I Should Have Started Earlier

What’s the one thing in life you wish you would have started earlier?

This….this writing, this blogging thing I occasionally do. Now to be fair blogging didn’t exist all my life. I did some research and discovered that a college student started blogging in 1994, and the term weblog was coined in 1997 which was then shortened to blog in April of 1999. This very website, WordPress, was launched in 2003.

I didn’t start this blog until 2017 which I’m sure meant that I had missed the heyday of blogging. In fact I’m sure by the time I started blogging it was probably considered an ancient form of communication much like drawings on cave walls. If so it is certainly not the first time I wildly mistimed a trend. Today people make videos posting their entire life on Tiktok, Instagram and Facebook. People who I’ve told that I write a blog look at me quizzically as if asking… “is that still a thing, how quaint, ok boomer you go ahead and keep blogging.”

Even my wife, who by the way never reads my blog, will occasionally ask if anybody reads this. I reply that I have a few loyal readers and anyhow it’s not really for a mass audience but it’s more for me to write and express.

I always enjoyed writing, perhaps it started in school where I much preferred to write than to stand in front of a class and deliver some type of speech. Every time I was required to do any form of public speaking it was a terrifying experience involving heavy sweating, butterflies, tightening of the throat and a general feeling of I wish there was anywhere else I could be. But writing, ah that was different. I could write and most importantly edit and rewrite sometimes to my detriment, until I was satisfied with the outcome.

I just wished I had done some more writing in my younger days. Sure I wrote in high school but I never wrote for the school paper or yearbook, and in college I did a lot of writing but that’s different from creative writing, although I did take a creative writing class in college and enjoyed the process of being given a topic and then writing about it. I remember the teacher remarking to me that it seemed easy to me this writing thing. She was a grad assistant so perhaps I didn’t take her seriously or perhaps I saw no future in writing, it was the 80’s and everyone was in business school.

I often wonder if I should have pursed writing as a career as a reporter but I generally think I ended up right where I should be and anyhow the demise of newspapers and magazines has certainly ended or upended a lot of careers of journalist.

I’m grateful for this platform that allows me to blog anytime about anything, and I’m even more grateful for the few people that encouraged me when I first started and actually read my blog after all these years.

I may always be years behind the latest trend but I certainly have found something I enjoy. Still sometimes I think maybe I should start a Podcast….the world could certainly use another one of those…amiright?

Peace and love,

John

Palm Slap Forehead

Daily writing prompt

What are your favorite emojis?

View all responses

Ah, the emoji….the cute, whimsical picture form of wordplay to express an emotion without actually writing it. The perfect symbol of our time…..why write something when you can send a picture. The various forms of smiley faces, laughing faces, crying faces are just the tip of the iceberg. Emojis for people, places, objects, work occupations, animals and even food…..an emoji for literally everything.

For a long time I refused to use emojis…..I admit I felt they were beneath me….I used texting for quick communication. I didn’t need an emoji to express myself. I could do that on my own just fine without pictures thank you. I figured the emoji was for kids and I even felt it represented a decline in our overall society. Cavemen had drawn pictures on walls as a way of communicating and here we were millions of years later resorting to silly smiley faces and eggplants to communicate our feelings. We’ve developed hundreds if not thousands of languages to communicate and yet we seem to be devolving back to communicating with pictures. And so for a long time I refused to use emojis….yes I was being a bit old fashioned.

Looking back it was rather silly and even curmudgeonly of me to hate on emojis. I had a friend whom I texted with almost daily and she always included emojis in her texts. She had a few favorites, the laughing face and the peace sign were included in most every text but she used all kinds of emojis….she used emojis I never even knew existed. I started referring to her as the emoji queen and she was an adult so I figured what’s the harm in throwing in an emoji to complement or even accentuate my texts.

Like most people I have a couple of favorites….the shoulder shrug and the face palm my two most frequently used but I’ve certainly expanded my portfolio. So go ahead and include an emoji in a text…..they’re fun and they convey an emotion quickly and no they shouldn’t replace talking or writing and be careful as they can sometimes be taken the wrong way…..that eggplant emoji just doesn’t mean lets have eggplant tonight ( insert face palm emoji here )

Peace and Love….

John

Admiration

Daily writing prompt

What is something others do that sparks your admiration?

View all responses

There are many traits I admire in others. Perhaps it’s the creeping doubts in my own self-confidence or maybe the inability to let go of mistakes I’ve made in the past but I always seem to look at others and see their best qualities and wish I had those.

The ability to lead either by words or example is a wonderful trait that only a few truly possess. Some leaders are given titles and expect because of it that others will be inspired by them. They lead by edict or worse by slogans and their uninspired followers are dragged along with them. We seem to be living in an age sorely lacking of true leaders. Is it that so called leaders are too scared to make a mistake or are simply covering their own butts but truly inspiring leaders seem to be a relic of a by-gone day.

Another trait I admire is the ability to find humor in difficult situations or in the simple everyday fabric of life. Laughter is truly something that binds us all. People of different cultures, people of different countries, people who speak different languages can all find commonality in laughter. Laugh everyday, make someone laugh everyday….that’s a pretty great day.

Owning up to one’s mistakes and learning by them is an admirable trait that few people seem enabled to do. We seem to live in a time where plowing ahead with ideas that are clearly wrong is often celebrated as an individual living as they choose. But it’s the person who can make a mistake, admit it, change their mind on something, learn and grow that we should be encouraging.

But as I sit here tapping away on the keyboard I realize it’s once again been awhile since I’ve last written. Procrastination, lack of time, and just plain tiredness have conspired against my creativity. So the one trait I’ve been admiring in others is the ability to write everyday. I follow a handful of other bloggers who faithfully compose a thoughtful bit of writing each day. How they can do this must be some sort of wizardry as I often struggle to make a post once a week.

So here’s to you the keyboard warriors tapping away making words dance across the screen in a tango of harmony and symphony. Your creativity I salute, your determination is to be admired and your ability to focus and write is a trait I long for…..

As always….Peace and Love

Like, comment or subscribe….I will continue to post although irregularly