Some of you might know of Mama Kat’s writer’s workshop weekly prompts. I am going to give it a shot. Out of her various prompts, I liked this prompt the best:
Share what you were blogging about last year at this time…what has changed?
Sharing what was blogged here a year ago is not completely necessary since it’s still all posted up here for you to find (did you know can search on “june 2011” in my search gadget on the right?). Yeah I understand expecting a reader to search and dig through the older posts is asking too much. I’ll get to this comparison prompt, but first this prompt loosen another thought about the aging of blog posts. Why are newer posts more appealing than older ones? Blog posts can be a little like the news but often the topic is not very time sensitive. I’ve asked that question before on my backwater blog - I Can’t Blog. (strange that post title was “one year ago”) Ok, back to the prompt.
Looking at a few posts in June 2011, I found these topics:
- 40th High School reunion
- a minor rant about American vacations being broken
- love expressions in a closet (probably not what you are thinking)
The closet with its handwritten love expression is still there. Americans still fail to relax on vacation and with this economy limping along we are generally still worried about jobs. I imagine some may look at the current Euro crisis and say they don’t know how to work hard over there. I wouldn’t say that.
class reunions -
Those are going to change. The social media of today provides easy ways to stalk all your old classmates so I’m predicted a decline in reunion popularity.
My future which I thought occasionally about back then is now a past memory. Recently a blog friend posted on her blog “Long Hollow”:
At a 40th or greater reunion the whole group comes together to paint over their high school years in new brighter memories. I plan to attend future ones. The face-to-face gatherings even when the faces are older prompt the stories and laughs better than any social media site will ever do.
class reunions -
Those are going to change. The social media of today provides easy ways to stalk all your old classmates so I’m predicted a decline in reunion popularity.
My future which I thought occasionally about back then is now a past memory. Recently a blog friend posted on her blog “Long Hollow”:
"I was sitting in what used to be a future I worried about years ago".
The stuff you worry about in High School becomes mostly meaningless stuff in a few short years. Time is an equalizer. The prom queen isn’t a queen of anything now.
The 25th reunion was good. As the time distance grew the reunions kept getting better. You become aware of the somber truth that just attending marks a milestone that more and more of your classmates will never reach.
Stories of memories, family and forgotten friends fill the evening. I left feeling better connected.
No reunion this year. Getting connected on Facebook since has been fun too.
My favorite Chicago Tribune columnist, Mary Schmich, wrote:
The 25th reunion was good. As the time distance grew the reunions kept getting better. You become aware of the somber truth that just attending marks a milestone that more and more of your classmates will never reach.
Stories of memories, family and forgotten friends fill the evening. I left feeling better connected.
No reunion this year. Getting connected on Facebook since has been fun too.
My favorite Chicago Tribune columnist, Mary Schmich, wrote:
“Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.”
At a 40th or greater reunion the whole group comes together to paint over their high school years in new brighter memories. I plan to attend future ones. The face-to-face gatherings even when the faces are older prompt the stories and laughs better than any social media site will ever do.
9 comments:
I'm not sure I agree that older posts are less appealing than newer ones, I often find myself perusing the archives of new bloggers I find (new to me, not new to blogging). It's like reading a book, getting to know a person, reading their old posts alongside their new ones. Also, I love the sentence you quoted from Long Hollow, so true!
We agree on this. Older posts can be the best posts. The problem might be discovering them. What I'm trying to say is based on traffic counts and comments, the older posts drop off quickly in "popularity" after just a week or so. I've read positive comments on re-posts so that might be the best way to present the "golden oldies". I hope you peruse a bit here. Thanks for sharing your comment.
Thank you so much for the shout-out, Bill! I didn't know about Mama Kat's prompts, so thanks for that, too, although I find I'm not good at those weekly prompts - I rarely get right to writing and by the time I do, a couple of weeks have passed. Same thing on photography prompts. Sigh. I totally agree with you on reunions - my 35th is coming up fast. We've had one every 5 years, but I think this one might be the best. Thanks to Facebook, there are a lot of people who haven't attended any who are planning to be at this one. I love your description of painting over their high school years in new brighter memories. I also think of it as a scraping off of perceptions and seeing the real people we are, and always have been, underneath. However, I admit the truth of your statement about the prom queen hurts - I was the prom queen.
Oh my, I didn't know you had been prom queen. I certainly don't find fault with prom queens or star athletes accomplishments. I believe you understand my point about how time changes what was a big deal in High School is not very much years later. Good point about looking under the perceptions and discovering the real person. The ability to do that increases with age because we experience it over our lives. Of course, one needs to be opened minded too. Thanks for sharing.
"to paint over their high school years in new, brighter memories" That is very poetic.
thanks
Frankly, I could care less if I never had another high school reunion. Ironically, I started our class's Facebook page, though; just trying to be helpful. I just don't miss anyone from that time. To each his/her own...
I like your honesty. I was involved in a few things but my closer friends went to different schools. I just found the classmates at the later reunions much more accepting now than before.
try this from another computer
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