INSITEVIEW- - tom shugart's weblog

Sunday, March 17, 2002

Latest Discovery

Catching up on my blog reading today. Denise Howell's post of 3/11 refers me to another great new find--Kalilily Time. Not only great reading, but a couple of interesting personal connections: Elaine's birthday is just one day from mine! And she's a fellow sexagenarian--an unfortunate rarity on the web, it seems. Elaine says she's on a quest to find other aging bloggers.(Disquieting thought: are we too old to say "aging?" I have to confess, it's a convenient euphemism. Hell, my sons are "aging," too. But screw it. I'm sticking with the euphemism).

Elaine blogs:

"As one gets older, one often feels isolated; time seems to pick up its pace while we slow down. We are sandwiched between generations who need us for all kinds of things. The internet offers connection, and blogging offers meaningful connections selected from a world-wide pool of like-minds.


The problem, of course, is that many over-60 individuals never really got into technology. Just about all of the thoughtful bloggers I've encountered are of the age at which they could be my offspring. I thoroughly enjoy interacting with them, and I love the idea of playing "cybermom." But it would be enjoyable, as well, to blogverse with people who are sitting where I am now. So, if anyone reading this knows of any, please send them my way."


OK. Elaine. Here I am. "Here I am." Those words resonate as I refer back to Elaine's first day of blogging. (I like to look up why people blog):

"I like having an audience. Even my poems are usually written with an audience (sometimes of one) in mind. It's why I ballroom dance. I'm a performer at heart. I need ways to say to the world: this is who I am. Look at me. Pay attention. It seems to me that that's at the heart of why everyone else who keeps a blog does so. In a world where we all have to live up to expectations and assume roles for survival purposes (our own and others) -- caregiver, mother, employee, citizen -- it's so satisfying to have a place where one can BE who one is. Or in some cases, where one can BE who one wants to BE. It really doesn't matter. We can create who we want to be or be creative with who we are. Either way, one has an identity, a voice. In a way, it's kind of a new art form -- or at least it can evolve in some cases into such. How cool is that!"

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