out of the blue, there comes to mind the memory of particular individuals or events, sometimes long forgotten, and then I find myself asking such things as “Why is that episode resurfacing?” or “Why did I do that?” or “What is the source of such hostility?” or “How is that different from today?” Had I been more attentive in Pastoral Psychology classes when we were studying Erik Erickson’s “Stages of the Life Cycle,” I would not have been as surprised by this sorting-out process in the ending period of life. Now the issues have to do with being grateful for accomplishments as well as the contributions of others, and coming to terms with the residual sense of failure and reasons for guilt, embarrassment and roads not taken. So my attempt in these offerings is to be as honest as I know how about the past, and at the same time to explore (with you, I hope) possible implications for today and tomorrow.
My next blog may provide an example of the purported statement of purpose.
Forging on….
Jim N.
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Oh, my beloved brother, spiritual father, and target of abuse, welcome to the ranks of bloggery & pettifoggery!
ReplyDeletePosting the first comment on a new blog is . . . is . . . well, I can think of lots of INappropriate references, but how about it's like taking a new ambulance on it's first call.
I look forward to your statement of purpose, and in that respect, I am reminded of Charles Foster Kane printing his principles on the front page of The Inquirer when he took over. Here is some dialog:
Jedediah: You don’t want to make any promises, Mr. Kane, that you don't want to keep.
Kane: These will be kept. 'I'll provide the people of this city with a daily paper that will tell all the news honestly. I will also provide them...'
Jedediah: That's the second sentence you've started with 'I'.
Kane: People are gonna know who's responsible. Now they're gonna get the truth in the Inquirer, quickly and simply and entertainingly and no special interests are gonna be allowed to interfere with that truth. (continuing with the declaration) 'I will also provide them with a fighting and tireless champion of their rights as citizens and as human beings. Signed, Charles Foster Kane.'
In anticipation of wondrous things, I have put a link to your blog on my blog so that the hoards (Scads? Traces?) of humanity who frequent that place will find another source of Truth.
Hopefully, you will also furnish a portion of Justice and the American Way.
R
I'm hoping, Jim, that your recollections in type will make it easier for your memoir! I'll be in line to buy it. :-)
ReplyDeleteMelissa