Letters from the Edge

I have had a recent spurt in writing blogs, and that has made me wonder as to why I bother. I started this as a way to jot down some thoughts, and at times to vent off some frustration that I could not (or would not) voice. But over the interregnum, the blog started to become a diary of sort, of events that have impacted my life in some way or the other. Or in the alternative the piece would be about some observations or emotions that were best left to be transcribed into words, rather than said.

Then the other day, the simplicity and beauty of this medium suddenly struck me. In the years gone by, one would have needed to have been an author or writer of some renown to have his words printed and published. Today a person like me does it himself on the internet, and there is a good chance that someone surfing the net, accidentally hits your site and proceeds to read your article. It can even be that if he / she like what they read, they start following you, and before you know it, the site becomes viral.

On the other hand there is also the possibility that my children or my great-great-great grand-children, read these in the years to come, and get to know me as well as if, they have been having a conversation with me. It could be a voice of their ancestor, reaching out from the great beyond, and giving them glimpses of the world he lived in, the issues of the times and the challenges that he faced. Even though history will record the major events of our times, my children will get a common man's take on the everyday issues that consumed his world.

Coming back to me, reading my blogs a few decades from now will bring me back to the present day, in a much more detailed sense than any photograph can ever do. I have often gazed at an old photograph, be it of myself or people I have known, taken a few decades ago, and have wondered at the reason for the smile or the expression. What was going through the mind, what were the events, in their lives or around them, that were shaping their destiny? A blog reveals so much more of the thought patterns and emotions.

Of course, a lot of what I write will be so dated, that in a hundred years’ time if my descendants were to chance upon these words, they might scratch their collective heads and wonder at the simplicity of life in these years. All the trials and tribulations, all the successes and victories will be as far removed from them, as WW1 is to us. The current politics and world order will have disappeared to be replaced by others that we cannot even begin to conceive. However, my words will continue to reverberate (albeit faintly) across the cyber sphere, in the years to come. My thoughts and my words will achieve some sort of immortality, and as long as someone deigns to read my ramblings, I will continue to be alive.

How great is that?