What I Learned From 2007 - Jon Swanson
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Inquiring minds want to know: What were the most amazing, profound, surprising, or even whacky things you’ve learned over the last year?
Here’s an entry from Jon Swanson, of Levite Chronicles:
I started writing The Levite Chronicles several years ago, on paper. It helped me keep track of what I was learning about helping people learn about God and themselves. When I moved to the internet, I spent less time on keeping track and more time on just trying to figure out what I was learning.
There is, I will caution, some spiritual content in these posts and which may or may not reflect yours or Robert’s or even my current understandings.
January – Connections. As the year started, I was thinking about the challenge of remembering the past and forgetting the past. Looking back, I realize that I struggle with that tension all the time. And that I didn’t finish the project I was working that day for several months. And that I wrote much shorter posts back then.
February – On going off probation. I became a Rev. this year, but only Chris Brogan gets to call me that. This post talks about the process.
March – 24. Not the TV show, but the 24 years we had been married as of that day. It was written in the middle of a 2 week blogosphere fast, but I decided that the day…and my wife…were worth celebrating.
April – Roll call. As a blog post, this didn’t do much. However, when my mom printed it out and sent it to the nurse at the clinic, 2.0 and 0.0 were crossed…and someone cried.
May – Like finding a bathroom. I was playing with a metaphor.
June – Why people liked Jesus. Somehow, the idea of Jesus throwing parties for lost sheep resonated with some people through this year.
July – Archaic language changes. July was, as I look back, a good blogging month with lots of travel and life processing upon which to draw. This post, however, got the most traffic, not because it was so wonderful but because it went up about 2 hours before some friends started a social media birthday party for me that was amazing. (Oops. Two posts for this month. Sorry Robert). [No worries, Jon!]
August – No going back. I spent August on a self-imposed project, writing every day about some highway sign. 31 days, 31 signs. This post was written near the end of the project about some of the things I learned.
September – What I mean when I say - pray. This one post has been referenced in more conversations this year, usually from people in tough times asking for chocolate milk. I’ve been glad to oblige.
October – Where to drink coffee. When I wrote this, I was in the middle of some personal wrestling. It didn’t turn out exactly the way I thought (the wrestling), but reading back, I really like the post.
November – 8 ways to explain 2.0 friends to 0.0 parents. This post got the most hits ever. Apparently at least 42 people struggle with this challenge of living in two worlds. (This is also part of my 8 ways series, a quick way to create odd posts).
December – I hate peas. Susan Reynolds has cancer. She wrote about it. So did I.
Through a job change, travel, almost daily walks with my wife, an amazing group of online friends (in no particular order and without links: Robert, Connie, Liz, Joanna, Paul, Rob, Rick, Anna, Laurie, Amy, Becky, Laura, Michelle, and with deep affection, Chris), this has been a year of tremendous internal growth. Thanks for making me remember, Robert.
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So what’s it all about?
Friends, if you’ve written about it at your blog in 2007, then you’re invited to join us for this special edition of What I Learned From… Care to share with us your favorite/ best/ most controversial/ strangest, etc. posts? (You get to pick one from each month you’ve been blogging in 2007.)
Well, don’t just sit there like a bump on a pickle; click the link, check out the simple instructions, and jump right in! Get your entries in by Sunday night, January 13, and I’ll publish them all right here at Middle Zone Musings.
You know, it would just be absolutely finer than a frogs hair if you would subscribe to my RSS feed!
3 responses so far
Middle Zone Musings is a comfortable place to stop, have a cup of coffee, swap a few stories and share practical ideas for the real world. I don't ask for much, just a bit of your brain every now and then. Have a seat, take a load off, and relax...
[...] represented some significance. I finally settled down to write that post, and Robert has it up here What I learned from 2007. (He did this as a blogapalooza which means that all of the posts are put up on his blog, Middle [...]
Jon, I’ve learned so much from you this year, thank you.
Roll Call is a tremendous piece of writing. I don’t know what you mean by ‘didn’t do much as a blog post’… touch one person with your words and you’ve changed things forever.
(Oh yes, I think that was how we first met, you changing the world at Liz’s place…)
Joanna
Joanna, as measured by traffic, which is, of course, an insignificant measure of influence. The transition from 2.0 to 0.0 shown in this post, however, was huge. And it helped me realize that blog writing is real writing. That seems obvious, I know, but Roll Call was an example to me of the tangibility of digital composition.
But you understand this well.