An idea for my readers who are looking for something to fill the time…
Why not start a blog of your own? Why not have a place to tell the world who you are, what your relationship is to the community, and how the coronavirus outbreak is affecting you. It can be updated as frequently or infrequently as you feel the need. It doesn’t have to be a Pulitzer Prize candidate. Heck, ignore spelling and even grammar. Just tell your readers, in your own words, what you’e experiencing and how you feel about it.
This is a real opportunity to leave something valuable for posterity. This is the first national catastrophe when every citizen can easily leave their words behind. I only have a personal connection to the Great Depression and World War II because I grew up with a grandmother who lived through those events. Blogging was around in the aftermath of 9/11, but not widely adopted. At the time I scoffed at the idea of writing a “blog” – it seemed so hipsterish that I thought, if I start blogging, what would come next, adopting PBR as my beer of choice?
Think of students studying this year’s coronavirus outbreak in 2090. Not only will they have textbooks and copies of articles that appeared in the media to study – they will have real, first-hand accounts from everyday people. They’ll have motivation to make sure no pandemic ever gets this out of control again.
Also, think of adults in 2090, reading our accounts. “Oh, this person wrote about what it’s like to teach remotely… I’m a teacher, I can relate to that.” Or, “I make good money at my restaurant… here’s a person who did the same and then lost all her income for three months.” Or, “You know the problem we have with people parking their jet teleporters carelessly? Looks like in 2020, they had the same problem with Bird scooters.”
It is very easy, and free, to set up a blog. Go to wordpress.com to get started. That’s the very same engine I use to write this blog, but without having to worry about things like web hosting and domain names. You get to select a theme for your blog from hundreds of different templates. The interface to create posts is very similar to Microsoft Word. You can have your first post up and visible to the world in as little as half an hour.
If anyone takes me up on this suggestion, by all means send me a link to your blog when you get it live: Email me at paul@paulryburn.com. Also feel free to email me if you have technical questions about using WordPress or if you want writing tips.
Keep scrolling down for my morning news post. Back probably a couple more times today with more.