Wednesday 15 January 2014

Guest Blogging

Well, that was exciting: Gransnet kindly asked me to write a guest blog for them and I trepidasiously accepted. It appeared last Thursday, which would have been January 8th but I havent the faintest idea how you access it. I was sent an email with a lot of blue letters which, I am reliably told, were a link. I pressed on that and 'Eureka', there it was.  It seems that a number of you has come on it because there were quite a few 'thread' comments. Most were warm, friendly and pleased to meet me, so to speak, but there was the odd contra -indication. It was amusing to read a little discussion about which end of the age range, 75 or 40, I actually was. I had a bit of a read randomly, myself, and it seemed clear enough to me. More than often I refer to the three score and more than ten years I am carrying thus far even if the whole point of the enterprise were not to draw out the ironies, disasters and fun of being 40 on the inside but 75 plus in actual years. I do apologise, however, if I have set up a muddle and will try to do better hereafter. There were several comments disagreeing with what I had said.. I see this as an interesting manifestation because it never occured to me that feelings and experiences could be "wrong".  Someone wrote that the blogposts were "tosh", a word I havent heard since playground days.  Several wrote how much they enjoyed being old in a "so there" kind of tone. There I really am deeply sorry for a mislead. I do enjoy my chronological age. That has nothing to do with the fact that it gives rise to very real predicaments that have to be managed, sorted  and, hopefully, laughed about. Thank you Gransnet for the opportunity and I will read all the threads again if the Wizard of Cyberspace has left the door to them open. I would suspect he has; for encouragement read chastisement, for skill read stupid and for a job well done read banishment. If he had his wicked way there would always be an IT disaster for him to mock me with. The door will be open simply because of the presence of the 'toshers' amongst us.

I had intended a part 2 to the previous Delights and Dislights post because, having written one, I found I was overwhelmed with more. The guest blog has provided both: delight in those I have pleased and dislight where I have erred. (I am aware of the liberty I have taken with the negative, but if one can't invent a word at my age when can one?) But there really is a special delight in reaching more readers whom, I hope, will identify with the unexpected and unrehearsed aspects of feeling just the same on the inside while a lot more than thirty years have gone by on the Passport. I see that I made an assumption. I assumed we were all in agreement that a certain purity of developement in terms of who one was going to be had been reached by forty.The concerto has its form. There are just the decorations to add. In fact, there is the basic me which is more or less constant. Opportunities to modify, moderate and expand do offer themselves and I hope I take them: that is: take in a new source of love, throw out an old source of irritation for instance. Someone I know well won't allow anything new in to her house unless she throws something old away. That sort of courage I lack but I muddle through actually and figuratively. Here's to blogging and even threading. Prynhawn da.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I am a member of Gransnet and really enjoyed your blog. Some members are very prissy and self important.... Ignore them!