{"id":436,"date":"2009-06-03T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-06-03T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/?p=436"},"modified":"2016-02-23T14:41:31","modified_gmt":"2016-02-23T19:41:31","slug":"the-profound-effect-of-a-blog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/?p=436","title":{"rendered":"The Profound Effect of a Blog"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I am at a federal government training facility this week. The statue in this picture is here on campus. It is moving and inspirational. <\/p>\n

I come here about twice a year to co-teach a course that I helped to write years ago, and have updated from time to time. It is a challenging and intellectually stimulating course, and fun to teach. I happen to be here this time to attend and speak at a national conference being held here. It’s enjoyable to come up here and see people (facility management and training course managers) I have known over many years.<\/p>\n

As I was sitting with one of my colleagues during a bit of down time, he said that he had noticed a change in me that he liked. He said he noticed that change the last time he saw me (last fall), but didn’t say anything then. His comment was that I am clearly relaxed, happy, and seem to smile much more than ever. He said that I laugh often, and teach with renewed energy and passion. His question to me was, “what happened?”<\/p>\n

Well, it’s like this. Five years ago I was in a job that once was enjoyable and fun, and made me feel highly productive and valued. I was generally a happy guy, but often I would let daily stresses show themselves by how I acted. I was sometimes short, sometimes pompous, sometimes “Mr.-know-it-all.”<\/p>\n

Then things took a real bad turn for the worse due to a re-organization. 18 years of fun were destroyed in one horrible year of sadness. I had become the most miserable, unhappy person. I would come home from work and chop my partner’s head off with negative, angry retorts. I was very hard to be around. I left that job in the Fall of that year, and don’t regret it.<\/p>\n

Then my uncle needed me. Over the course of the year after leaving that miserable job, I saw him through the winter of his life until his gentle and dignified passing, at home in familiar surroundings. I had begun to document how I was feeling in a diary of sorts. I would record how I was feeling, what I was thinking, and what I thought I wanted to be when I grew up. Assisting someone who was dying started a change in me. I stopped taking myself so seriously, and I began to celebrate the little things in life that make it grand.<\/p>\n

Soon after my uncle died, I accepted an offer of a position at a well-respected non-profit organization in Washington, DC, and within a few years, was promoted to a management position. It’s a comfortable, supportive, and professional place to be. Good people help bring out the best in me.<\/p>\n

I also converted that written diary to a blog. I began to document daily activities, thoughts, ideas, and my passionate interest in boots and leather, life as a masculine gay man, Harley rider, and my concern for seniors and their safety in order to continue to live independently, as I had enabled my uncle to do. I frequently write about my partner and his profound, important, and life-altering impact on my life and how it is so much better because of him. <\/p>\n

Yes, I think often about what I will write on this blog. Usually, it is about joy, happiness, and smiles. Fun stuff, like riding my Harley, and interacting with family and friends.<\/p>\n

I guess that’s it: my diary and then this blog have had a profound effect on my outlook on life. It causes me to think about what I want to say about myself to the world. So I say it, but more importantly, I act it. I am more relaxed. I look for ways to express joy and happiness. I poke fun at my own foibles and failures, ’cause I’m not perfect by any means. I no longer think I have the answers for everything. I love to learn. I love life.<\/p>\n

I frequently say, “Life is short: show those you love that you love them” or “wear your boots and leather” or “be safe out there.” All these things… an effect of a blog, which has translated into daily life that is more rich and rewarding.<\/p>\n

Sum it up by saying that it’s noticed by people with whom I work professionally, by my family, by my the man who means the world to me (my partner), by my friends, but most of all — and what’s most telling — is by people who did not know “the old me.” A conference attendee stopped me in the hallway last night and said, “That was a great presentation you gave. It inspired me in my work. You made (our profession) sound like fun! Thanks!”<\/p>\n

Yep: Life is short — make it fun!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am at a federal government training facility this week. The statue in this picture is here on campus. It is moving and inspirational. I come here about twice a year to co-teach a course that I helped to write … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogging"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}