Today is the last day of the Blogging Every Day In The Year 2012 project. I have blogged 362 times up to this point. Assuming that the world does not end before I publish this post, I will have blogged 363 times. That's only three days missing, if I'm counting right--2012 was, as you may or may not remember, a leap year. (I had to go back and check.) In any case, I feel satisfied that I have fulfilled the spirit of my project, if not the precise letter.
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| ...(363) as soon as I publish this. |
I worried, at a certain moment, that I would reach a saturation point--that there wouldn't be enough topics. Well, not that there wouldn't be enough topics, but that the genre of the blog post would become tedious. Well, not even that. I worried, I think, that I would reach the limits of my own inventiveness. That's probably the nature of a project like this--it's not enough to just do it, one wants to do it well. One wants not to say, at the end of a day, "Actually, I don't have anything to say. Also, my dinner was boring, and also my lunch, so I can't write about that. Also, my character is shallow and materialistic and perhaps I am a narcissist? Also, I am annoyed with myself for having promised...who, exactly? a post a day. Unreasonable. I'm a bad person. Blah. No more!"
But now, having finished it, I admit that I feel proud of this project. I admit that I liked saying, "I'm blogging every day in the year 2012." As the year went on, I liked saying it more and more.
And I like the blog as a form of writing. People have said that blogs are over, and I can see that they might be, in some sense. But I like that the blog post is more elastic than the tweet or the status update. I like that it invites a little more exploration, that it can contain more than one link, that it can reach out to other sources in more expansive ways. I like what I've learned about writing from writing a blog.
The nice thing is that I can and will still keep writing here. I might not write every day, but I do like knowing I could if I wanted to. And I really am grateful--truly--to you, dear reader, for reading what I write here, regularly or intermittently. I think of you as my friend. I find that I like writing for my friends.
Happy New Year to you! I hope to be reading your blogs, status updates, tweets, comments, and other writing in all genres in the bright new year 2013.
love, htms
p.s.
Thank you for your blogging generosity, HT. Your posts have brightened my year. Truly. And while it must feel good to be out from under the "every day" pledge, I hope to find you here often in 2013. Happy New Year!
ReplyDeleteI have so enjoyed reading your daily blogging entries this past year, HT. Thank you for helping me to feel connected to home and friends, though I am many miles away. As radagast said, I hope to see you out here often in 2013. Happy New Year!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on your success, and thanks for your persistence and your potent observations of self and the world about you. As a member of "the people," I want to tell you how much I appreciated being admitted to your worldview. My favorite posts were the "name that Tom Jones tune" series that let us see a poem in process. May the inspirations continue!
ReplyDeleteI, too, have looked forward to and enjoyed reading your blog every day. It is a gift and a visual reminder of how very creative you are.
ReplyDeleteI am applauding wildly. Can you hear me across the valley? This has been a worthy achievement, HTMS. Well played, I say.
ReplyDeleteNice work, HighTouch! It's interesting how some goals stick and others don't... I commend your perseverance.
ReplyDeleteAnd FWIW, I don't think blogging is dead (only for me, haha!). I think that a certain kind of poster has just migrated to Facebook and Twitter. What remains are people who are reading and writing short personal essays, which is great!
I have loved the little letters every day. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteA fantastic year of blog posts, indeed! Hooray for you! I have looked forward to your posts, recipes, thoughts, letters, poems, videos, links, and reveries. May the new year be full of good meals and inspiration.
ReplyDeleteIt was a gift, this year of daily blogging. And a true achievement. I saw you posted today too. I'm glad. I don't want to go too long without your voice. And yes. Not only did you blog, you blogged well. Thank you High Touch.
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