Monday, June 10, 2013

1,000,000

At 7:10 pm EST, Sunday the 9th of June, my blog counter scored my one millionth visit.

One million!

That's a very big number.

That visitor is either from Mountain View, California; Winchester, New Hampshire or Calgary, Alberta. Whoever it was, thanks for tripping the wire and sending the counter spinning. I had expected it to happen today. I've been watching the counter move up steadily over the last week and WHAMO suddenly it happened.

It's an odd accomplishment, I grant you, but it seems important, somehow, to me.

So in celebration I want to list the reasons I'm still writing this blog. Long time readers know that it was meant to be here only for a year. Well, that's not how it turned out. So, here's my list.

1) I still have things I want to say.

2) The act of blogging is more than just writing (although sometimes I remember Truman Capote saying, "That's not writing, that's typing), blogging requires that one think about one's day and one's experiences, it requires reflection.  I think then, that writing this blog has helped to contribute to my own growth as a person.

3) The community of readers here at Rolling Around in My Head is extraordinary. There is a diversity of opinion and that opinion is often strongly stated. I like respectful disagreement and discussion. I like hearing other viewpoints and other perspectives. I have changed my mind several times, I've even changed wording on some of the blogs as a result of the discussion. So blogging is both an introspective growth experience but it's also a communal growth experience. How often do you get that?

4) I am creating a diary of my experiences. While I draw a boundary between what I will write about and what I won't write about - I'm still chronicling my life as a person with a disability who works with people who have disabilities. I like having this as a record. I have never, ever, kept a journal like many I know - blogging has become my journal.

5)Random Reinforcement Schedule ... yep, that' right. Every now and then, maybe once every couple of months, I'll write something, and I can never predict it beforehand, that gets a lot of attention and shares and comments and emails. Something that speaks to the hearts or minds of others. There is nothing like the feeling that what you've said or what you've written really matters. It's so strange after all this time I still can't tell. I'll write something and think that it's one that people will gravitate to and ... not so much. Then I'll write something more quickly and WHAM! It's a powerful thing, for a writer, to get such immediate and such intense reaction to what's been written.

6) Through this blog I have come to understand the length and breadth and depth of the disability community and the communities of allies, family and friends. I had no idea, literally, no idea of how amazing and how powerful this community is until I first started writing "Chewing the Fat" (the original blog title) and, since then, I have come to be a proud member of this on-line community.

7) I'm writing a seventh point because I was at a lecture on memory and we learned that people like lists of 3 or 7 or 10 or 12 ... lists of other sizes, apparently, are vexing to some. I dont' want to be vexing today.

I don't, won't, and can't know who the millionth visitor was to this blog - but thank all of you for your visits here, for the comments you leave, and for the impact you have had on my life!

16 comments:

  1. Congrats Dave!!! Keep up the good work and reap the blessings of personal record and growth - and educating others directly or indirectly. Yahoo!

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  2. So glad you do this blog, Dave.

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  3. This is the only Blog I read. I look forword to seeing it each day! Keep up the great work! :)
    Heidi
    (A million thank you's)

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  4. I read two blogs most every day and this is one of them.

    I'm glad you still have things to say. I've been stretched, and challenged to think through the words on these pages. I've been bothered, and confronted, and dared to change. I've also been affirmed and inspired and nearly every day I'm educated in some way. Your blog has both formed and re-formed parts of how I think, how I view the world, and who I am.

    I am so grateful for your faithfulness in writing almost every day. And I'm glad you realize that you still have much to say.

    Congratulations on 1,000,000 hits. I figure somewhere around 1500 of them must be mine. :)

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  5. Congrats, Dave!
    Your number, though, has three too many zeros in it! (nine zeroes = a billion, six zeros = a million)!

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  6. Thanks Andrea, never been much good with numbers!

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  7. A most excellent "blogoversary" worth noting and celebrating!

    Write on, Dave...write on!

    xo

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  8. I read every morning, along with the local newspaper. Often I return later and reread, sometimes commenting. I've been a reader since "chewing the fat" days, and I likely found you as a link from another blog, tho no idea which one. I appreciate your writing abilities, your perceptions of human behavior, and your ability to examine your own thoughts and actions and feelings and then share with the blog world. You challenge me to do the same, and you remind me of the value of care and respect for others at all times, not just easy times. Thanks, Dave, and thanks to Joe and the rest of your real world family.

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  9. Quite a milestone. Congratulations Dave and thank you again for this amazing, engaging and informative conversation.

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  10. In terms of professional ethics and human rights, I've learned an incredible amount from you over the years, Dave. But it was when my late partner became disabled from end stage liver disease that your blog took on a new, much more personal role. Although the situations were vastly different, I would read about your and Joe's interactions with each other and with the world and it made me think and rethink my role as caregiver and partner. Your generous sharing of your lives' trials and triumphs helped lead us to a more loving and dignified place at end of my partner's life and I thank you a million times over for that.

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  11. Congrats Dave! It'd such a great blog!

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  12. Congratulations Dave. Keep on keeping on.

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  13. I hope you continue this blog for a very long time to come. I recently graduated from the Social Service Worker program at Loyalist, and one of my assignments was to list my mentors. I listed you, even though we have never met. Your blog inspires me in so many ways.

    I just applied to Ryerson for the Bachelor's in Disability Studies Program!

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  14. looking for 2,000,000 hits! congrats....keep writing!!

    we need you...

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  15. Princeton Posse11 June 2013 at 13:16

    Congratulations Dave! I truly appreciate your words.

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  16. I popped over today after a long time being AWOL (don't even know how that happened, that I stopped my daily visits...) . I'm glad you are still writing.

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