Final Thing

The thing I enjoyed most about this exercise, to be honest, was blogging. I have been blogging on Daily Kos and a few other blogs, but it's been 100% political and I never tried non-political blogging of any sort. It sounds obvious, but the simple exercise of blogging on a less contentious field was very relaxing. I don't do small talk well and this felt nicely "chatty" and was a pleasure.

I enjoyed setting up a Facebook page, mainly because it had never occurred to me to do so and it gave me some ideas for networking on issues that I probably would not have tried otherwise. Likewise, one day I hope to have an IPOD, God and the economy willing, and podcasts look very appealing.

The attempts to get into and use various data bases were exercises in frustration. I will perhaps never know if it's my computer or my ignorance regarding certain aspects of computer useage, but I found it almost impossible to access many of the data bases. The lifelong learning exercise was particularly frustrating, rather like finding the exact site you need on a google search only to click on it and see that icon spin eternally.

Would I participate again in such an exercise? It would largely depend on whether I thought I might benefit from it directly and how much time I had to participate. There are myriad - legion, even - things I'd like to know how to do. And I have extremely limited time and even more limited energy. If I were at a different place in my life, I might feel differently. If I were younger - and felt my life was more open to a variety of options- or older, and had fewer pressing responsibilities - I think I'd view "lifelong learning" differently. I might investigate potager gardening, for example, or finally learn how to sew. I suspect that no matter how much time I put into certain endeavors, I would achieve, at best, mediocre results and hopefully personal satisfaction.

But the truth is, there are a half dozen issues that consume my time and energy, and I feel a moral obligation to devote myself to these. I feel the clock ticking faster and given the pace of life in this extremely brutal society we've created, lifelong learning seems a luxury for another time and place. To put it bluntly, I believe that to spend discretionary time on things other than those I see as critical strikes me as "fiddling while Rome burns". Just my personal perception.

On the other hand, as I've said, I believe a few of the exercises here can be applied to those very things I feel called to work on, so it might be a case of missing the forest for the trees.

One thing I've definitely learned: While not entirely computer illiterate, my skills are woefully inadequate and I have to do something about them; it's not really optional. And while I knew that, it was easier to ignore it before doing these "Thing".

Thanks to all you who helped me out on them when needed!