Circumstances. These are the things that compass us about. Remember? Good. It's just that we've been at this for so long now that certain things should be themes in themselves. Today is Thursday. The work week is almost over. You know what they say: After hump day it's pretty much downhill from there. I just want to spend the day resting as much as I can. Don't get me wrong, there's a whole lot to do, but I feel kinda tired. The weather is changing. It's getting colder and colder outside; most people - everyone? - is in survival mode. It's challenging just existing sometimes. But what can one do if not go on. I lie on my bed facing my laptop, allowing my fingers to tap on the keys. Believe me, I don't know yet what this blog post is going to be about. There are some days when I feel inspired. I bet if you went through many of my posts over the weeks past you would be able to tell which ones were written when I was inspired, and which weren't. I've also cheated sometimes. There've been some days when I've been so tired and overwhelmed that I've simply copy-pasted one of my old class papers - after removing all the footnotes, and making it look more like an essay than an academic paper. I just want to have a daily blog. It's my baby. And I need my baby. I want to be able to know that there's something all mine that I do everyday. It feels good. There are many people that have nothing going on in their lives. They're just surviving: eat, sleep, go to the bathroom. I on the contrary want to have an active life, however small, however relatively insignificant. Something. At least.
Believe me when I say I still don't know what this blog post will be about. And I don't have an old paper to format in post form and paste on here. I'm aiming for four more paragraphs the size of the previous one, and that should be enough. So what shall I talk about today? I'm drawing a blank. There've been many topics I've wanted to explore; I've for example wanted to continue to talk about the spirit and the soul and the body. I've wanted to complicate the subject, because there are many paranormal situations that we have to explain in light of that hypothesis, as well as many technologically-driven realities, such as gender-reassignment surgery. For example: if we say that a soul is the product of the intercourse of spirit and body in a lifetime, when a person that was a man suddenly becomes a "woman" through gender-reassignment surgery - is that a new body? Is the spirit having fresh intercourse? Is a new soul going to result? And so forth. I've also wanted to explain some of the parables that Jesus told, such as the Talents, and the Lost Sheep, and so forth. But I will not be able to do that today, obviously. I just want to get this over with and catch some sleep.
Third paragraph. I tell people that the best thing about work is that it gets done. It ends, and we can rest. The Bible tells us that God rested on the seventh day when he had finished making the world in six days. Rest is good. Sometimes it rejuvenates. Don't marvel at my use of the word, sometimes. I know you must have slept sometime only to wake up even more tired than you were when you fell asleep. But we must keep hope alive. I mean, we couldn't possibly give up on sleep, could we? Of course not. I hope that when I do fall asleep after this, I do get rejuvenated and refreshed. I hope it's not too much to ask. I mean, I would have struggled to put up a post for the day, as usual. Believe me, there are gazillion things to say in a lifetime; there are also very many ways to say the same thing over and over again, in such a fashion that it sounds new each time it is said, and so having a daily blog is not a big deal. The big deal is having the discipline to commit to it, to be able to do it even when we feel tired; too tired to say the things we can say, the words that lie within us dormant. That's the real challenge; the doing, and not the capacity to do.
Fourth paragraph. Yes, I'm drawing close to the end. Two more of these babies - paragraphs, that is - and I should be done for today's post. Like I was saying: the big deal about writing in a blog is the discipline to actually do the writing, and not the having what to write about. We all need to train ourselves to communicate in a faithful, disciplined way. We cannot afford to do otherwise. Not if we want to keep a medium of communication, especially print. But speaking is not easier as such. I taught Public Speaking for years, in Wichita and Chicago, and I know for a fact that it is a dreaded activity for many people. But it is also something for which skills can be acquired and taught. So even if the medium of communication that someone commits to is a podcast or a youtube video blog, there is need for discipline as well. Plus, the technological involvement for broadcast is far greater than that for print. I know this from experience, because as you must have garnered from a previous post, I have been involved as well in documentary production and direction. I've also tried my hands at screenwriting and editing. Plus, my school training was in mass communication at the undergraduate level, and human communication at the master's. Communication. Very important: reading, writing, speaking, and most importantly listening. And of course nonverbal communication. We use all our senses, and our power of reason, to communicate. Powerful stuff.
Fifth paragraph. Somehow I feel this post is becoming about communication. When did I first develop an interest in communication? I think it was just before I was to begin my undergraduate degree program in communication at Imo State University. I was going through a prospectus for communication studies at the university level, and when I saw the nature of the subject matter to be learnt, I knew it was the program for me. The next four years proved me right. Communication is sharing. It is relationship. It is the exchange of messages among sender-receivers through channels or media, which may be mass media. Mass communication specifically has been defined as "messages communicated to a large number of people through a mass medium." The media of mass communication are broadly divided into print and electronic. Under print we have: books, newspapers, journals, calendars, almanacs, magazines and say, print blogs, et cetera. Under electronic we have radio, television, film and the Internet. We also have Public Relations and Advertising, and the whole paraphernalia of Integrated Marketing Communications. The functions of communication have been identified as: news and information; analysis and interpretation; education and socialization; persuasion and public relations; sales and advertisement; entertainment and art.
Communication also involves a lot of studies in psychology. For example, considerable amount of study has been done in the field of media effects. We learn in this regard that: "Some kinds of communications on some kinds of issues, brought to the attention of some kinds of people in some kinds of situations have some kinds of effects." There are many other applications of communication in the public sphere and in politics and sociology. Communication was my first college love. Now it's philosophy. I don't know which I like better. Philosophy is an amazing thing to study. And I actually find myself applying some of the things I learn in philosophy in my daily life. I do like philosophy. I thank God I have the privilege to study it formally. So there it is. My post for the day is complete. Phew! Now I can work on falling asleep again. Thank God.
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