Why am I blogging?

The short answer is to observe how my perspectives may change over time, and to share a few thoughts with friends who live in wildly disparate parts of the world.

I have lived most of my life as a traveler, and some of my closest friends have been and are very far away from where I may be living/working at any given time. And I believe that sharing perspectives over time keeps those friendships alive. I mourn the fact that I rarely write postcards anymore, and in recent years, I have relegated the endeavor to when I am visiting somewhere I have never been before, and this happens less and less, as I get older.
I think postcards have been my personal gifts to friends with whom I have often wished I could see more often. Most of the time I would select cards with images that appealed to me and seemed to reflect a personal connection to my location in the world. Then I would scan my list of friends and family to match the right card with the right person, and write a personal sentiment.
The next challenge would be concision of written expression. The limited space on a postcard definitely helped me get to the point with my writing, and at one point in my life, the list of cards to write had grown into the dozens. Finding the time to write my missives from global locales became more than just a quick 15 minutes while having coffee in the morning.
Time and technology have changed my address book from something with physical pages to a virtual collection of data organized by 1’s and 0’s, but more significantly, I have fewer physical mailing addresses for my friends. Add to this, the fact that I have many friends who are no longer alive and with whom I have missed sharing a random thought that they might have appreciated with humor, disgust or mild interest.
So, I am comfortable if people that I don’t know read my posts, but they will mostly be written to be shared with those who know me well, or would like to know me better.
RCS

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