On this day in the year 2000, I posted the first entry in my online journal. Two thousand posts and 650,000+ words later, I'm still at it. Granted, my journal is not quite of Thoreauvian proportions: our friend Henry produced over 2 million words in 24 years of journaling (all of which I read while encountering Thoreau in preparation for composing my book The Upland Farm). Even so, I've done a lot of scribbling over the last quarter century!
Here's how I described the nascent endeavor back then:
I see this space as part diary, part sandbox, and part weblog - a place to explore ideas and events on the web, in real life, and in my head. Hopefully someone other than me will find it interesting. :-)
Some things have changed over the last 25 years: for instance, I don't know what makes a "weblog" distinctive now that so much of modern existence has moved from physical to virtual. Moreover, because I'm a pretty private person I have always shied away from treating this journal like a diary. Thus over time I've gravitated mostly to the sandbox model, in which I try ideas on for size and explore the personal implications of my readings and reflections.
To my mind, this journal isn't writing in a professional sense but the simple act of thinking out loud, which I find enormously helpful in pursuit of greater clarity and wisdom as I travel through life. That a few folks seemingly like to listen in on my dialogue with myself means a great deal to me.
Here's to the next 25 years!
(Cross-posted at Beautiful Wisdom.)
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