“You should blog!”
And when someone asks exactly why they should blog, every social media guru with a bus tour whips out a list that starts with something close to branding and ends hopefully with at least a synonym for increasing net profit.
But here is one reason I bet you a Diet Pepsi you have never heard any of these gurus declare in one of their top 10 reasons that you should blog…
You should blog in case you die.
There.
Hopefully I was the first person who ever told you that.
Why you should blog in case you die:
When I was six years old (not very long after I learned to drive), I lived in Driggs, Idaho and was outside playing in the mud with one of my younger brothers when a man and woman pulled into our driveway.
They were family friends and nothing seemed all that out-of-the ordinary until the man came up to me and said something like “hey, let’s go for a walk” as the woman went into our house to talk to my mom.
In the next 5 minutes, that poor couple had to deliver the message that 4 boy’s dad and one woman’s 29 year old husband had died unexpectedly in a plane crash.
Fast forward 32 years later.
Last week, I was moving some stuff around and I came across a box of stuff that I have hauled around for years and found myself going through things thinking about the different stages of the journey of my life.
And then I came across something I suspect few people probably have: a letter that my dad wrote me with his hunt-and-peck typewriter that was essentially his best attempt at documenting some of the things that were important to him and why – in case he died.
A letter he wrote to his six year old son who was someday going to become a man.
A letter that he said he took the time to write just in case anything were to happen to him.
And shortly after he wrote it – his time at the party of life ended.
But he left me something that I would take with me forever:
He left me his letter.
And each time I read that letter along my path of life, I get an entirely different message from it. Funny how experience can make you wiser and open your eyes to different things you are unable to see fully when you are young.
Like what really matters.
And what doesn’t.
And how some things change with the times.
And how some things just never change – no matter what year it is.
Like fathers passing on lessons to their sons.
And now, virtually everyone has the opportunity to invest a little bit of time and share with others some of their thoughts. Or experiences. Or stories. Or whatever… that will be there forever - or as long as you pay your hosting bill.
So the next time that someone tells you that “blogs are forever” just remember the one reason that may be more important than any other that you should blog:
You should blog in case you die.
Your kids will thank you someday.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Better yet, set it up so that if you DON’T enter a keyword every now and then a barrage of what you really thought is unleashed and sets off a chain of emails, tweets, FB and well you know makes a bit of mayhem….that lasts a few months. Hey what do you care… you’re gone!
Justin – I totally agree with you! I’m sorry to hear of your father’s loss, I had no idea. I’m a huge believer of leaving your legacy with your children in some form of another, the blogging/internet/web only makes it easier for our children to really get to know who you are and thoughts as you take them through life, such as teenage and terrible two’s!
For me, the most I do is think about it and never have put a blog together like that! I see it all the time where others have. So many thoughts have crossed my mind such as: Would I embarrass my kid? Would they read it? Would they care? All result in the same answer, ‘I would be gone’ and ‘if only I had something to read from my mother’!!
One suggestion I would say if you are considering writing such a blog for your legacy, is to implement a plugin that allows them to ‘print’ the post!! Eventually your hosting will run out, unless your kid is a geeky as you and keeps the hosting and legacy going! Thanks for sharing your story and a little about you!
Justin,
Great article.
I actually took a class called letters from Dad that discusses the importance of writing those letters and how to write them. Several different formats, what to say or more of what not to say and it had several examples to build from.
People underestimate the importance of sharing their feelings.
Well, there is an interesting website, http://www.ghostmemo.com, that will send out your emergency letters to people just in case you die (or become unresponsive). They periodically check up on you by email to make sure that you are still alive. If you fail to respond for too long they assume you died and send out your emergency letters…I can think of several applications where this could be useful.