I'm compiling posts from my blog for a project, starting with the first season that I blogged - 2009. I'm 3 months into the 2009 season and I'm blown away by the sheer number of exciting things that happened. It's like a fictional novel. I buy a new truck, go on rides, do my first ride over 50 miles, and decide to try hoof boots. I had a set back during 20 MT 65 miler with a slight reinjury of the tendon (mmm......me thinketh sandy rides are NOT our thing!), started to tell the story of who my 2 horses are, and drove Minx on a cart for the first time.
I've gotten to the point where Minx died, and I have to admit that I'm stopping here for the night. I just can't bear to go through it again tonight. There's something very raw about seeing life unfold in front of your eyes, and it's a process that is very well captured by blogging. As I'm compiling posts I'm doing a quick review and I had so many plans for her. I ordered hind boots days before she died, not knowing she would be dead by the time they arrived. So, for tonight, I'm pausing at the end of March, when she was still alive.
On a happier note - I'm finding all sorts of valuable nuggets of ideas in my old posts. I was on the right track and it seems the foundation work never changes. I was entertained by one of my comments where I say I want to complete Tevis before "going back to school". Never mind that I hadn't decided when and where and how I was going back - I guess even then I knew what was destined to happen!!!!!!
Have you gone through your old posts lately? Are you surprised by anything? I tend to remember myself bumbling through those years like a lucky idiot, but as I read my posts, I'm actually quite impressed with myself. Hind sight is 20/20 and while I can sit in my recliner now and second guess my past choices, after rereading the posts that were written DURING that period, I can't argue with my decisions - I was making the best decisions I could, using the information I had available to me.
THAT is the most valuable part of blogging - the ability to communicate to others IN THE MOMENT what it was like at that SPECIFIC time. It's nigh impossible to go back and write a narrative of that moment with the benefit of hind sight......
I actually never look back. I feel like I was a complete bumbling idiot 100% of the time (which I have diligently reduced to idiocy about 75% of the time these days) and I just can't do it. I think it's fascinating reading other people's blogs back-to-front, so I won't ever delete it.
ReplyDeleteI'm not ready to read about Champ again. You're brave!
reading my older posts, I wonder why I'm interested in writing fiction - real life is as entertaining as anything I could dream up. Right now, I tend to view my blog as a collection of rather boring, not so interesting posts about nothing. It makes me wonder if in 3 years, when I go back through it whether I will see it in a different light/perspecitive and will be as entertained as I am about my 2009 season. I made SO MANY COMMENTS that are actually quite entertaining if you know the end of the story and how it played out 2 years later. Just goes to show that I definitely need some time distance in order to do a good job compiling posts and narrating/critiquing them.
ReplyDeleteLOL, I really think I could write hilarious fiction based on things that I really saw/did. Did you ever read the post where I shot my truck?
ReplyDeleteWHAT????? I don't think so!!!!!!!! LOL.....I think we really could make a list of things that REALLY happened that we blogged about and there is NO WAY there is a novel, or even a series of novels that could beat it. :)
ReplyDeleteFound it!
ReplyDeletehttp://fundersgoodidea.blogspot.com/2008/11/another-epic-fail.html
I think Funder is secretly my sister...but even I have never shot my own truck.
ReplyDelete(notice that I specify MY truck?)
"...I can't argue with my decisions - I was making the best decisions I could, using the information I had available to me."
ReplyDeleteIf you gain nothing else this is a keeper. Applying it to the world and people around you will keep you humble and give you more compassion by realizing that most people do this; no matter how screwed up their decisions are.
Pa