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Today is: [ Year 2003 ][ Year 2004 ][ Year 2005 ][ Year 2006 ][ Year 2007 ][ My Research Journal ][ Back to JimFurey.com ] Last year I had a pitiful two entries in my journal. When I first started this web site, I had the idea of chronicling my successes and hopes and accomplishments. I don't know if that's showing off or being proud or just wanting to share. But for whatever reasons, over the past few years the climate of Internet blogs have changed. Last year there were accounts of people getting fired or arrested for speaking their minds on their blogs. I have links and examples of that in previous journal entries here. And this past year we also saw how one girl hanged herself because she received hate mail from some jealous parent down the block from her pretending to be a boy her age. I personally was contacted by some long ago acquaintances that wanted favors (nothing big) for themselves. Little things that didn't mean much, but it showed me how when you're on the web, it's easy to find you. I've never really hidden myself. If anyone wanted to find me, you'd type my name and there I was, period. But I did feel some of my privacy disappear. In some small way I began to understand how some celebrities must feel when their lives are in a fish bowl. This site gets an average of 2200 hits a month, and that's individual visits. Fifteen people an hour visit my site. So what I say does get read. Readership does go up when I add a journal entry. So I decided to write more. But mostly because I do have something to add, and it's important. Some times it feels like people have lost the will to care. It can be disguised as complacency or busyness, but we miss a few important things. Have you been with someone a long time and gotten into a routine? Accepted that you care about each other so much that you forget to say it every now and then? Or maybe you do a good job at work and when your talents were first unveiled you got all kinds of compliments, but now it's just taken as granted? Are your circle of friends taking more time to call and say hi? Or are you that friend with no time to call? I have a relative, I like her a lot, but she's always busy. We used to talk quite a bit but she has her own interests and family connections and work or something else and the number of calls from her has dropped to zero. I know I'm not hated or anything. I didn't send her a dry fruitcake at Christmas. I didn't insult her hairstyle or laugh at her Karaoke singing, but my caller ID hasn't registered her number in quite some time. It's not my fault, I call occasionally, but not so often to sound needy or bothersome. I use the "preferred" method of modern day communication (emails) to say hello and stay in touch. Even though I personally think it's a cold substitution for a friendly human voice. And when she wants to ask a favor or get a question answered, I get a response. I'm not talking about a bad person or an uncaring person. But I am talking about just another causality of "busy by exception". I can tell you I'm busy. I maintain 6 web sites, have a full time job, responsibilities at home, I volunteer my time to others, do business things, life, life, life. If I made a list of everything I'm doing, it's longer than theirs, but I call, I write. What makes me different? Well, I am up at 6:14 AM writing this, but that's just part of it. My belief is I won't let "busy" make me lose my humanity. Did you ever feel lonely or under appreciated or just that your schedule is mundane and it's the same over and over again and/or "who cares about me anyway?" I think everyone feels that way some time in their lives. I know I do. I'm sure you do. And so do others. I've tried to be there for others when they're down. If a friend calls me for support, I'm there. But I've noticed a disturbing trend in the lack of that quality in others. So if people really read these journal entries and look to them for entertainment or some kind of example, I propose this: Take a few minutes out of your day, just say 5 minutes a week, to call an old friend or relative and just say hello. Let them know they were on your mind and that it's nice to have them around. You'd feel good if you got that call, wouldn't you? So do they. Maybe nothing might come of it, but maybe, just maybe they'd take a little extra effort themselves and call you just when you needed it with the same kind of call. I'd like to know if this helps anyone. So I'm going to do something unusual. I hope you take my suggestion, but also, if this has effected you or given you something to say, or better yet, if you have a story of how trying this made a difference, I want you to write me at somethinggood@jimfurey.com and tell me about it. I'd really like to know if I'm making a difference out there. If I get enough responses, I may even post a few with permission of course. Well, I guess that's about it. So, until next time,  |