How it started
I was in a hotel in Berlin on the 8th of December 2003, when I wrote my first blog and it was an introduction written in a style that was probably difficult to read.
Going back to pore over that blog today, I think I have stuck to one principle in the 11 years of blogging and it is caught in this excerpt.
“I sometimes have to clarify what I mean when I write but there are two ways to it. One is the need to communicate, that is important, because you have to take cognisance of your audience; the other is the need to express the richness of the language.”
When I have had to choose between cognisance and richness, I have gravitated towards the latter and I am not ashamed about it.
Keeping the standards up
On the train yesterday, as I was returning home, I was appalling to hear a mother use the word “chillaxing” which is a portmanteau of chill and relaxing. There was a time when chill mean to cool something down or it gave the impression of coolness and relax simply meant, to rest. Now the urban usage that I will not subscribe to or give credence to is unacceptable.
A parent should endeavour to impart the best they can in knowledge and expression when they have wards in their care, and as I opined in a tweet that I posted following that conversation I said, “The proper use of English should be a sign of good education worthy of impartation rather the fear of irrelevance.”
In another tweet as Twitter appears to complement my blogging and at times, it has upstaged my blogging, I said, “The purist is dead, long live the pedant.”
I think I have made my point, but this is eleven years of blogging and arguably one of the activities I have consistently done for the longest period of time in my life apart from breathing.
Get on with it from today
I have chided myself over many things, I should have blogged more, I have only managed 2,453 blogs in all that time, I should have visited the gym more, I do not have that dream six-pack yet, I should have complete this or finished that and then after beating myself up for a while I return to the present and just do what I can do now.
Blogging has been the opportunity to tell stories, share thoughts, project opinion, speak my mind, crude and cathartic therapy and much else. I’ve made friends, met people, found help, railed, ranted, praised, excoriated, put down and elevated using my blog.
Time for stories
Many life stories have come into my blog, too many to reference in this piece apart from the opportunity to give thanks to all and everyone who has taken time to read, to comment, to share, to dispute, to recognise and to debunk things written here – you have all become friends after a fashion and I have been honoured to be accepted in your company.
Eleven years of blogging! I hope there is another eleven years to write more of the stories and maybe encourage others to tell their own stories too, in their own voices, on their own blogs, enriching all with the wonder of life and experience.
Thank you.
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