Essays – chait.blog

As a personal blogger mostly writing about myself, my biggest dilemma is to decide how much is too much. I often wonder if I am exposing myself too much on the internet. Until recently, I did not even dare to have my photo on this blog. I am certainly not ready to post my family’s photos here. I may, in the future, but for now, I play safe. And I don’t know what’s the harm with sharing personal photos on the blog. I still ponder.

On the other hand, I love writing. Writing well is important to me. I write a lot in my day job about software and technology. I believe no one can practice enough of any skill, let alone writing. So I use this blog to practice a different form of writing. It is easy for me to write about myself. Which is what I do here.

I could write privately. But I enjoy reading personal blogs of normal people around the world sharing their day-to-day life. I find those personal blogs far more enjoyable to read compared to reading something like latest iPhone or movie reviews or even news. Personal blogs are enlightening and at times inspiring. This, combined with my reluctance to be a passive consumer, makes me blog about myself. Although, deep down I am afraid of making myself vulnerable to judgement.

Okay, Seth Godin is not your ordinary Joe but I found this inspiring quote from his 6000th blog post on his personal blog that he published today:

It doesn’t matter if anyone reads it, buys it, sponsors it or shares it. It matters that you show up.

Seth linked to another great post titled Shut Up, Sit Down, and Type which highlights something I deeply believe:

So whatever the voices or gremlins in our heads are saying, our response is the same: just show up every day and do the work.

And lastly, today’s installment on The Daily Post articulates what I love most about personal blogs:

I am drawn in by their passion, not by their perfection.

All this will get me going for the next 200 posts.

Today I read thank you cards from a couple of families to which, a group of amazing individuals I have been fortunate enough to be part of, made a difference in the just ended festive season.

Some of those messages were written by little hands. Their gratitude moved me. And made my day. At the time of doing the work, I never thought that result of our efforts would be this much gratifying. It only cost each one us, puny money and a couple of hours of time. But the collective effort of our awesome team happened to be far reaching.

I have been involved in some charities in the past but this particular giving experience is not something I came across so far in my life. In this setting, both the donor and donee remain anonymous to each other. We only knew our beneficiaries by their first name and age so we could buy fitting presents. The idea is to NOT to make the children feel like some random group of individuals donated stuff to them but to project the whole thing like Santa and his helpers brought them presents and other goodies. The quality of presents was on par with the stuff we would buy for our own children.

Festivals and holiday season is not necessarily a good time of the year for everyone. The air does not always bring cheer to everybody. For many unfortunate families (with children especially), this season can be very stressful given the expectations and burden festivals bring along. So it feels good to do something about it.

No single person or group will be able to help unfortunate life situation of every needy family, everywhere in the world. So the point is not doing nothing or everything but to do something, sometimes at the least.

[The point of this post is to commemorate the amazing feeling I experienced today after reading thank you cards hand written by children. Not the public display of charity.]