looking back and forth

Discussion about what a blog is good for has been bandied about a bit. I think I tried to convince Zena (a long while ago) that blogging is good because it keeps those of us separated by great distances in some sort of contact with one another. This, of course, is a passive sort of contact and is completely up to whatever the blogger feels like writing. So there could be a false picture of that blogger's life if they only write about parenting or work or school or books they read or how much they like the Miami Dolphins or Rotis Sans Serif. A few years ago, when this blog got off the cybernetic ground (well before blogging became trendy :-) ), its function was to be a place for a few of us to talk about C. S. Lewis stuff--especially The Screwtape Letters. That lasted for about 4 months. Then Roger and Brad moved away, Kelly lost her password and transfered schools, and the other people who thought they might want to join in never emerged. Meesch jumped in for a bit, but by then, we'd moved on other topics--theology, ethics, social justice, authors, economics...light airy topics that didn't require much thought. Some of us thought about making this a space for creative writing. But since it was only Brad and me really contributing and Roger was busy breakdancing with kids in jolly ol' England, this didn't really seem practical. Eventually, Uncle Screwtape himself emerged as blog contributor. And that was weird. As much as I liked attempting to create an alter ego, I didn't have the cool Fly glasses or MacPhisto suit. Then it got a little eerie as "u_s" appeared and began to out-alter ego me. Brad and Meesch faded away and eventually, with sporadic contributions from Roger, it was just me. Finally, I saw the brown blog and I wanted to paint it black. That brings us to the present. I never liked the "journalistic" style. My life isn't really that interesting. I figure that anything really important has already been said in one way or another. So I chose to throw up quotes and little bits about what I'm interested in at the moment. But--as I tried to convince Zena--how else will you know what's going on with me if I don't type it up? I'm obviously stuck. Tonight I thought of a compromise. Every day (or at least on class days) I feel like I learn a gazillion things. Some things are academic, some things are emotional or spiritual. Other things I learn might come in handy for Trivial Pursuit games later but seem to have no relevance for me or anyone else at the moment. But this is what I do right now--I learn stuff. I could just turn this into additional disembodied "knowledge" or I could attempt to make this into coherent stuff. Perhaps some of it will even deepen my relationship with God or my family or with you, oh loyal reader. But I probably won't know which things will become important and which are just trivial unless I am able to come back to it later. So here's my thing: I'm going to start writing (as much as I can) about "What I learned today." This might be boring for you...sorry. But I thought it might be helpful for me down the line. I won't do this for every post, though. Maybe it'll give us both a window into my so called life. Or at least what I'm supposed to be learning during it. Feel free to turn the channel now.