Seven Year Hitch

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This month, April 2019, sees seven years of the Calmgrove blog since I hitched it to WordPress (although I’ve since reposted revisions of some of those early posts and deleted others).

Now, it was a score or so of years ago that I started hearing more and more about weblogs appearing online. My first instinct had been to think it ridiculous for people to put out personal diaries into the ether: whoever would want to read about the lives of random strangers?

It turns out that many millions do. And that includes me as well as you. Now, I know there is a lot of negative stuff about social media that we’re all well aware of, but perhaps the positive aspects aren’t given enough credit—aspects like making the acquaintance of new people, hearing different points of view, receiving the kindnesses of strangers.

And of course there’s learning new things, coming as it were face to face with new ideas. Hence this blog’s slogan which I established right at the start: Exploring the world of ideas through books.

Unlike vlogging or podcasting most blogging is about the written word, however that writing is done. And much writing is about ideas, concepts, formulations — essentially ways in which we see and express the world without and the world within — using cuneiform, pictograms, numerals and alphabets, through graphite, ink and pixels.

I do often wish I spent less time on social media and more time actually reading; and yet without social media how could I share my thoughts on reading with so many like-minded, thoughtful and generous readers around the world? And how could I get such varied feedback on those thoughts? Certainly not through locking myself away in a library.

Some of you have been around with me for a good many of those seven years, others I may have only had the pleasure of knowing recently. I’d like however to say to one and all ‘thank you’ — thank you for being there with your comments, your encouragement, your quips and of course your own blogs. I should almost change my slogan to Exploring the world of bloggers through books.

With any luck we may collectively still be here in another seven years to compare notes. I hope so anyway!