Wow, that was quite a hiatus!

Amazing how time can become fleeting. Drift away.

I have no idea why I haven't blogged in weeks. First, I thought it was because I've been busy preparing for my trip. But that hasn't stopped me in the past. In fact, I am one of these people that am best at getting things done when I am insanely busy.

Then, I thought I might be shellshocked from my wife having to have a second surgery last week, on a rather short notice. But it was nothing like last year. Actually, it was just a consequence of that. A "repair", as she called it. And she will need more. All minor.

No, I came to the conclusion that I just don't have anything profound to say. And then I realized that this 'conclusion' is so profoundly wrong that I must find a better one. You see, to stop blogging because I have nothing profound to say implies that this blog had until then been a fountain of profoundity (I know that's not a word, but it looks cool). And it would also imply that that's what blogs are for. Wrong again. After browsing through my favorite blogs today I realized that hardly any of them are profound, or even much more than mundane, in appearence. There are exceptions, like my neighbor's blog, which contains a daily wealth of information and profound thought. I am constantly in awe of the amount of work and heart that that blog is constantly filled to the brim with. But most of the blogs I visit often are my favorite, not because of how profound they are. The reverse is almost true. Some of them are written by people I know nothing of, some by people I hold dear. These are blogs that read like diaries, containing random thoughts and a recount of often mundane chores and events. A snapshot of how that person felt when he or she was writing that text. What is being conveyed is more mood than thought, more sentiment than sensibility.

And that is what appeals to me. That is in my opinion the ultimate power of this medium. It somehow manages to allow us to share thoughts and feelings with practically anyone, near and far, friend or stranger. In this world, each of us is pretty much pigeonholed from the rest of mankind, confined to this job place, that city, this ethnic group, that income bracket, this age, that family, this education, that whatever. Sure, you break across these boundaries, partly because they are there. But then you get sucked back into the same old way of thinking, the same groups of people you talk to, the same way of looking at life. It is simply a miracle to have a tool that actually lets me in on the thoughts of a college professor who, like me, just became a completely clueless dad, or a girl in Denmark, who, like me, has sometimes trouble knowing which way to turn a screw, or this boy in China, who is generally upbeat but sometimes wonders what it is all for, anyway.

So I still do not know why I have shied away from this blog lately. But I am back.

At least for today.