The Blind Man Society

While I’m working on some serious blogs this morning at the new shop, I figured I would take a break and write a fun one. They just started the Christmas music tapes, and everyone out there in retail work KNOWS what that means, and what that does to an employee over time!

People have asked me how I got to be writing like this, and how I started my website up. In answer, I have been journaling since I was 19 years old. For years, I never thought that what I was writing about would ever really be seen as important or valuable to anyone. Plus, nobody ever saw my writing since I was very private about it. So, there was no encouragement along the way, and no way to get it known.

I started this website not knowing what would happen. The first incarnation I joked looked like they were testing missles on it. I’m not, shall we say, the best at webwork. Thankfully, this web platform is very intuitive for figuring things out. Most people have it all perfect BEFORE it goes live. I myself took the “build the airplane as you fly it” approach with varied results. 🙂 I also had several misguided attempts to monetize it with not many blogs out there (I think it was around 20 when I first tried) and I was told you should have around 30 before doing something like that. Not sure what the real numbers are to be truthful.

In addition to the deep meaning of the website name, I also figured I would have a society name with several pen-names as writers for it. That way, I joked, if I got myself into trouble I could just fire them and be ok. Well, as with many things, it seemed like a great idea in theory – but obviously not in practice! (Laughing) Besides which, now there are REAL writers on board with this adventure who are better at this than me, and there will be no firing because they are brilliant, and wonderful people with very important messages to share with the world. And, I for one, am so glad they did.

To budding young writers out there: there’s a very famous saying about history – that you cannot know where you are going, if you do not know where you have been. And, how can you know where you have been, if there’s not writers out there? Writers are the ones that enable people to live beyond their years from the privacy of a notebook or computer and learn and experience an important side of life. Where else can you see people march into all kinds of situations you wonder about, and get to see what happens privately and safely, and learning what to do as a result?

Perhaps the most important thing that I’m trying to say is the following: For me, writing allows to see things more clearly. It makes sense to me to share some things privately in a journal or even on a bar napkin, and then I read it back to myself. It’s like a person talking to me and I understand it more clearly, and sometimes see it in a different way. This little trick helped me in many situations throughout the years.

Finally, I always thought you had to be really old to be a good writer. But, history is sprinkled with young wordsmiths out there who told better stories than their elders along the way and at ages that were sometimes as young as 16, like Carson McCullers and her book The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. I personally think that you are never too young to start writing, and at the rapid rate that kids learn, it seems a good way to pass the time with dream journals and recording adventures that they have with their friends.

In closing, I keep these blogs short because they are written to not give all the answers…I keep everything interpretive. Ironically, I am not a big fan of the socratic approach because usually that happens when adults are talking to younger people and they don’t have the first clue how to answer what they are asking or challenging with. Sometimes it works…and, sometimes not….

Have a great day out there everyone, wherever you may be! And, please feel free to leave comments in the box below.