Friday, July 14, 2006

Exposing Oneself

Friends often tell me I'm "brave" to share my life's path in this blog. I always respond that it is certainly edited for publication - that I do not share my very most private thoughts here - I reserve those for my paper journals, which I never share with anyone. There's a magic to pen and paper that keyboards will never replace, although I love my keyboard.

Each month I get over 90,000 hits to my website and the vast majority of them are coming to read the blog. When I started this a couple of years ago I thought it would be nice for my family in Kentucky to learn about what was happening in my life here in Hutchinson, Kansas. It was also just to be a chronicle of my life. It never occurred to me that anyone I knew would read it because they all know what's going on in my life. And I never imagined anyone who didn't know me would want to read it. Oh, I thought maybe a couple of people here or there might check in but I had no idea anyone would flatter me by reading regularly. And flattered I am.

A funny thing happened. I got in on the early stages of a trend - "social content."

When I was a journalist, one of the things I learned was that *everyone* has a story to tell. The trick is can you get them to tell it to you. And blogging has become one of the ways we learn each other's stories. Many of them are fascinating.

Of course, we all go through periods where our lives are very mundane. But most of us also have times when what we're thinking about is very interesting, even if what we're doing on a daily basis is the routine.

At least once a week I read the blogs I keep up on. I love to read about the art, the kids, the details of life. Life is made up of these little bits and pieces that we forget about if we're not keeping track on a regular basis. If we're not careful we can miss the little sidebars that ultimately make up the story of a life.

This is a good opportunity for me to say thank you for reading, and sharing my life through this blog. I'm honored that you spend some of your day here.

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