New Priorities

I've often thought of writing blog entries as a form of torture. It's not so much that I can't write a cohesive message in a short entry. But rather it is because I find it to be physically painful. One would think that it would be easy to just use voice recognition software. However, I have found that it is not as easy to use voice recognition software as it sounds like it would be in theory. As a result I have been very resistant to online blogging.

A funny thing happened last night. I found myself finally understanding why it is that blogging is so very important. A friend of mine called me on the phone and told me that she was worried about me because she hadn't heard anything in a while. I assumed that this was because we hadn't spoken on the phone. But then she commented, “You haven't written any blogs lately”. This is true because I haven't written a blog since my birthday and ever since that time, I have been in significant pain.

Chronic pain is not like acute pain. It acts in a completely different way. Chronic pain comes with a bunch of baggage such as; bemoaning the fact that it hurts or compromising what things get done and what things don't get done. I had chosen to focus on research for papers, and coordinating and presenting findings for my fieldwork presentations. As a result, I simply didn't have enough energy or pain tolerance left over to use for writing a blog.

It's never easy to make choices about what you're going to do and what you're going to let slide, especially at the graduate school level. Unfortunately, there is only so much time and there is only so much pain I can tolerate. As a result, I had to make a difficult choice. I chose not to focus on blogging. So this is my makeup blog. I don't expect for it to make up for missing entries, but since I actually have readers, I offer you my apologies for my absence.

All that being said, with one phone call I was reminded about how online communities function on an emotional level. My friend was concerned for my well-being, because she hadn't heard from me. Although we also know each other in real life, it was my absence online that led to her concern. This emotional umbilical that occurs between community members through online entries is powerful. Without a steady stream of entries it is impossible for community members to maintain an online connection. That may be very obvious, in theory, but this was an occasion where it became very real to me.

So I thank my muse, Liz, for calling me and reminding me how my missing blogs were noticed by someone. Not just any someone, but rather a member of my community.