Modern Rituals
I don’t have a lot of rituals in my life. I check email every five minutes, but that’s just a part of the job. And I walk the dogs every night, but only because, if I didn’t, they’d piss the carpet. I go to the local cafe, but not every day.
That’s why participating in National Blog Posting Month was so interesting. It introduced a daily reflection – a requirement that once a day I sit down and say something, anything, so long as it was out loud.
I imagine life a few generations ago had more rituals – small, daily reflections required by technology. The time it took to iron a shirt, or tend a garden, or walk to school uphill both ways.
The speed of modern life leaves little time to get lost in thought. I fill every moment with input, from the moment I leave the house with earbuds firmly in place. So much input, so little reflection, so little really considered output.
This month I rarely wrote ahead and usually posted just after midnight for the next day. My posts reflected what I was thinking about this month: technology, relationships, funny stories, random photos. And the questions you asked provided a great excise to think outside of my usual bounds – to expose bits of my brain didn’t usually show. And besides, it was fun.
Posting every day was harder than I thought it would be. It’s one thing to say anything, it’s another to write something you’re proud of. It ate up a lot more time than I expected.
It also reconnected me with the social aspect of blogging that I haven’t experienced in a long time. It was an excuse to tell some funny stories, to think out loud, and to have some fun with the web.
Thanks for reading.