Why Blog?

My Idaho series of blogs prompted a few questions and comments. Nearly all were positive but there was at least one questioning the need to talk about something from so long ago. Well, first and foremost, blogging to me is like therapy. I have been scanning photos from my youth up through the days before I came back to this area. If I should "pass" in less than my hopeful 30+ more years, I would like to leave memories and history behind for my daughters and grandchildren. When my mother and grandmother passed, they took with them information, memories, and history and left me with many unanswered questions and boxes of photographs and mementos that are a mystery. I hate to throw them away, not knowing the connection, but what do I do with unknowns?

As therapy, its absolutely cheaper than going to a shrink and writing a blog is like talking to a totally objective entity. No judgments, it just listens. There are, of course, no answers or feedback either but sometimes you get your own by seeing your life before you in print and in photos.

Scanning the photos of my early life triggers memories that were long forgotten. Luckily for my personal therapy, almost all of the photos are of happy days so it keeps me from dwelling on sad and unpleasant times. Quite selfishly, I can also just scan the life memories I want and keep the others somewhere in a box.

As I look at old photos from before I was born, it makes me wonder what our family was like when my mother was young. I love this photo of her, sitting on a bike with my Aunt Sheila standing nearby. I can create my own story, true or imaginary, about what a happy life she had. It's the way I like to remember my mother....happy.