Drowning In Email

I should be reviewing the 1,983 emails that sit in my inboxes. I should be clearing and cleaning those suckers out, instead I am drowning in email and losing myself in memory.

******

Sometimes my son starts dancing to A Beautiful Day by U2 and I wonder what he is thinking and what sort of feelings that song sets off in his head.

That is because it is one of those albums that he heard a lot In Utero and I wonder what sort of affect it had. Did it do more than any of the classical music he heard then too?

I love listening to The Planets by Holst, especially Mars, The Bringer of War. Hell, I love music in general and it is always playing so who knows if any of that had any sort of impact then.

What I know is that it does now and sometimes focusing on the present is the smartest thing we can do. That is not to say that we shouldn’t pay attention to the future but you have to balance it all or you can get lost.

Writing to Blog Or Blogging To Write

Some day soon I’ll have to write/blog about that. I blog because I love to write more than I write because I need to blog. Don’t know if that makes any sense to anyone or if it matters if it does.

I know that I care about the blog and that when I experience technical difficulties it makes me a bit crazy. The folks at Livefyre tell me they are working on some issues that are causing some hiccups here.

Part of me was ready to deactivate it again and part of me said let’s see how long it takes to fix it. There are two issues that I am aware:

1. Old comments need to be imported.
2. Some older posts won’t allow anyone to comment.

It is frustrating, but I am not going to allow the instant gratification society that we live in make me hop before it is absolutely necessary. I turned it on to see if it will help spur more comments and build community. Let’s give it time and see if that happens.

Time is important in blogging and social media. This isn’t a sprint, it  is a marathon.

What Is Your Favorite Post?

Someone recently asked me again if I could tell them what my favorite post is and I am not sure what to say. It is like asking How Do I Choose A Favorite Child?

When I read that post again I listened to the Moshav Band sing Come Back and I couldn’t help but think again about walking those streets in Jerusalem and buses to Rehovot to see family.

Remembered a million other minutes and moments, some of which are recorded here and some which will never be shared anywhere except in my memory.

And now I am back semi-focused on the present and thinking about blogging and why I don’t like to limit myself to a particular niche. I am thinking about how I don’t want to spend all my time focusing on how to provide solutions to every problem people have.

Sometimes I want to write something like Stupid Blog Tricks- The Difference Between The Best & Most Popular for no other reason than just because.

The Joy Of Writing/Drowning In Email

Ultimately I come back to the same places, I write for the joy of writing. Sometimes I look at the places I have guest blogged and am sad to discover they have closed up shop.

I suppose it might be a bit obnoxious to say I miss the back links and the help at promoting here, but I do. That is because the ultimate goal would be to earn enough cash to do this for a living.

Is it likely or probable?

Probably not at the level I would want it to be, but it is not impossible and that is enough for me.

Sometimes I write  because I read posts like The Radical Honesty of a Life I Don’t Love and I smile because so much progress has been made. Or I read Preserve Your Memories and smile for other reasons.

But mostly I just smile because even though I am drowning in email these words sometimes work as one cool life preserver.