Journal-versary?

Mon., January 14, 08:29 AM

January 14, 2002— six years ago today. That’s when I opened my Diaryland page, though it took me another week to write anything longer than a paragraph. It has never been truly a diary or even a weblog, because I may go long periods without posting a thing. I admire those writers who manage to post something every single day. (When they miss a day, I start worrying about my friends!)

Me, I barely average two entries a week. There are lots of times when I don’t feel that I want to share, times when I write, save, reread, and then make the decision: modify for posting or just trash it. I went back to look at 2004, the year I was treated for cancer. There aren’t many posts after the diagnosis; there are more when I was finished treating.

Probably writing was — and is — important to me because I always had something to say that I probably couldn’t discuss with anyone. My mother didn’t think I had the talent to be a writer, but she was happy to let me be the “family correspondent,” and for many years I was the one who wrote the letters and kept the family up to date. People did write letters back then; out-of-town phone calls were too expensive to be used for anything other than emergencies or very special occasions. (It’s a girl!) It always seemed to me that the ability to go back and check what you had to say is a real luxury.

Even letters weren’t enough, and I started “talking to myself” — silently! — when I was in high school. I have since dug up and discarded most of that old stuff. The practice was very good for me but, except for verification of dates and so forth, it’s more embarrassing than useful.

Within a year and a half, happy as I was with the online community I had discovered, I was having serious doubts about Diaryland. A couple of years after that, I moved my business elsewhere, explaining my concerns. I have maintained a presence on D’land, but I don’t always put an entry in. D’land seems to think I am sp@m. I complained to Andrew, who assured me he had personally fixed my problem. Yeah, right! I even get the sp@m message occasionally when I try to sent a comment.

So I just don’t do much with D’land these days. I know I’m not the only one. Many of my favorite people, like me, started there and moved. Some have just stopped writing, and I often wonder whether they just got bored. It is entirely possible that the frustrations of D’land just got too much to handle. Not everyone is blessed with home-grown computer support.

Here are a few of my “favorite reads,” well worth sampling if you’re in the mood. But if you look at their URLs, you will notice that more than half of them — no matter where they started — now exist elsewhere. And this doesn’t even mention those that are locked, having been hacked or insulted or blown right off their computers.

They are a motley crew — that meant varied for centuries before it was a band! — but I’m interested in what they have in common, as well as how much they differ. Mostly they are women, and almost all of them are younger than I. (Some, a lot younger!) I am always surprised by the number of teachers I read, because I am not always polite to teachers. More than half are parents.

Those who are interested in politics at all are usually, though not always, viewing the world from my position, giving me the feeling that I’m preaching to the choir. Some who write about religion or spirituality have opinions much like mine, but most, I think, do not. That diversity is probably what brings us together.

As I begin the seventh year, I will repeat: we are more alike than we are different.

And how do I celebrate? My Son brought me a present yesterday — a “wi-fi” card? — that makes everything connect so much faster. More about that later…



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