Today, I had the good fortune to speak with two close friends from Peoria. I also decided to write a letter to a third while on a walk down by the lake. And, as is often the case, the motions of walking and writing and skipping rocks turned me to thinking.
Much of what I say on here (imagine for a moment that I say much on here), and much of what I read on other people’s blogs and internet journals is content that previously could be found in letters to one another. How is life? What have you been doing? What new thoughts have crossed your brain? So why do I blog now instead of write letters (imagine for a moment that I once wrote letters regularly)?
brb, getting pizza.
Right. So perhaps the burden of having so many wonderful people now so far away that I want to stay so close to has compelled me to trade the precision of individual letters for the shotgun blog approach. “But Marc,” you say, “You haven’t been doing either!” to which I reply:
silence!
That’s my internal theory, but I also have to admit seeing this happen on a larger scale. With the means at our fingertips as never before, we spew information on our lives out into the ether, trusting that someone who values us will pick it up and know us better for it. So then why didn’t we just contact that person directly?
Maybe we’re scared.
I know I am. I’m scared of what burdening someone with knowledge of my life will do to our friendship. If I shout “Help!” into the ‘nethers of the internets, there is no obligation to any recipient to render any help. But if I send it in a letter, then a reply of some kind is fairly demanded. And I think it’s sort of sad that we don’t give each other the opportunity to respond and join in with each others’ needs and victories as much as we could.
So I’m going to try to send more letters about the real stuff and blog more about the day-to-day stuff. Like what it’s like to ride in a boat going really fast or get the radio call when somebody needs help.
Bye for now.
I’ve been meaning to get your new address. And now I’m demanding it. You’re right, letters are good.
Comment by Esther — May 2, 2009 @ 22:34
957 Huron St., Saint Ignace, MI 49781
Comment by Marc — May 6, 2009 @ 12:36
Compelling.
Comment by Nick2.0 — May 7, 2009 @ 07:48
Good to hear you are still alive marc! I never knew you too well, but from the sound of your blog it sounds as if you are changing quite a bit. I recall you as never really knowing where you are going in life (in the average, young adult way), it seems as we grow older we just become something… the change of scenery, I am sure, is nice.
I learned 2 major things from moving away.
first, it’s unavoidable… you grow apart from the people who were closest to you back at home. The amount of focus and energy it takes to keep a long distance friendship “tight”, is energy deserving to exert in growing new friendships. Not that those friendships just fall apart, but they definitely change. I made the mistake as taking too much stock in a long distance friendship and really confiding in a friend while we were growing apart due to the simple fact we lived halfway across the country from one another… I ended up kinda painting myself in a corner, when it became evident we were becoming out of touch with each other…I found myself pretty isolated and in a pretty difficult situation…living in a whole new place with no close friendships and not really putting any effort and focus into the people who were within the closest proximity to me.
second, you can change in ways you never could back at home. surroundings and relationships that you are over familiar with have no real direction and life lacks vision. You don’t really have much of a choice when you move away and start a new career or education, it becomes something different, new, and in the process you discover more about who God made you to be. There are seasons of life for that though, I would like to move again to run from all my problems that I have here too though!
God bless you man. I am really proud of you seeing you growing up so much!
Comment by Rob — June 11, 2009 @ 21:22
for what it’s worth, the “demands” are welcome at 2114 Windermere Peoria 61605
Comment by mandy — July 21, 2009 @ 13:41