We were all watching something together on television last evening and there were extracts from a diary used. Anna said she thought no one who was really happy would write a diary. I suppose it depends on the kind of diary it is. Mostly they are accounts of one’s life purely for personal consumption; others are written by famous people who will use them one day as the basis for their memoirs.
It made me think about the difference between a diary and a blog. A blog is a means of expressing oneself in the public arena. I don’t think people who are living really busy, fulfilled lives would have time to write a diary or a blog. I am sure there are many different motives for why some people start a blog. The reasons for starting mine were probably quite different from my reasons for continuing with it. At first you are just communing with the stratosphere but gradually you gain occasional or regular readers and it is then a means of communicating rather than a venting of emotion.
So can we turn the statement round? Are all diarists and bloggers unhappy? Perhaps many are or there is a particular issue over which they are concerned. Perhaps in the case of their blogs, they become a focus for like-minded people. I have to say that although the events surrounding my health in the last four years have not been happy and knowing my ill-health has caused sorrow to my family, life has not been all bad.
I felt happy to have survived the first very difficult chemo and then to end my teaching career on a high note i.e. during a period of remission. I was very happy during that remission to have holidays with Raymond. I have learned to raise my threshold of tolerance regarding medical treatments and their side-effects even though it may seem I am always commenting on them. I have learnt to appreciate the times when I am reasonably well, the contact with friends and those special times spent with the family.
I was too busy during my working life to write a diary and I don’t think I would have had anything interesting to say. Although there are a number of things I would really like to do, I have a feeling that either medical matters will overtake me, or Ray’s case will be prolonged still further and the latter’s outcome could give us the financial independence to travel more widely. So, rather than looking to some mythical golden age in the future, I must make the most of now. I have to say that this particular blogger is often very happy indeed.
71 cm's of snow here in Carentan, where we are told it never snows. We are snowed in as there is so much snow around the gate and in the drive and the little windy road to the house. We made a tiny footpath to the zebra crossing outside the house, and down towards the church.
ReplyDeleteStarting to thaw today Sat 4th but freezing temperatures predicted. xx Sarah