Skip the intro and go to my latest posts .. here.
The Intro ..
On a new social media platform I am asked to write a bio for my profile. I think it’s supposed to be brief .. it does not permit me to write a third paragraph. I like paragraphs so here is what I wrote with five paragraphs:
I used to be a teacher and a youth worker .. That was my professional life. Now I’m retired, in large part at least, I write. I am not an author or a journalist and it doesn’t pay me, nevertheless I am a writer.
I write almost ceaselessly on my WordPress blogs, on Facebook, on Twitter and now on less well known platforms like Elephant Journal and Minds. I post videos to YouTube and Vimeo. I remain a teacher, I teach and sometime I’m paid for it, but it’s always more than a job it’s a way of being .. as writing is a way of being and running, taichi, philosophising, coding and some other things I do are ways of being even though I do them badly.
Why do I write so much? Well, that’s become a compulsion, one that I embrace. Why do I write in so many places? It’s partly because I’m exploring the digital space so that I can be a more useful guide or teacher and partly because I think many people have become overdependent on particular big platforms like Facebook and Twitter and if we become overdependent on them things that were there to empower us end up disempowering us. This applies to very many things including religions and political parties .. but that’s another story for another time.
I’m becoming a digital nomad and I like that. Also by writing prolifically I’m becoming ‘extramortal’ .. not ‘immortal’ or ‘amortal’ but extramortal in that I know that the scatter detritus of my digital life will outlast my biological existence and that every now and then someone may uncover a scrap that has value to them.
I will write whether anyone reads this or not. I will write whether anyone likes it or not. It makes no difference to whether I write or not. It would however give me some pleasure to know that people do read and it gives me enormous pleasure to interact with others in conversation because, more that my writing as an individual, conversation, on any medium, extends my being. The ‘I’ become an ‘us’ and we become part, if you will, of an evolving collective intelligence. I think this is important. That’s why I’m writing, that’s why I’m sharing. What do you think?