In thinking about our blog, which is about 3.5 years old, and has well over 300 hundreds posts. It has been a challenge from time to time to keep up with the pace we set for ourselves of 2 posts (1 each as primary writer) per week. Sometimes, we are ahead of ourselves by a few weeks or months. Other times, we are behind (usually it is me who is behind). But, we keep working to put our thoughts down on paper (electronically speaking) to share them with those who are reading these posts. In considering what we are doing, it hit me recently that I was a blogger, before there were blogs. Shortly after I graduated from college, I embarked on an adventure of a lifetime by attending graduate school in Sydney, Australia. It was a big adventure to go halfway around the world and to explore another country, on another continent. One of the belongings I packed for the journey was a portable typewriter. This was long before laptop computers or the internet. So, I decided to write a “Downunder Newsletter” on an irregular basis, to report my adventures and observations to my family and friends back home. When I mailed the first one to my family and friends, my Dad re-sent it to many of the same people not knowing that I had mailed it to so many. The newsletters, or posts, were several pages long and we quickly agreed that I’d mail a copy to Dad who would mail it to those on a list I created. That saved me lots of money on international postage and allowed me to share my news as much as possible. In the year I was away, I sent 12 to 15 newsletters, hopefully, to be enjoyed by those who received them. I have a stack of them around somewhere and will revisit them one day – but for now I have moved well beyond those posts and into the world of electronic posts. Proving again, what was old is new again.
I learned something about David today as I read his latest post. I never knew, until now, that David was a “blogger” over 30 years ago with his creative newsletters from Australia! What a cool and efficient way to keep family and friends informed of his exciting adventures in an exotic land that many of them had ever, or will ever, visit! And, leave it to David and his dad (whom I refer to as “MY Herman”) to come up with a mass distribution system, 1980s style! I’m impressed! Writing has always been easy for me. I wrote in a diary every day throughout high school; I have kept journals from time to time on vacations; I wrote letters (long hand, on lovely stationery) to my mother and several friends for most of my life; I have written and published many psychology related articles, as well as a few books; and generally speaking, I prefer written communication to other forms. The blog David and I co-author is something that requires little effort on my part. The only thing that slows my thoughts is my turtle paced typing! And, as David admits, I am usually way ahead of him in writing the posts; I prefer to write 5 or more at a time, such that I always have some ready to post. But, despite all of my acumen as a writer, David was “before his time” in sharing his experiences, in a group fashion, with people who wanted to know what he was doing.
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