[This post was originally published on 9/25/2011 on a blog I no longer update, and have merged here].
One paradox with writing a blog accessible to the world is that carving one’s ideas in virtual stone is both a way to live forever in a moment in time, and well… it’s a way to live forever in a moment in time.
No misprint.
I have no children and likely never will for many reasons. In a way, I’m rejecting nature’s way of solving the problem of legacy by procreation to pass on my DNA, and I’m manufacturing a non-biological child instead. People do this in many ways every day, whether in politics, by making scientific discoveries, inventing a new product, acting in a film, writing a novel, or the myriad of other ways people are remembered other than through family lines. Based on my own abilities in life, I’m fairly certain my only shot at living forever is by writing something others can continue to read. This blog is not the only way to achieve that, but it is one. For now, it is ok that my real name isn’t attached to the words. Maybe it never will be, but the ideas are mine, and they will live on indefinitely in the ether via the web.
That’s a powerful driving force, and speaks a lot to the popularity and appeal of blogs in general. For me it’s not enough that I write. I need others to read what I write, or it dies, and a part of me dies.
But the other side of the coin, especially for a blog designed to “seek the truth” is that this is a journey. I no more want to be beholden to ideas and words I believed yesterday but no longer identify with than I wish to grow antennae on the top of my head. I don’t want to absolve myself from something I said or wrote in the past, but I don’t want people to use pieces of my past against me if it’s no longer part of who I am.
I recognize that it’s an impossible dream. Humans do this every day – make judgments of our character based on past choices. Our interactions with each other are the sum of our previous interactions, assumptions, and pieces of ourselves we allow each others to witness. No single person has all of the puzzle pieces that make me who I am, or who you are. What’s more, our own tendency for patternicity makes us prone to subconsciously cherry-picking the parts we want to remember about someone. Not to mention the parts of ourselves we hold back from each other for a multitude of reasons ranging from mistrust, fear, disinterest, or just lack of time.
Given these conditions, completely knowing another person is next to impossible, even when they write it down for the world to read for all time in a blog. I only ask that we remember that as we learn more about each other.
