Salute

December 8, 2006

 

I'm taking a break for a moment because I've got five days before I sit down again and write another exam and after the sixth day, I get to rest...until it all starts up again in early January.

A little over eight years ago Yahoo sent one of it's weekly e-mails about what was new on the web, and an online journal site was featured among several others. "Founded on October 19, 1998, it is the oldest such community on the internet." However, after a bit of time, I decided I would have more flexibility to create my own web site on the web.

A search of the internet archive shows that this web site was up and running back in March of 2000.

The objective of the community was to :"provide an easy to use platform for online diary writers and readers. We have created a community where hundreds of thousands of people write about their daily lives, and can read about the lives of other people around the world."

Now we have thousands upon thousands of blogs to read, on just about any topic under the sun.

I am a part of all that I have met.
Lord Tennyson, "Ulysses" (1842)

I opened a diary sometime in November of 1998 but did not write my first entry till December 8th. If you are interested, you can read it here.

Changes

A couple of things have changed in the last 8 years.

I haven't flown an airplane in something like 5 years now. Harry Chapin flies in his Taxi, but I've got my Harley and even though it's "lite" it still takes me to the skies.

The kids are grown, and just a couple of weeks my baby will turn 21. It's not like that really means much to a college kid however, as I learned what a Keg-a-rator was when I was in his apartment over Thanksgiving weekend.

Two of the three have graduated from college, then the eldest got married and then graduated from law school. I blinked, and they all grew up.

We have had our share of sorrow in our house, both my in-laws died and earlier this year my mother died. But none of that compares with the gut wrenching soul searing brutality of those who have lost their children or grandchildren.

Sometimes when I read here I just shake my head and wonder how some folks pick up the pieces and carry on. For them it's not about the glass being half empty, or half full, it's about having the glass torn from their hands and smashed into thousands of pieces right there on the floor.

During this time we tried to relocate and finally, just before the doors closed on the entire state of Michigan, I packed up the moving truck, relocated to New Mexico and started law school, all in the same week.

Now, in less than 12 months, school will be over.

There can be no vulnerability without risk; there can be no community without vulnerability; there can be no peace, and ultimately no life, without community.
M. Scott Peck American psychiatrist and Author, 1936-2005

I'll celebrate our differences, thankyouverymuch.

Share our similarities, celebrate our differences.
M. Scott Peck

But I must say, I'm pretty pleased that the doors are still open and I still get to read and to write.

And speaking of writing, although we share the use of the computer pen, we really are quite different. If you want an active example, just take a look at a new diary that hosts a photo theme of the week. As I look through the entries I've found myself saying from time to time, "Why didn't I think of that?"

Well, I guess if I had, there wouldn't be the need for all of the rest of us now, would there?

If you were all alone in the universe with no one to talk to, no one with which to share the beauty of the stars, to laugh with, to touch, what would be your purpose in life? It is other life, it is love, which gives your life meaning. This is harmony. We must discover the joy of each other, the joy of challenge, the joy of growth.
Mitsugi Saotome- Chief instructor of the Aikido Shobukan Dojo in Washington, D.C

Over the past eight years I've had the companionship of lots of writers, so many in fact that it is impossible to keep up with them all.

I read a lot of you, I've got over a hundred favorites and when I go away for a couple of days, or even a week, it's not easy, to say the least, to get caught back up.

But it's been worth it.

I've been:

Inspired

Challenged

Motivated

Saddened

Gladdened

Mystified

Disgusted

Encouraged

Discouraged

Amazed and Dazed

Awed

and sometimes, just plain angry.

I like that I can read and then sit speechless and carry some of your thoughts with me through the day.

Not to transmit an experience is to betray it.
Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor, Nobel Peace Prize winner.

The sharing of experiences makes the web a more human place.

A whole bunch of people have come and gone in the past 8 years, some in a huff, some have died, some slipped out the back door and others are still writing. I used to be listed on a site that kept tract of some of the oldest diaries on the web, Going and Going, but it too, is long gone.

We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospection.
Anais Nin

For those who write, and those who allow me to read, I want to say thanks for sharing.

It's you, the writers and the readers who make this place what it is.

But words are things, and a small drop of ink, falling like dew upon a thought, produces that which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.
Lord Byron

Thanks for your words and thanks for reading.

To all of you, I raise my glass.

To the 9th year.