Don’t Believe Everything You Read on the Internet

Frank Holbrook 1 Life in General

As it turns out, you can’t believe everything you read on the internet.

A week or so ago I started thinking about writing a blog. It seemed like a good idea. After searching “how to start a blog” it seemed like an even better idea. Once I knew that I could get a blog up and running in only 15 minutes, I was all in. I jumped in with both feet.

Because I read it on the internet, I knew all I had to do was (1) purchase a domain name, (2) find a web hosting service, (3) sign up on WordPress and (4) start blogging.  “Simple!”, I thought. Turns out, like the lyric from a song, “It was so simple, like the jitter bug it plum evaded me”.

Russel Baker used to write a column for the New York Times. I guess in a way, he used to blog using newsprint. Turns out newspaper columnists were bloggers who were born before their time. Occasionally, Mr. Baker would write a column that he would entitle “Things I Learned on the Way to Looking Up Something Else.” It always contained interesting random facts that he had learned while researching a column on a different topic.

I’m tempted to write a post this morning sharing with you all the things I learned on the way to writing a blog. Owing to the brevity of life and the dullness of the topic, I’m going to pass on that.

However, in the spirit of Russell Baker I’ll share one of his quotes I came across on my way to looking up something else: “In writing, punctuation plays the role of body language. It helps readers hear you the way you want to be heard.” Punctuation is the reason the sentence: “Let’s eat, Grandma” has a very different meaning than “Let’s eat Grandma”. As I move forward I’ll try to watch my punctuation but I’m a lousy proofreader. Be warned that occasionally you might read “Let’s eat Grandma” when that wasn’t my intent. Gentle correction in the comments section is always appreciated.

One final nod to Mr. Baker is to share one other thing I learned on the way to looking up something else: “Don’t believe everything you read on the internet.” It’s not likely you can start from zero and post a blog in 15 minutes. I qualify that statement with “it’s not likely” only because with God all things are possible. I will confide that in my effort to start PlaneGrace, divine intervention didn’t take the form of compressing the time frame to 15 minutes.

Blessings and peace to all who read this.