THE BLOGOSPHERE IS BETTER THAN SUDOKU
September 13, 2008 by rtwsenior
This time last week I was in Washington, DC, attending the massive AARP Convention and networking to promote my book. Being among 40,000 of the most interesting and active people over 50 whom you will ever meet was a great experience but it brought home to me the true significance of the power of blogging.
At this moment, you and I are essentially meeting face to face…in a way. But, in that milling AARP crowd, I wasn’t able to engage anyone as significantly as I am engaging you, a perfect stranger, right now. This is evidence of a seismic shift in world affairs when you think about it. Suddenly, being in the same room is secondary to the kind of thought transmission that is possible only through the absolutely democratic and unregulated, freeform avenue of a blog. I couldn’t speak to the stranger sitting next to me as intimately as I can speak to any stranger who visits this Hey Boomers site.
Now, what does this have to do with sudoku? Well, that little Japanese math grid has become all the rage among the senior set for keeping their minds active and staving off brain calcification. That and the crossword puzzle. And, yes, I actually did see a number of people diligently working their daily puzzle as if it were a necessary vitamin. But, ohmigosh, let me tell you that book writing and blog learning are highly superior in the way of gray matter exercise, all the way around. There is so much to learn about these subjects that I can just feel my head bulging muscularly.
When I was learning about publishing, I bought at least a dozen books from Amazon.com and studied them all to become an “expert” with my first book, just now successfully off the press. It was daunting to cope with all of that information. Now, I’m faced with the same need to understand the world I have entered as a blogger, particularly if I wish for this venture to become more than just a way to insert my thoughts into cyberspace.
If the exercise begins and ends with words on the wind, then there’s no reason to try to understand the system behind it. I’m already accomplishing that. But, if I want to tap into the potential here, which has only just come along to the occupants of Planet Earth, then I will become a student at this late stage of my life and cram as hard as I can until my well-developed brain suddenly has the tools it needs to see the light.
When I can come out of the long, dark tunnel of confusion and see how this all fits together, in the greater scheme of things, I can actually use it from then on to my benefit. Not only can I sell my book but I will become an integral part of an organic, pulsating lifeform which is embryonically creating its own cells right now. This lifeform is the future of our economic basis of civilization, little does anyone know, at this moment.
Just this earliest exposure to the greater world behind the blog has given me that clue. Once one grasps the fundamentals and you borg yourself into its structure, then it will carry you along as an embedded being in this brand new economy which is selecting its members right now. I plan to immerse myself in all the training I can get and I’ll take that over sudoku any day.
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