Dusting off the blog

I make no guarantees that I will be more dutiful in the steady update of this blog. In fact, I'd be surprised if things shook out that way. However, something happened the other day that got me to thinking that while there is an inherent danger in posting information up on the cloud of the internet, there's no surefire way to keep information on the computer otherwise. The other day, a virus took out documents, pictures, music, etc. from my hard drive. While I am generally really good about getting my work onto an external hard drive, my major writing endeavors were not so fortunate. Works that I had put a lot of effort into, including a book, a script, and a journal...were lost. To say it was a rough afternoon would be putting it mildly. On the other hand, I recognize that it is a bit petty to worry about that sort of thing when in the larger picture, I am doing alright.

In the meantime, rolling into yesterday and the self-assessment that tends to consume my birthdays, it was not off to a rollicking start. In fact, there are few instances where I had felt LESS enthusiastic about a special day. The day itself was nothing too wild: hot, sticky weather; at a sub job with less-than-enthusiastic students; swallowed up in a book. I came home and took a nap to try and beat the heat, had a nice, quiet dinner with Mom, and went to work. Pretty standard. It lacked the punch of, say, an extravaganza.

Fast forward to last night. After trivia, I meandered over to the Dubliner to meet up with some more fellow birthday children for a catch up. While catching up with old friends and acquaintances, I got to talking with my buddy Jay, whom I hadn't seen in ages. We got to talking about old faces from the past and how- with a high school reunion on the horizon- it's been fairly manageable to keep in touch with familiar faces from back in the day. While I won't give ALL of the credit to facebook, it is plainly obvious that the internet has made so much of that possible. We-- those of us who grew up with access to the internet-- are a spoiled generation: communication became easier from the luxury of a distant screen, interaction made bolder and more brazen without the menace of eye-to-eye contact, becoming more and more empowered to do less and less to really test ourselves as the world becomes more accessible at the simple stroke of a few keys. This is not something that has been lost on me.

One of the benefits of this simple interaction is that it is incredibly easy to keep up this communication with people from the past. On a day like yesterday, I was genuinely moved to tears of gratitude that, despite the hazy June doldrums and the downright shitty day that I had, there were a plethora of messages and well wishes waiting for me when I returned home. This simple act of kindness took all of a few seconds to send, text, post, whatever. And yet the impact of that simple short message means the world to me. I felt quite overwhelmed by it (and I am wont to do when I step back). See, it costs very little to send along a message, to take the time to give well-wishes, and so all of that little effort adds up to floor a man.

I am truly humbled to have been given the warm thoughts that I've been given. And thankful. To each and every one of you who took the time to pass along just a little piece of gladness, I say, "thank you". It truly made my day, and made me take stock in the blessings in my life. I sincerely hope that all of you receive the wonderful, and easy-to-give, blessings of a great day in the near future. Thank you!