How it all began ...

(Better late than never: an explanation):
Since I have somehow managed to write here after all, I think I should maybe add how it all began. Some of my friends might just wonder what this is all about ...

To be honest, this wasn't quite my own idea. I got coaxed into doing this by a friend who is a downright blogging-addict and complained I never wrote these days to keep my friends up-to-date about my life and thoughts the way I used to do.
I think the problem is – with my friends being spread in all directions – that if I feel like sharing my thoughts, I always have to pick one friend and then have to repeat myself to any other later. And I can't really repeat my ideas or thoughts, it has to be spontaneous. Writing a letter I know where to start but I never know where I'm going. It depends on my mood and who I'm addressing. I mean, the addressee is an essential part of any letter, isn't he?
Knowing I wasn't exactly familiar with this blog-thing, my friend first suggested I send E-Mails instead of letters, which I could then send as copies to any other friend. Now, isn't that a horrible idea? It's like sending out newsletters about my life to a bunch of people in a mailing list. Too impersonal. To me a letter is still something intimate, between two people and even if I decide to send it by e-mail, it's for this one and only person and neither is it reproducable nor is it's addressee interchangeable at will.

So this blog seems to be a compromise between my good old letters, e-mails and some kind of scrapbook. I will keep the old letters coming for those who do not care about the internet much and I might also send an E-mail every now and then, especially to my friends without a postal address.
And whenever I feel like writing down some of my thoughts, ideas or reflections, or want to share things that inspire me, touch me or worry me – well, I will post them here ... so anybody interested in what might be going on in my head or in my life and too impatient to wait for my letters can sneak in every now and then and do a little earwiggin'.