“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.
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