Ephemeral Writing

This is my letter to the world,

That never wrote to me,-

Those first two lines from Emily Dickinson's poem popped into my head this morning as I was driving on an errand. Her method of expression was to write the impressions of what she saw and felt in her little world on paper in the form of poetry. Little did she know that her poetry would someday transcend the frontiers of her friends and family. She was once told that her poetry would not do for publishing, but she didn't stop writing. She simply wrote for herself.

Most bloggers also write for themselves. There are so many thousands of blogs on internet now, that there is almost no certainty anyone will read yours. But people still write their letters to the world, even if they never get a response. Writing becomes cathartic, as I'm sure it was for Miss Dickinson. Before internet, people would pin their soul with ink to paper. Now people pin their souls to the web with fingers on keyboard. Most bloggers aren't looking for fame. They're simply looking to tell about their personal experiences, generally for friends and family. Some want to describe their vision of the world and what's in it, like Emily did through her poems. Those who write are simply happy if a stranger someday, somewhere, stumbles upon their thoughts and they make him think.

Blogging is impermanent. A small glitch in a server somewhere and all you have written will disappear, most likely forever. Emily's poems weren't meant to be permanent, either. In later years she didn't consider her poems eternal. In fact, she asked her sister Lavinia to burn all her papers, including her poems, after her death. However, her sister read Emily's thoughts and they made her think. And she decided they should make others think. So they were published and made permanent, in physical paper and ink, to be shared and reproduced and to exist far beyond death. If internet one day disappears our own words will remain behind in the hearts of those we love. That is enough immortality.