Hello Again

Hello to whomever is seeing this. It’s been a while—three years or so—since I’ve written anything for public consumption.

Lately I’ve had the urge to begin blogging again. I understand that newsletters, particularly via Substack, are the new blogs, but I’m not interested in working to meet the expectations of a slew of paid subscribers (though I respect everyone who has turned to newsletters as a viable avenue for financial support). I’m a recovering people pleaser, so I fear that I would backslide under that much pressure to produce. I’ve been here in this space a long time and I plan to stay.

In thinking through why I want to blog, I’ve also been reevaluating why I might want to publish any kind of writing at all. I know I’ll always write, because I always have written. I’m in the fortunate position of not needing to earn money by publishing. So why do it then?

Let me pause here to point out that the word publish means to disseminate one’s work to the public. Publishing does not require one to earn money from what they send out into the world, though the potential for monetary income is a common way for published works to be valued. So the question I’m asking myself is, what purpose does it serve to release my words into the world for public consumption if money is taken off the table? Why put the time in, why subject myself to scrutiny, why expose myself this way?

I’ve always had the urge to share knowledge via my writing, so that’s one motivation. I like the idea of adding to the encyclopedia of the internet, where anyone can learn about anything that interests them, from just about anywhere and at very little cost compared to what would be required to, say, attend a class. I’ve reached the age where I have a wealth of experience that I’m happy to share with those who may be at more of a just-starting-out point. This is perhaps my altruistic motivation in publishing.

I think, though, that my deeper purpose is simply to communicate. Whether it’s via a blog on the internet or via a book held by a reader’s hands, the writer is sending a message out into the world in hopes of receiving a message in return, an answer to the call. I enjoy meaningful conversations. I enjoy being challenged to broaden my viewpoint. I enjoy trying to elucidate what might be difficult for someone else to perceive.

In the past via blogging, I’ve had the wonderful experience of finding a community of people interested in the same topics, and I hope to find that again despite this not being a single-subject space. My naming this blog Between many years ago was prescient; I am forever moving between interests and developing new passions. I don’t expect this to change, and I don’t intend to limit myself to talking all the time about any one thing. The various paths I’ve explored have tended to overlap and to reappear in different forms; likewise, I expect that each post I offer here will contain some of this and some of that, yet as a collection they will yield some repeating major themes. Read what interests you, skip what doesn’t. That’s what I do.

To help with that, I typically use numerous categories and tags on each post so that a reader can quickly locate their favorite topics. You can also subscribe (at no cost) to receive an email whenever I share something new here. One of the best aspects of a blog in my opinion is the conversation that happens in the comments, so please do share your thoughts there.

Thank you for reading.