Joining the Historical Process

Myakka State Park 12/31/10

For me, usually the hardest part of completing a desired task is starting. It doesn’t seem to matter what the task is; a workout, studying, chores etc. With this in mind, I have wanted to start a blog for quite some time however until now I lacked the mental fortitude to break through the barrier of starting. So I have determined there remains only one thing to do, just sit down and write. In this first post i would like to outline the general purpose of this blogging activity and how I envision this as a mechanism for maintaining relationships and connectivity amongst people all over the world.

The main impetus for me wanting to start a blog is to do what I like to call “joining the historical process”. History, from tribal agrarian animal herders to complex electronic information-transferring technological societies is really only 100 generations! 1 generation being 25 years, and history being approximately 2500 years, a geological blink of an eye. How many human beings lived their lives, performed their cultural duties and passed away without ever receiving mention of a life lived? Billions perhaps? All of which was necessary in order for us to sit where we are today. In earlier times the entire history of a culture was maintained by certain individuals selected for their prodigious memories. In these pre literate societies word of mouth and folklore were the only means of recording historical events. With the advent of written languages, the temporal dimension of the past achieved a lucidity much greater than the always shifting and ambiguous spoken story. In the words of Henry David Thoreau, “the symbol of an ancient man’s thought becomes a modern man’s speech”. Through the process of writing, we now have the capacity to store our thoughts and instill a somewhat greater measure of permanency to these thoughts. This ability presently reaches a concrescence with the technological advancements that allows this printed information to be stored in circuitry, where it is much safer than say stored on a roll of papyrus or wood pulp paper, which are certainly more susceptible to environmental degradation. In the act of writing this blog, I feel that I am now joining history (at least temporarily, as history is fluid and is constantly being re written) by putting my thoughts into circuitry and actively creating something of an historical artifact. Even if this act is as insignificant as writing a blog on the internet, where probably only a few people will actually participate in its reading. Regardless, it is quite empowering to have a cyber space location solely dedicated to sharing my thoughts and ideas.

With that said, the aim of this blogging operation is to share ideas, thoughts, stories, photos and videos amongst friends and family. Instead of having a central theme such as photography, hobbies or professional essays, I would like to keep this as open ended as possible, simply writing about whatever it is that moves me to the edge of my seat at the moment. I don’t want to limit the scope of possible topic exploration. In addition I would very much like to receive feedback and open a dialogue with readers, especially concerning controversial topics that may be written about. This blog is an outlet for me to get my thoughts and ideas outside of my head, look at them, analyze them, observe them, then hopefully hear your perspective. Through the archive function of the blog I am also looking forward to observing over time how my thoughts and opinions change, in an attempt to gain better perspective. In addition, I find myself constantly wondering what past friends are currently up to. I am going to chronicle events taking place in my life in order for my friends and family to keep tabs on what is going on in my life (if anyone cares that is!). Travel journals, photos and videos will all be posted. We are so fortunate to have the internet at our disposal to maintain relationships and increase connectivity between individuals. So with all this said please check back occasionally for new content and I strongly encourage you to comment on these posts!

Thank you,

Evan

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