The Aerie
Well here it is, the Tenth Anniversary of my blog. There are a lot of hard-to-believes out of all of this. It's hard to believe that I've been blogging (admittedly on-and-off) for ten years. The think I've learned most of all from blogging is that I forget A LOT of what goes on in my life. Some of my blog entries, even entries that aren't all that old, describe situations about which I can summon no recollection whatsoever. I mean, sometimes I can grasp the hint of a gestalt from those times, something that says "Oh, yeah, I remember I was under a lot of stress working at that job," even if there are no specifics. However, other entries summon NOTHING, and cold have been written by a stranger.
Another tenth-anniversary realization - my babies have grown up! I know, but it's hard to believe. During the years that they are young everything seemed so stressful and so endless, it never seemed like it would end. And now? Now the twins are home for the winter break and I'm so grateful to see them, but I know each evening playing Scrabble, each hug from my daughter, each insightful comment from my oldest boy is a BONUS, an EXTRA, and that I've already squandered the majority of our days together. I know the future offers great things, but this tenth anniversary I'm so aware of how much I've let slip through my fingers.
Another tenth-anniversary revelation - how lucky we are. I'm ten years older and so is my wife, and yet we're both still healthy, we don't have a lot of gray, and she's still as beautiful as ever. Hopefully in another ten years we will be even healthier. Maybe (maybe!) we'll even be grandparents by then...
For the future, well, lots of plans, little time. I have to finish the paper I'm procrastinating on by writing this. Then I have to figure out if I'm going to take another class next semester or take the semester off to attend to other projects. I'd like to reprint Mitlanyal with corrections, I'd like to finish my Tekumel novel, I'd like to work on some projects for the Tekumel Foundation, and I'm not sure if I can do those while working and taking a college class.
And as always I'd like to do a little more blogging than I do. Given that my first entry was in January 2000 and my second was in April, it won't be hard to improve upon that record, at least. Facebook has certainly eaten into my blogging time, just as it has eaten into some of my other time too. The one thing I've learned from ten years of blogging is that if I don't do it, I forget things I won't otherwise remember. That's both good and bad - there's nothing wrong with forgetting stuff and nonsense, which seems to be the majority of what I record here. Yet also there is a value to remembering the little things, the good times we have as a family, the ideas that otherwise would flit in and out of my brain like fruitflies. And I'd like to add some advertising on here. Just the other day I got a mysterious $60 from Amazon because of my book links, so clearly I'm missing an opportunity for some easy money someplace! Whaddaya think, how about some pop-ups that play sound files saying "You have already won!"
Okay, maybe not.
We'll see where this ends up going. Maybe in ten years I'll be living on a boat and sailing the world. Maybe I'll be a grandpa handing poopy babies back to my kids to change. Maybe I'll be dead! You never know. Best to avoid looking too far back or too far forward. Best to enjoy what we have when we have it.
And with that wisdom, let's begin the second ten years...