Last weekend, there was a report by the CBC about a group of Nova Scotians in Digby County who drove a car off a wharf. The video was posted on the Internet.
Afterwards, there was an interview with a psychiatrist about narcissistic behaviour fostered by Facebook and other social media tools.
This caused me some grief, as I thought about writing ‘yet another blog’.
Is ‘blogging’ just another form of self-indulgence ? How do we control, what arrives in the email stream ? Some arrives unsolicited from the technology providers. However, I had the following ‘ah-ha’ moment. We have the pre-Internet and post-Internet generations.
Since leaving Canada over forty years ago, Heather and I have lived in about twenty different towns/communities. Mainly in Canada, but also the United States and Indonesia. This month, out of the blue, I received emails from Newfoundland and England. We left St Johns in 1976. I left England for Canada in 1969.
The St Johns connection reminded me of my time teaching in the Department of Geography at Memorial University. The last project was a census atlas of St. Johns and Newfoundland.
The England connection reminded me of my time at IBM(UK): commuting into the City. Playing cricket on weekends in the Summer; playing rugby on weekends in the Winter.
Imagine, if I received emails from each of those twenty different towns/communities. How would access to that information network influence my day to day life here? Normally, when one leaves a community the linkages disappear with time. Today, with the Internet, it is possible to be in ‘many places at the same time’.
Of course, this contemplation begs another question, posed by a business associate:
“Why do you keep changing jobs (locations)?”
From England, an old school friend, excellent cricketer and sitar player, Viram Jasani, mentioned that he is writing an autobiographical novel. This week, I finished reading Jane Smiley’s biography of Charles Dickens. I will recommend it to Viram. Maria Popova and Anne Lamont have some tips too.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Mark Shrimpton in St Johns and Viram Jasani in England. Their emails generated good memories. Edward Wedler applied his graphics skills from Florida. Heather for her ongoing support.
References
Jane Smiley. 2002. Charles Dickens: a life. Penguin Books.
Maria Popova. Brain Pickings Mid-week pick-me-up. Wednesday, March 4,2020.
Anne Lamott. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. Penguin Random House.
Ernest Blair Experiment 
I keep in touch with people from Luxembourg, the US, Mexico, England, Rankin Inlet, Inuvik, Yellowknife, Whitehorse, BC (a few including relatives), Alberta (a few including relatives), SK, Manitoba (relatives), ON (lots including relatives), QC (a few), NB, NL and NS.It’s like having a huge number of pen pals – I’m old enough to remember those. The connections are either by email or Facebook these days. I would not have been able to find out as much information about my Dad (see my blog) if it hadn’t been for the internet. My mother was a letter writer and had quite a list. Keeping in touch either online or in person is one of the joys of my life. Thanks for reminding me.
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