Mid-Summer Full Honey Flow Moon
Talking with Mark today it occurred to me, for the first time, that part of what was going on with him, maybe a lot of it, involved repatriation. So, I looked it up on google. Turns out repatriate adjustment has many facets, most of them difficult to integrate, often leading to feelings of isolation, alienation and just plain old bewilderment. Especially when you return suddenly, as Mark did, from twenty + years abroad, the country of his birth has changed. A lot. In subtle and not so subtle ways. I’m just beginning to understand this phenomenon, but as a brother and as a student of anthropology, it fascinates me and gives me considerable pause.
Last night, during a violent thunder storm, our power went out and, presumably, our generator kicked in. But, as life goes, at 4:45 am, our alarm decided it had to begin chirping. And chirping. Not the wailing kind of all hell’s broken loose kinda noise, but a persistent annoying chirp. After muffling it and going back to sleep, Kate got up and called the company. We had to replace the back up battery in the unit’s central box. This is a twelve-volt battery with sulfuric acid like your car battery. Who knew? Anyhow the new one now rests where the faded one was and all is well with the alarm system.
My History of Graphic Design course project, redesigning Ancientrails, has got me thinking about why I do this. Do I do this for you, the reader, or for me? I have kept diaries and journals since the early 70’s. They vary in systematics and consistency although over the last 20 years I’ve kept regular journals on matters from spirituality to art history, reading the classics to daily experiences, thoughts. Ancientrails extends and continues those, which were private, so in that sense this is a public journal, but a continuation of a private one.
It is not, however, like the private one, unread. Readership varies from peaks of around 200 a day to a more average 50. There were some 1100 visits this month. A small number for most websites, infinitesimal really, but considerably more than the one who read my private journals. Having readers changes the content. I’ve made four of five gaffes that have gotten me into hot water with family, lost me a job and caused certain allies to wonder about my discretion. Each one of those events creates a certain amount of self-censorship, as does the possibility that anybody might read any of this at any time.
Ancientrails is also a document on the world wide web. That means html, tags, pictures, news, links. These features create a more accessible journal, a deeper journal with ties to other webpages and direct access to information about a topic. Not sure where all this goes quite yet. Still thinking. If you have any input, leave me a comment. Thanks.