Of Presence & Absence

I have decided that the real value of a blog is that it makes it possible for a person to dissect themselves.  A scientist interested in learning more about a particular organism might take tissue samples, mount them on a slide for examination, carefully preserve the samples, and then view them under a microscope.  Similarly, a blog captures samples of an author's thoughts and feelings over time, immobilizes them, and preserves the samples for future exploration and analysis.

I find it interesting to observe what I once thought, how I articulated it, what it meant to me in the past, and what it now means to me in the present..  Even more intriguing is the awareness that my thoughts at any given moment are so deeply connected to the contexts in which I find myself embedded and to the people, places, and media I am "consuming."

Perhaps the "real" story is lodged somewhere in the layers between what is present and what is absent; between what makes one feel alive, and what one chooses not to feel; scattered across different audiences, distributed among different tools.  Presence plus absence equals essence.