The Beginning
October 2nd, 2005 by rsm
Like many things, it takes time and an over-rated sense of self-importance to put a part of your life out there for others to see. But it’s always selective portions of your own life and the observations.
Why would we choose to make our diaries open? Why would we find a way to make our privacy public, more available to others to exploit, to derive conclusions about who we are? How much ego is being fed here?
Hopefully this will be a chance for my friends to be able to check in on me, see how things are going, see where my thoughts lead from day to day. There are times when I wish my friends would do the same. I often don’t want to interrupt with a phone call as they run about chasing after their children, their lives, their dreams, but I am eager to hear their stories. I know I can be a hard person to get a hold of as I alight from one project, one location to another. Sometimes I won’t be able to talk about the project or location, even.
I’m also blessed with the people in my life. I can never express how humbling it is to be cared for by so many amazing individuals, from those who have known me for 25+ years to those whom I’ve only known for a short while but with whom there has been a bond. There is comfort in sitting with an old friend and sensing that only years have passed but no distance created.
If others choose to try to discern the measure of this man from it, so be it. Just as if one wanted to try to understand who I am by looking at the books on my bookshelf, one will never come away with a true picture. In fact, one will find many contradictions and little understanding of the importance of honor and truth to me. That only comes in the form of conversation and observation.
Let the conversations begin.