Rambling Thoughts – Writing

Feeling somewhat lost in thought this morning. I was already halfway there, as I continue to inspect and analyze some of the events that make me… me. Then I got hit early on with some overlooked FFXIV lore from one of the level 80 dungeons, but I can’t really discuss it without heavy spoilers and frustrating as that is it will remain unsaid. For now. Then someone hit me in the back of the head with some nostalgia. Such an odd combination that has left me mildly… reflective, I guess? Having a hard time finding a word that describes the feeling precisely.

Such is the nature of communication, especially written. That we should continue to use the written word is a testament to its permanence. Sometimes the words and the meaning flow effortlessly, and sometimes it feels like an epic battle between what I want to say and the vocabulary I have to express it, fought upon the massive field of hills, landmines, and caves that is grammar.

Yet, many of us continue to do so every day. It’s strange, in a way, that it’s almost more of an everyday component of everyone’s lives now than it was when I was younger, though maybe I’ve just become more aware of it as I’ve gotten older. Text messages and emails have largely replaced phone calls. Most of the information on social media is still written, and even our memes technically use written words, albeit few of them, though I think that’s a topic for another time.

One of the most fun things, for me anyway, is when I stop to double-check that a word I use infrequently actually means what I think it means. It’s time-consuming enough that I don’t do it a lot, but I generally walk away feeling like I’ve gained something when I do that, even for silly examples that you would think are obvious. Words are inherently complex parts of an ever-evolving and changing landscape. They change and adapt to our usage as a culture, sometimes reflecting more of ourselves as a group than we intend. Enough so that we recognize older and antiquated forms for what they are and reading them in their context instead of ours.

Yet for all this change and evolution I can pick up something written by John Adams in 1797 and with only a slight amount of difficulty, read it. While that’s somewhat recent, in the grand scheme of history, it’s wondrous that a man so long dead and removed from our own world and society should be able to engage with people today, one-way though it may be.

In our own little small scale way, that’s how I regard Blaugust, really. A celebration of the written word, in this time, in this way. We may not all reverberate in the annals of history but we do all reach out and touch the web and, if only for a brief and glorious moment, the lives of those around us.

I’m not always sure how I got here or what I’m doing, and believe me, I have no idea how this post got from point A to point B, but I enjoyed doing it anyway.

Y’all take care and remember, somebody, somewhere, somewhen once wrote that “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That’s why it’s called the present.” For better or worse, I will always hear it in the voice of Oogway from Kung Fu Panda.

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In case you haven’t heard, we’re in the middle of an event called Blaugust. The goal is to simply promote and stimulate the blogging community by encouraging people of all skill levels and backgrounds to post. The official post can be found here and it’s never too late to start.