In My Documents I have a folder called 'My Executors', to which my sons can have access when they need to deal with my estate. From time to time I add what I hope will be helpful bits of information for them, such as my last requests, details about the way I would like my funeral to be, useful facts about my house etc. Yesterday I found myself adding this:
"If you boys want to know who your mother really was in the last years of her life, you should refer to my blog. I feel that it is some sort of memorial for me, a twentyfirst century headstone, as it were, for a burial in cyberspace."
And then I got to wondering. Will our blogs just stay there on the web, living on for ever after we have gone, but static and lonely, with perhaps just the occasional comment from a new reader, but no further input from the creator? How sad! ..... Or maybe the hosts will keep an eye on them, and note how long they have remained static, and eventually give them the chop. Even sadder!! I mean, is cyberspace ever going to be FULL?
And my next thought was that I should write my valedictory blog now, and leave it in the file, with a note that they are to post it for me when I can no longer post for myself. But who knows? Perhaps by then I shall be in another place where I can post telepathically ... wouldn't that be fun?
If I must write my epitaph, I think I'll say: "I had to laugh!"
8 comments:
Hello. I was referred to your blog by another blog hopper who randomly found MY blog yesterday. Wow - did you get all that. I am soo thankful that this person referred me to your blog because I LOVE IT! I have marked you as a favorite and I will be back soon to read past entries. What a fascinating person you are. Way too cool!!! I have to comment that I have the book you referenced "To My Children's Children" and I think it is a great idea to preserve our past.
As to the post at hand: I have often wondered about my blog and will it survive me...will it go on forever...just sitting there...and I think what you added about telling your boys "if you boys wnat to know...." that was so aptly put - and I do feel that my blog is exactly that - some sort of memorial for me and my life with my son (I am a single parent of an 11 year old boy) - Anyway, I'm rambling so sorry about that. But, let me say I LOVE your blog and I'll be back.
Is that a pint I see before you, Judith?
There is a copy of the internet in cyberspace, honest. I'm not sure how you access it but I've been on it and found lots of old stuff before. Most old pages are there and google are doing a stirling job in preserving most of it. Rest assured, your pages will be around long after you!
As with all things digital, make sure you've made a hard copy of your "My Executors" folder or saved it onto a digistick/disc/dvd just in case!
oh Judith! How nice to see you! And isn't laughing, in the end, just the best thing to do? What better epitaph could there be?
Forty years ago, I found a picture of a painting of Jesus (in Playboy of all places) with his head thrown back, laughing gloriously. It has always seemed the best image of a savior I've ever seen.
Thanks for posting this photo. The others are fascinating, but this one gives you a face to go with the words. I appreciate it!
Richard - I don't think the pint was mine. I don't drink beer, but occasionally an alcohol free lager which tends to come in a half-pint glass.
Lillie - that is one of my favourite pictures, as it has caught me in a completely natural moment. These days, if I know Im being photographed, I only seem able to produce a sort of rictus, not a real smile. I've got a self-portrait I might put up for fun as well. It is remorselessly revealing as the camera was set on macro.
I have never thought about that. But there are so many blogs here unused, last post in 2004 or beginning 2005 that it would be impossible that everybody passed away ! Especially sometimes it's a blog of young people in their 20. Maybe they got married or just forgot about it. I also have a "dead" blog hanging in Yahoo. Don't even remember what I wrote. Just gave it up, because I didn't like it at Yahoo.
This afternoon, I am taking the plane for Turkey and will give a sign when I am back.
Have had the same thoughts. Some of my posts I have now printed and keep in a folder.......they will probably get thrown out with all the poetry and prose collections I have made over the years... but, by then I won't be here, so no worries!
great pic btw!
What a wonderful photo! It really sums up what life is all about.
For those of us who have our own domain/hosting, the blogs will expire when they run out. Blogspot is different. I expect they will remain for a 'period of time' but I guess at some point Blogger might want to do a housekeeping exercise.
Th einternet archive Richard refers to is at The Way Back Machine
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