These are random musings of my life journey, the people, animals, places, and events which have woven, and continue to weave, a tapestry that is me. We all know there is no real destination, only the ongoing experiences which blend together, creating the trail. Each step gives a glimpse of what is to come, without allowing me to see the end result. It is exciting. I have a home base that is mine, that gives me a place to rest. This is it. This is where my heart is, no matter where I journey...................

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Hump Day Thoughtfulness

I've been thinking about the way each of us use our various forms of communication. I communicate with my peeps by phone, both cellular and land line; I use email for some; I use my blog for some, and there is facebook. I'm enjoying facebook , but it is really different than this forum, and I'm not ready to give up the blog as sever people I know have done. This blog allows me to ramble and spew about a lot of things, and it is available to anyone who crops by to read. I'm generally thoughtful about what I put on here, not revealing too much on the personal front, but laying it out there about other things. I know I need to be prepared to defend my views when I put them here, but I realize I don't have to. It's just that I don't put anything here that I don't care about on some level, so I'm already emotionally involved when it is written to these pages. I have an emotional investment here, I guess.

FB is different. I love it for quick communication, and I like the choices of wide-open-out-there things that anyone on your list can read, the private messages if you don't want to broadcast something, and IM/Chat all rolled into one place. For me FB will not replace my blog.

There are some with whom I have connection only through email because they choose to not go to the blog and FB or they are not technologically up for it (I'm the youngest of 5 siblings, and while they are probably capable of coming here, they don't; I suspect for at least a couple it is over their limit of what they want to invest their time in learning), or just don't want to take the time. So I email those.

For vocal chatting, I use either of my phones frequently with a variety of people. And I text message, er, excuse me, txt msg with several people, too.

But do you know what I haven't done in a long time? Written a letter on paper, put it in an envelope, address it and stuck on a stamp and actually mailed it. I sent a few printed copies of my Christmas letter to some folks that don't have email to my knowledge, but most of them were emailed. That way I updated folks without wasting a tree on each of them. And I got to wondering .... when was the last time you wrote a personal, snail-mail letter?

Through FB, I have found a few people that I didn't have access to otherwise. One of the is a man who was an acquaintance in high school. We weren't friends back then as we were in different groups/cliques, but through the years we've seen each at class reunions and found that we enjoyed each other's company. Since I located him on FB , we've had a running conversation there, and last night we talked on the phone for nearly 2 hours. One of the things we talked about is the loss of the art of letter writing and the sad potential of losing history. He was talking about very old family letters and journals that recounted history that he would not likely know about otherwise. It was not handed down verbally. He is right. Many of us will lose those pieces of familial stories that take us to our roots if we don't do something about it.

Let me interject here the idea I've mentioned before, that each of you should document family stories and history in some way. If you don't write paper letters that are kept, will your descendants know who you are, what you are all about? Very little. Stop and think how much you know about your grandparents. How about your great-grandparents? For most of us it is very little, unless you or a family member do genealogy and actually record it somewhere. Some of us know the general lines on ancestry, the names, maybe some dates, but how many of you know more than one story about great-grandpa? So think about it, and don't say tomorrow you'll do it. We all know tomorrow never comes. You will put it off and never start. But if you pick up a pen and a notebook today and write down one memory of today or your childhood or a story about great-grandpa, just a paragraph or two, it is there for the future. Or write it in the computer, keeping an electronic journal. If you do just a bit every day, think of the history you can preserve for your kids,grand kids, nieces or nephews.

Back to the FB thing .... I think the reason I like using many forms of communication and recording is the ability to expand my horizons. For instance, as my friend says, the written word is being lost and the historical value is in jeopardy. So we should write and record, by all means. Yet, I wouldn't be having these conversation with that same friend if it were not for one of the newer forms of communication, facebook! I really use FB to connect, not just project my rambling thoughts (sorry, those goes here when I can really, really ramble!!) as some others do. I have no problem that they use FB in a different way; there is room for that in FB or in blogs, for that matter.

Do I twitter? No. Personally, I don't want little updates all day long! I somehow got on an entertainment spam txt msg feed recently, and I was reassured that I don't want that, even from friends. I like the mix of communication formats I have at this time. I may change some of that in the future, but for now phone, cell phone, email, blog and facebook will suffice! I also keep a paper journal, although not very regularly. I manage to get key event in there. And I'm preserving my history for my kids in a memoir on the computer.

What forms of information do you use and enjoy? And .... What is your contribution for your historical preservation?

11 comments:

  1. Very interesting post. I love it because S will still send me things in the mail and I still get so excited when I go to my mailbox and find something that is not a bill. I used to write so many letters and now with email....I honestly don't know the last time I sat down and wrote someone a handwritten letter. Maybe I will do that because I think it's important that we continue to do that.

    I signed up for Twitter one night and stuck with it for maybe 2 days. I really didn't like it.

    Now...I love FB and am so glad that I am on there. I love seeing all the updates and photos. And I really love seeing what everyone is doing on a day to day (sometimes minute to minute) basis.

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  2. One more thing....I love to TXT message because sometimes it's easier to TXT message someone rather then talk with them on the phone. S and I send probably 4-5 TXT messages throughout the day just to check in with each other. I love that you can send it and the person can read it when they have time. And I love when my phone beeps saying I have a new TXT message.

    P.S. You can stop bugging me now...I put a new post up.

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  3. I love getting mail. I just don't have the discipline to do snail mail these days. I know that's bad. S is promoting the continuing of a way of life, isn't she? Good for her!

    "And I really love seeing what everyone is doing on a day to day (sometimes minute to minute) basis." Hmmm. Me thinks there be a bit of voyeur in you, girl! LOL! We gotta watch you! I mean be careful about you. sheesh!

    Yes, I like txt msgs, too. It works well for many situations and can be less disruptive because you don't have to "answer" the phone right now.

    Now .... what are you doing to preserve your history? You're as important as anyone else.

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  4. Sarah interviewed Mikes Grandma Rice before she fell and broke her hip. We taped it almost all the history from way back when she was little. We should start doing that here. I just call people not big on email or snail mail

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  5. Bobbie,advice: tapes disintegrate. transcribe it onto paper or into the computer and store it on a CD (till the next form of storage comes along!) And remember, tomorrow never comes!!! Calling people is good, but remember, you have to save the information somehow. Electronic communication, including telephone, doesn't last like a paper history unless you put it down somewhere.

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  6. My mom is good at writing. Me not so much. I write in all my Christmas cards and now am writing lots of thank you cards. My blog is really to create a history of Cowboy and I. I want someone to know us...whoever that someone might be.

    FB is okay. Not a huge fan.

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  7. MJ, be sure to save the blog posts if it is to be your historical account.

    For some people it is the blog that rules, for others FB. It depends, I think, on our purposes.

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  8. I wonder if anyone still has pen pals? I always wanted a pen pal growing up but never did anything about it. I am currently not doing anything to perserve anything LOL. If ppl want to see what I am up to they can friend me of FB.

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  9. Man, I had some pen pals as kids, and I ran across their letters when I was cleaning files recently. I wondered where they are now, 55 years later.

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  10. I love facebook because it has connected me to people I wouldn't otherwise be connected to but it will never replace my blog either.

    I love getting mail, I may need to spread a litte mail cheer soon. Karma!

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  11. Yeah, Queenie, it looks like we are on the same page of this.

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If you have something to say about it, just stick out your thumb, and I'll slow down so you can hop aboard! But hang on, 'cause I'm movin' on down the road!!! No time to waste!!!