Sunday, May 11, 2008

What's Worth Blogging?

Anything, probably, because whatever it is there's someone who wants to read it and that makes it worth writing. But really, what's really, really worth Blogging?

Let's face facts, people, fellow Baby-Boomers, pretty soon we'll all be dead, we're all dying already, you don't die all at once, you know.

So that's important. How do you feel about that? Have any interesting symptoms? Anything not working out the way you planned? We'd all love to hear about it.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I feel as you do. In only 100 years, everyone who ever knew me will be dead. All memories of me will be gone. It will be as if I had never existed. After you really understand this, how can you (or anyone) take anything too seriously? Is this a depressing realization, or a liberating one? So, what's worth blogging about? Only what you decide is important. Only what you think matters today.
-P.N.

Anonymous said...

I feel as you do. In only 100 years, everyone who ever knew me will be dead. All memories of me will be gone. It will be as if I had never existed. After you really understand this, how can you (or anyone) take anything too seriously? Is this a depressing realization, or a liberating one? So, what's worth blogging about? Only what you decide is important. Only what you think matters today.
-P.N.

Anonymous said...

An interview I did with Mom for my Journalism class.

"English by song: one woman's contribution to world peace"

All-girl Catholic high schools of the sixties in were and are an emotional arena. Boy issues, detention, penance, and arithmetic, weighing heavily on the young mind.
Yet on November 22cnd of 1963 when a solemn voice interrupted the chatter of homeroom to announce the untimely death of President John F. Kennedy to an assassin’s rifle, life would take on new meaning for one young girl from Queens.

Subsequent years were marked by this date as a nation processed its’ loss and pondered its’ future. Video of the man’s life helped people remember what he stood for and why they loved him. One particular speech was embedded into Ann’s malleable mind, a speech about service to one’s country, a speech about peace and world perspective.

In his inaugural address this great man said, “And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country” after which he transferred his meaning to a world view saying, “My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.”

It was 1960 and [Senator] John F. Kennedy’s words sparked an interest in the globalization of the American way as a contrast to the Soviet Unions efforts to spread communism through similar means. This globalization came in the form of a government agency called the Peace Corps.

Hard hit by these prophetic words, Ann Ceely, that impressionable schoolgirl from Queens, felt the call to action deep in her soul. She pledged silently to one day serve her country in the name of peace.

40 years later, after she had two grown sons, college degrees, moved her family out west to California, a successful business, and a deeper understanding of politics in general, her dream would finally come to fruition.

Nearly half a century later she and her husband were filling out the forms, going for health screenings and preparing their estates in order to realize her dream.

“Never give up your dream, because it’s never too late.” says a prophetic Ann in retrospect.

Nervous about where they would be sent, the couple prayed that it would be Thailand. They frequented a local Thai restaurant a few blocks from home every Friday to appease the food gods and when they finally found out they were being sent to Thailand they told everyone that “at least” they wouldn’t have to worry about the food.

“People would stare and point fingers”, as if the two foreigners were from another planet says Ann, “It was very strange at first”.

Ann would send a mass e-mail everyday to her loved ones in the US describing the various ways she and Fred were staying cool in 80+ percent humidity and 90+ degrees of heat, and how she was adjusting to living in a male dominated homogeneous society. Sitting in the backseat was something new to Ann, literally and figuratively.

During the first year of their 27 month commitment the two learned to say important phrases like, “No pigs blood please”, and, “Only a little spice please”.

She and Fred performed like a comedic duo using their humor to reach over a thousand teachers at workshops on curriculum and teaching. They also taught alongside some of these teachers in k-6 classrooms.

All the while thinking of home Ann and Fred would relish their chances to eat American foods like pizza, hamburgers, spaghetti, and shredded wheat, which they purchased at the “farang” [foreign] market.

The second year had them collaborating with other volunteers on an, “English by song”, compact disc compilation. It was by this time that they also began to feel more and more empathetic toward the poverty they were experiencing firsthand. Children with holes in their socks and barely enough money for school uniforms reinforced their sense of duty.

Frugality grew in their daily operations. They found themselves considering how much money they were spending in comparison to what it would equate to in the US. For example ordering a pizza delivered would comparatively cost about 100 dollars back home.

Now back in LA, she has gone from frugal to thrifty and back. She now prefers the local ethnic grocery stores and bargain hunts at every turn of the isle.

Reflecting back on her experience Ann says she now knows exactly what the term, “Developing Nation” means. A woman of action rather than words, she puts it succinctly, “Plenty of people have plenty of money, but most people are very, very poor”.

Fred didn’t feel he’d done enough in his 27 months and he lamented this fact for one year upon returning home to the states. He soon returned to Thailand to continue his personal effort to help the people he’d grown to call his second country, friends, and family. He writes daily and much of it ends up in his blog at Spineasytime@blogspot.com.

Ann plans to stay home and watch her beloved Dodgers in the familiar comfort of Los Angeles… for now at least.

fred c said...

That's probably why the Dali Lamma smiles, in his case it's liberating. And I agree about the subject matter issue too. I was trying to decide between entertaining little crap and something meatier and I figured what the hell? Why not both?